I’ve spent the past few days contemplating how Dammann Frères’ violet, ginger, rose and citrus are good, but just not the ones for me. And here I am again, but with Butiki. This is a great, natural strawberry. In the bag, it smells so ripe, like those near-moldy strawberries you’ve kept around lust a little …
Month
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January 2014
Bali – Dammann Frères
If Bali smells like this, I need to go there (I need to go there, anyway, but still). This is what scented island-life travel ads would smell like – floral, fruity and with a dash of something boozy. The florals, however, amount mostly to a distinct rose flavour in the cup, drowning out the fruit …
Mango Lassi – Butiki Teas
This one confuses me – I like my flavored rooibos well enough, but this is like drinking straight-up rooibos. It smells like rooibos in the bag, it smells like rooibos in the cup, and it tastes like rooibos in the cup. Any hint of anything else, mango or otherwise, is simply absent. I can’t really …
Soleil Vert – Dammann Frères
This smells so very richly citrusy in the bag, it reminds me of the Malaco Fox lemon toffee candy I used to love as a kid. It’s a little too much, though, and it comes off as too artificial to me. Citrus is hard to get right, and the scents often land too close to …
Happiness – Lupicia
I was so sure I’d reviewed this that I’d put it in the cupboard. The shame. It might have been because it’s not a favourite – this is one that leaves me fairly indifferent. In the bag, the dry leaf smells very boozy, but not a ripe, fruitrotty, autumnal booziness like Marco Polo (vert) from Mariage Frères, …
Bravissimo! – Lupicia
There’s a whole, perfect little rose bud in my steeping basket, and that makes me happy. Just like this tea. Boiling, 1 min 30
Macaron Cassis Violette – Dammann Frères
This is a nice idea – currant, violet, macaron. Ideally, this would have a nice balance of berry notes from the currants, elegant florals from the violet and a sweet. light, pastry presence keeping the whole thing together. Nose wise, I mostly get violet, but also an almondy note, which, generously, could be deemed the …
Jasmine Silver Needle – Adagio Teas
Oh. The bag is really, genuinely, irrevocably empty now. I shook it and held it upside down and everything. And I can’t get any more right now. Flurr. [Sample from the EU Travelling Box, autumn 2013.][Sample polished off in Rome, January 2014.] 90 C, 3 min 30
Blackberry – A.C. Perch’s
I had a tiny craving for this the other day, and one more just now. I was going to send the rest of it to a friend, but maybe just one more cup before it goes. Honestly, I have no idea why I enjoy this so much. A pretty basic berry-flavoured black? It’s an evil tea, though. …
1, 2, 3 je m’en vais au bois – Dammann Frères
I’m slowly going through the last of my untried DF teas, and I honestly feel like I’m writing the same review over and over. When I dipped into my Mariage Frères haul, I felt nothing of the kind. Not the slightest hint of it. Their greens all had completely different personalities, and put me in different mnemonic …