The base tea here looked really interesting – I didn’t recognize the leaf; apparently, it’s Vietnamese green tea.
In the bag, I get bamboo and rose more than anything – in fact, I find this very rosey throughout, even in the cup. This is a bit of a mystery, seeing as there is no trace of rose in the ingredient list. It might just be one of those taste overlaps – I’m pretty sure what I’m smelling and tasting is DF’s lychee. Thing is, both Butiki and Lupicia make beautiful lychee teas that I love, and that’s the taste profile I want – not this perfume-like, floral variety.
In no way is it a bad tea, but like many of DF’s other products, this seems so staged and contrived. It’s a colonial dream! Indochine! The Hanoi monsoons! If marketing must be based on this kind of historicized, romanticized dreamscape nonsense, can’t it at least be a less tainted fantasy?
I enjoy the base tea, but it’s more sensitive than DF’s usual sencha – there’s the slightest hint of bitterness in spite of the fact that I stayed well within the steeping parameters.
Overall, a nice tea, and thoroughly Dammann Frères-esque.
[From my epic Instant-Thé order to Rome, October 2013.]
90 C, 3 min 30