Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea

Western style w/ milk.

Full bodied, thick and smooth cuppa – really dense/heavy notes of malt, black pepper, cocoa powder, French bread, cinnamon, and raisins. Well rounded/balanced, and just sweet enough with this hints of raisin/cocoa. Finish finishes with this little flick of almost yeast-y/dough-y breadiness, tinged with a sticky sweetness. Yumm!

Another one that someone requested get added to the Discovery Tea Box that I felt like I should revisit while I had it pulled out of my cupboard and super accessible. I realize I’m making my cupboard sound like some sort of complex, hard to navigate filing system but, well, it kind of is!?

I should drink this one more often though; it’s really full bodied and flavourful which I know describes a lot of straight black teas – or at least a lot of the straight blacks that I own in larger amounts. But, in addition to that it’s also nice and sweet. Lots and lots of natural chocolate notes, but then also a really nice handful of other notes like oak wood, cinnamon, and allspice. I added a little cherry infused honey into this cup also, and that really mild hint of sweet cherry added this excellent little undertone of fruit flavour to what is normally a darker, more decadent leaning profile. Plus, with how chocolate-y this tea tastes I think cherry is a REALLY good pairing flavour.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bf8Tda6rmi4&index=13&list=WL

Love, love, love the Lovecraftian horror sort of marketing spin on this one; Damn Fine tea always nails their marketing, and the imagery on their tins is exquisite in and of itself. I’ll be honest, the tea sounded pretty good to me but the final straw in deciding to get it was 100% that tin…

I’ll try this Western and Gong Fu before deciding how I’ll be consuming the bulk of this tin – but I’m starting Western for my tasting because it’s just far more convenient for me/I can do it at work. It’s pretty good – damn smooth, that’s for sure. Flavour notes are a solid mix of malt, honey, baked bread, cocoa, and sweet potato with touches of woody/earthy undertone. Emphasis on the baked bread aspects, though! Really rich, thick velvety mouthfeel and good lingering presence of sweetness in the finish.

I’m certainly feeling it – and it makes me very excited to Gong Fu potential. Even if that doesn’t go well, though, I think this will make a very nice casual/daily drinker that still had well defined flavour/profile and doesn’t need any additives.

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lE5arf6PQCo&index=2&list=WL

Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/Bd79ab4F8A1/?taken-by=ros_strange

Brewed especially strong for a milk tea preparation…excessively strong – perfumed with the oils sitting upon the tongue…will use it for baking/cooking purposes…

Delicious Yunnan black concoction with perhaps a bit of the Darjeeling peeking through. The Ceylon in this cup totally hid behind the Yunnan, or perhaps that’s all the dry leaf my teaspoon picked up. Or maybe my travel mug tampered with things as I was on the go all day. Ok, ok, it was only four hours but it felt like all day. Damn delicious.

Thank you for the share, Sil, and for giving me enough in the sample to have more of this at home in a proper cup or at least not covered up in a thermos-like container: like the context nature intended tea to be drunk in. Preferably wearing flannel pyjamas.

And hurray that the notice feature appears to be fixed! Yay! Thank you, Jason! We appreciate you.

Another stellar favourite!

And it’s a sipdown!

#long time ago internet hiatus sipdown

I reached for this as tea of the morning after a hectic day of running. Thankfully, my health has been accommodating the past few days for which I am so grateful. Hectic days are not usually within my capacity, so truly truly truly yay!

The first sip of this tea hits you with a kapow, followed up with the bready smoothness. Nice malty scent rises from my cup as I inhale the deliciousness. Delightful.

Thank you for the sample, Sil.

GCTTB6

Mmm, yeah. I started my day with this punchy tea. Malt with all capitals, but also a raisin or prune sweetness and intensity. A slight bit of dryness post-sip but a bit of honey too. I am very much enjoying this cup of goodness. It seems to be waking up cells that have been inert for a long while. Happily, I gave this one a brief steep, like two minutes. I suspect more steeping would not augur well. That said, I am adding this one to my shopping list because wow: damn fine tea.

I drank a charcoal roast oolong the other day and enjoyed it with chocolate. I am prolonging this ritual here. Chocolate and tea can be an awesome thing.

Thank you, Sil, for adding this one to the box.

GCTTB

My morning tea and it is quite nice. Smooth and fruity. Slightly citrusy and just a bit pithy. I don’t know how often I would personally reach for this but it is a nice cuppa. Thank you Sil for adding it to the box.

Thanks for deleting my note, Steepster. That was really awesome of you. Let’s see if I can recount what I was saying.

Didn’t drink any green this morning and rhinkle came in earlier than usual, so we opted for hong for our morning tea session together. I don’t usually feel well if I try drinking them in the same day.

This was a single 7g sample that I got from someone—I no longer remember who it was—and tossed it all into the gaiwan. First steep smelled immediately of cocoa and yielded a nice, deep red liquor. The taste was of rich, earthy cocoa with just a bit of a tannic bite and the slightest bit of acidity.

The flavor deepens in the second steep, and letting it cool results in a much smoother flavor and texture, almost as if it has a creaminess. I get hints of smoke, as well. Steeped and sipped on this one on and off over a few hours. It was enjoyable.

I’ve had this sitting in my cupboard for a while. Been occupied with drinking pu’er and oolong as of late, so my small collection of black teas has been somewhat sadly neglected.

Anyway, had a cup of this with breakfast a few days back. Didn’t take any detailed tasting notes but the smoke note has faded from what I remember. Sweet, smooth. Definitely need to finish this one up soon though, it’s lost a fair amount of its original flavour.

There was some malt, some black flavor. It was certainly better than the Drunk on Red, for which I was grateful, but there wasn’t much special about it.

The blend was very sticky, in that it contained a lot of sticks.

OMG….. this tea wasn’t even in my cupboard. That means I haven’t updated it in forever. Shouldn’t really be surprised, the last tasting note I wrote was when I was in San Francisco -sorry Steepster I’ve been ignoring you.

This isn’t my favourite A&D blend but it’s nice. It’s a little too light and bright for me. Normally prefer something a little darker and smoother. Not getting much of the smoke that others are mentioning. I do think there is some fruity, grape something in here. For my tastes this is good not great.

Finally digging into my Andrews & Dunham stash. Again, trying to anti-gollum my teas. It pairs well with the “french toast” overnight oats I’m having for breakfast. I’ve never had overnight oats before…and I think I like it? Like oatmeal, I struggle with the texture though it tasted good. The tea seems perkier with the sweetness that was left in my mouth from the oats (there’s banana, vanilla, maple syrup, and cinnamon in it). I look forward to several more steeps. NE

Sweet and malty with good mouthfeel.

Group buy with Tea Tiff.

This is a very smooth and somewhat smokey black tea, with a bit of sweetness showing up as it cools. I don’t think I care for the smoke here. I like it better than Octoberfest, but not as well as Tiger Assam, or Red-Tailed Hawk

Group buy with Tea Tiff.

This is a very smooth black tea. It mostly tastes like wood with a hint of sweet potato to me. It’s good, but not as good as Red-Tailed Hawk.

Joint order with Tea Tiff.

This is an interesting black tea. It tastes particularly bright and fruity. I’m tasting mostly currants with just a hint of sweet potato. It’s also a little bitter and astringent, but pleasantly so. I’m a fan.

Sample from Tea Tiff. Thank you!

I’ve been wanting to try some A&D teas for a while since I’ve heard lots of people rave about them, but I go through caffeinated teas pretty slowly so I didn’t get around to buying any until Tea Tiff put together a group buy a few months ago. I got an ounce of three teas and Tea Tiff threw in a sample of this as well. It’s definitely unlike any black tea I’ve had before, with a distinct flavor of leather and smoke. I don’t think I particularly care for the leathery flavor, though. Another tea to knock off my wish list, then.

I usually go for Assams that are extremely malty, and this one doesn’t have much maltiness at all. That being said, this is such a good, solid, robust tea, the lack of malt doesn’t affect my enjoyment of it. Don’t overleaf, unless you want a VERY strong tea with a very small amount of bitterness. It’s pretty forgiving about oversteeping, but I wouldn’t push it too much. Otherwise, a pleasant, flavorful, smooth tea with a hint of sweetness. One of my go-to teas to start my day.

Thank you for the sample Sil

I can see why this is called holiday blend. It is bready/malty/ and a little fruity. Cocoa notes are present for me way in the background. This would be good to drink during the holidays wrapped up in a warm blanket reading a book. It’s just that cozy…..or should I say damn fine???!!!