The skinny on Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea.

Charles Andrews and Erik Dunham started Damn Fine Tea company because they are completely obsessed with tea. Sold loose, all teas are produced using orthodox methods, mostly by hand, and packed in a fantastic tin decorated with a certified 100% awesome label. Each tea is manufactured in a very limited quantity series inside unique tins design by Aesthetic Apparatus.

This small operation boost an incredible amount of passion and an unabashed love for the second most simple drink on earth; tea. So sit back, relax, brew a hot cut, and get to know Erik and Charles below.

Chatting with Erik & Charles of Damn Fine Tea.

Q: Best tea shop you’ve ever been to?
Erik: I visited a "maid cafe" in Tokyo. That was surreal. New York's Chinatown has any number of fantastic tea shops to explore. You just have to find them!
Charles: it's a chain, but I love to grab a cup of tea whenever I'm in a part of the world that has Peets shops.

Q: Blogs you read?
Erik: I like notcot.org, autoblog.com, and daringfireball.net among others. For tea, I cruise Steepster.com. It's technically not a blog, but a bunch of miniblogs where tea drinkers post great reviews, ratings, and tips.
Charles: I like omgposters.com and boingboing.net a lot. I always enjoy sorryimissedyourparty.com. Postsecret.com makes me happy & sad!

Q: Most original tea kettle you’ve ever seen?
Erik: I have an Airstream trailer tea pot. It's fantastic. I find it interesting that the process of brewing a cup of tea has not changed significantly despite the overwhelming technological progress we've made in the past 100 years. That's a good thing, I think.
Charles: I made one out of available materials a la MacGyver the last time I went camping.

Q: Best ‘pick-me-up’ tea?
Erik: Matcha. A well prepared cup of matcha makes everything zing.
Charles: What he said.

Q: Dream Damn Fine Tea spokesperson (dead or alive)?
Erik: Kurt Vonnegut! Or maybe Ultraman.
Charles: Joe Strummer and/or Ringo.

Q: Favorite Damn Fine Tea tin design to date?
Erik: As hackneyed as this sounds, I'm proud of them all. I love Series 2, Jackee Muntz vs. Thomas Sampson. The type is rich and the theme is fun. And the tea is a knock out. Ha.
Charles: Caravan.

Q: What are some things that you do to keep the company green?
Erik: All my tea leaves go into the compost after brewing. We save energy, money, and time by grouping shipments of materials. We plan ahead so we place orders for materials we will need in the future, eliminating the need for smaller multiple shipments.
Charles: We figured out how to reduce the amount of packing materials (paper) we use when we ship orders, and hopefully people will re-use the tins and the shipping boxes. We don't include a printed shipping invoice either.

Q: Favorite magazines?
Erik: I read F1 for the great photos and articles about Formula One racing. For design awesomeness, I read ID and Communication Arts. I read comics, too.
Charles: None that I can mention.

Q: Favorite nontraditional kitchen accessory?
Erik: I got a Corn Zipper for stripping kernels off the cob. I like to say "corn zipper."
Charles: Lemon reamer. Also works for limes!

Q: When is it a good idea to put milk in your tea?
Erik: Tea is so personal, that it's up to you. Green teas don't handle milk well at all. Usually the darker, stronger black teas benefit from some cream.
Charles: Only when you want some milk in it.

Q: Best tea to drink when you’re sick?
Erik: When I'm sick I have a simple routine: Gen Mai Cha tea in the mug and The Empire Strikes Back on the TV.
Charles: Earl Grey works for me.

Q: Most surreal moment of Damn Fine Tea’s existence?
Erik: Someone at Apple ordered a set. That was pretty crazy. Then someone else at Apple ordered a set. Whoa.
Charles: Not long after we launched Series 1 we got a very nice mention on a well-known shopping blog. We were flooded with orders. I took a screenshot of my inbox I was so stunned.

Q: Things you’re inspired by?
Erik: I'm inspired by great design, nature, outer space, and the fact that my wife puts up with me. Anything's possible!
Charles: Music, the people I love, and the great awesomeness of the universe.

Q: Any tips on brewing the best cup of tea possible?
Erik: Practice and experiment to find your ideal cup. Tea is wonderfully personal and customizable. You can brew a cup any way you like: strong, weak, dark, light, precise, inexact. My advice is to try a variety of brewing parameters until you get a cup that rocks your socks.
Charles: Everything Erik said. If you like the way it tastes you're doing it right!

Q: Tea concepts that never made it into production?
Erik: We have so many insane ideas for sets of tea that we can't list or remember them all. Football Turf Tea probably won't make it.
Charles: We've had some really, really great ideas for tea series, but the reason we're not broke yet is partly because we know when to dial down our creative enthusiasm. I still dream of doing a Star Wars series and sharing a pot of wookiee tea with Peter Mayhew.

Q: What music are you listening to?
Erik: My iPhone is a rat's nest of music genres. No lie: a recent shuffle went from Rob Zombie to The B-52s to Bone Thugs N Harmony. I thought I had opened a rift in space-time.
Charles: I've been listening to the National's "High Violet" non-stop since they released it and I've been revisiting some pointy 20th century classical stuff -- Ligeti & Berio mostly. La di da. My 5-year old daughter insists that Rubber Soul is on permanent rotation in the car and I gladly accommodate her. And I'm always working through a huge pile of Grateful Dead shows.

Q: What’s next for Damn Fine Tea?
Erik: An intervention. We have some fun ideas for future sets and Series 5 is in the works.
Charles: Yup, Series 5. Ahoy!

The Damn Fine Tea Top 5 Product Names With The Word 'Tea' In Them.

We agreed early on that we would never cleverly incorporate the word "tea" into the name of our company or products. But if we did, these are the top 5:

5. MediocriTEA
4. "That's Some PretTEA Good Tea!"
3. TEAranny
2. YYTea
1. Avast TEA!

Thanks to Erik and Charles of Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea for working with us to put this together. Get connected with Andrews & Dunham on Facebook, Twitter, and on their blog. Do yourself a favor and click here to shop their teas.