Thé des Sages

This is a very perfumed tea and its aroma evokes being at a busy, bustling perfume counter where a bunch of youthful girl scouts are spraying the air with all kinds of different and not necessarily complementary scents. Trying to deconstruct the riot of flavours and aromas is not easy.

Perhaps this tea is too much of a good thing: it’s as if a master builder had only one opportunity to create a building and tried to do a Bauhaus structure with Gothic gargoyles, rococo flying buttresses, and Frank Lloyd Wright glass.

Perhaps it’s not wise to gather up so many sages for one single tea. But it’s not cacophonous—-just a bit busy. I think that the citrus looms larger than the rest.

Or maybe a decent Earl Grey got loose in the kitchen one night and added all of the loose ingredients it could find to itself.

It has been a while since the Dammann Freres teas arrived and I’ve got so much tea to taste it’s taken me a while to get to writing about them, and partially because of that (or maybe because I didn’t realize it at the time I was picking things to sign up for before Doulton so graciously placed the order), I was not aware that three of the Dammann Freres teas I have include fig as an ingredient! This is, believe it or not, fig 3!

The leaves of this tea are so light in color and so green, I had to look it up to remind myself what kind of tea it was. I thought it might be a flavored green tea. But no, it’s a flavored black! It smells interesting, sort of like a perfume but not in a bad way. Citrus, flowers and — yeah, I can smell the fig! This time it is more of the pastry fig than the fresh, but still sweet and mouth watering.

The aroma has a fresh quality to it which is surprising when you consider the smell of the dry mixture. The tea is light bodied and fresh tasting, too. It has a quality in the taste that reminds me of the way Premier Figuier, the eau de toilette by L’Artisan, smells, with some citrus added in.

I need to try this again when I have a quiet moment. It’s a bit of a zoo here as it is almost bedtime for the younger set. But so far, I like.

So excited to be trying the Dammann Freres advent calendar this year! I paid international shipping for it, which feels beyond indulgent, but it’s absolutely beautiful. This tea is Day 1! The dry leaf smells strongly of vanilla and bergamot, with an almost equally intense jasmine note. I made this in a little Western-style teapot so I could drink it from a teacup & saucer set. It brews up orange, presumably because of the black tea. The first impression is bergamot, followed by a pastry-type vanilla that lingers long after the sip. That initial bergamot hit also has a bit of that astringency that black tea sometimes has. The floral note from the scent of the dry leaf doesn’t really come through in the taste, but it’s a flavorful brew even without it. You CAN do a second steep, but it has to be really long (15+ minutes) and will come out paler. It still has a nice vanilla flavor with strong bergamot notes – a reversal of the order from the first steep – and no discernable floral element. Overly, this was really tasty and enjoyable. I’m looking forward to this calendar! 

Dammann Frères Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 1

Excited to see an older Dammann tea that I’ve never tried! Considering I’ve had this advent several times, the odds are fairly low. Nice that they change it up outside of just adding the new teas from that year!

This is Earl Grey mixed with jasmine green tea and vanilla. I expected to like it and I do! The beginning of the sip tastes like a jasmine green and then the bergamot sort of pokes its head out mid-sip. A touch of creamy vanilla also appears, and then the finish is all citrusy-floral bergamot and light creaminess.

It’s interesting how the jasmine and bergamot really meld together and become almost indistinguishable toward the end. It’s a very light and soothing variation of Earl Grey, lovely as an afternoon tea. I don’t think I would order it, mostly because I have other jasmine teas I love from Dammann (looking at you, Noël à Pékin) and other Earl Greys that I would drink more often. But loved trying it!

Dammann Frères Advent Calendar 2022 – Day 1

Bold to kick things off with a black/green tea. The enticing bergamot-vanilla aroma appeased me, however. Even though the ingredients don’t list anise, mint, or coniferous tree bits – I’m reminded a little of White Wolf by Bellocq (a favourite of mine, but out of my price range currently).

Unfortunately, I steeped it at slightly too low an a temperature (185 °F), so I plunked it back in for an additional minute – for a total of five minutes. The result is gentle and not actually dissimilar to White Wolf, but more akin to Golden Moon’s velvety Vanilla Jasmine (also a green/black blend, I believe). The woodsy-floral bouquet of jasmine, vanilla, and bergamot is totally my jam. I also love that the vanilla is subtle and not the candy variety.

The drying astringency is minor, and I would’ve preferred to bring that out further, along with more malty bite. Oh, well… I doubt tweaking the steeping parameters would’ve allowed me to add milk anyways (but I may order more in the future in order to “experiment”).

To continue from last year, my mom is also partaking in the advents. She’s anxiously off to a medical appointment, but this tea’s calm profile helped a bit (the bite of Japanese cheesecake probably helped more). It’s definitely a soothing pot.

Steep Count: 2 – a solid second steep too (probably because my first was weak)!

A really beautiful aromatic blend with an underlying hint of vanilla. I loved this blend it was nice and strong on the bergamot front.

Bought years ago at a tea/cofee shop in Louvain (Belgium), I cannot be absolutely sure it´s the same brand name of tea, but it´s very similar by looking at the picture. I loved this tea from the start (before rating teas on steepster), and I rediscovered a bit of it in a tin today, and enjoyed a nice cup of it ths afternoon. Very floral, with a subtle hint of smoke, it´s an ideal afternoon tea. An added plus : even when the cup cools, it´s still a nice tea (it actually might make an enjoyable iced tea as well).