We still have plenty of Series 2 and Series 3 for you to enjoy. (Follow us on Facebook or Twitter so you won’t miss out on the next Series!)

Thanks to you we now have to start working on Series 5! Erik and I plan to do so right after a celebratory stop at our favorite Chinese eatery. Happy New Year!

No, it’s a sweet Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea embroidered patch included in your Series 3 set.

You can sew or iron it onto your denim jacket, parachute pants, or corduroy hat. Wear it to your next concert, family gathering, or Hells Angels Motorcycle Club barbecue. Devil horns not included.

Charles and I both love music. He plays guitar in, like, 20 bands and I buy shockingly overpriced gear to listen to the stuff. Which is funny because Charles loves, like, 20 teas and I buy shockingly overpriced gear to drink the stuff from. So music seemed the perfect theme for Series 3.

With three sets of tea under our belts, you know what really rocks our tea pot. But do you know what rocks our mics? I’m going to bare all and share some seriously embarrassing music stories.

I was born in 1971 and grew up listening to The Grateful Dead. I went to at least a dozen shows by the time I was eight years old. I even met Jerry. Briefly, but I met him. Put that in your “for tobacco use only” pipe and smoke it.

By the time I was eight, nothing was bigger in my world than Star Wars, Legos, and KISS. When you are an impressionable kid, the “quality” and “nuance” and “musicianship” of the music is secondary. Those guys were living superheros. My mom took me to see KISS in 1979 at the now-demolished Capital Center in Landover, Maryland. We had floor seats. 30 years later, I took my buddy Paul to see KISS. He was eight at the time. His awe and excitement at that spectacle reminded me of what being a kid is all about. Did you know Gene Simmons is 60 years old? Seriously, the guy still rocks.

Middle school was MTV and more MTV. I had some Police cassettes and all of Adam Ant’s records. My friends in school loved them some Duran Duran. A guy up the street played me plenty of early Black Sabbath which I thought was incredible. Their album covers were insane. Weird Al showed up around this time and stunned me with his imagination. That guy never went the easy route. Every parody was unexpected and hilarious. Have you heard White and Nerdy?

I missed the new wave, cool punk scene while attending high school in South Carolina. I listened to a ton of stoner rock from the sixties and seventies. Jethro Tull, Heart, Hendrix. Then I went on a heavy metal kick. Anthrax was my band of choice since they sang songs about comic books. My pal Lewis and I got to see Megadeth live. It was so loud I threw up. True story.

During my senior year in high school I did what every nerd does: I discovered Rush. I wore those guys on my sleeve well into college. I’ve been to a stack of shows, even their latest tour. Say what you will about Rush (and I’ve heard it all), those guys are pros. Now my dad is a huge Rush fan (and avid tea drinker, the stronger the better).

Funny side story: I went to a Dead show in DC in 1989 because a girl I had a painful crush on was there. Turns out Charles was there, too, but I didn’t know him. So was my future wife, Kelly. Crazy. Good thing that crush didn’t work out or I’d be lonely and tealess.

The biggest hit of college was hearing Too Much Joy. They were great. Smart-ass lyrics, fun tunes, and obscure enough to make me feel cool knowing about them. I got to catch a couple of their shows between college and grad school. I even met Tim Quirk. He offered to try and sneak me into a 21+ show since I was 20 at the time. What a guy.

Grad school was odd. I missed the popular stuff from the mid-nineties. I dug up Drugstore, Lisa Germano, Dolly Varden, Southern Culture on the Skids, Freakwater, Beck, early Rolling Stones, Mono Men, Roy Orbison, and Pet Shop Boys. Spit take! Pet Shop Boys. Now there’s a duo that knows production values! I got to see Los Lobos play live in a small club. I don’t know how, but I stumbled upon Slobberbone. Probably the name caught my attention. They’ve since morphed into The Drams. Fantastic lyrics and great rock songs. You’ve got to check them out.

Now I listen to all kinds of music. Mostly rock and roll with some pop, alt-country, and rap/hip-hop thrown in for fun. I love finding an old song on iTunes. I love fun songs and sad songs. I’m a huge Dethklok fan now. Fake band fan!

I’m far less insecure about my musical tastes, but I bet that comes with age. Like your taste in tea, your taste in music changes over time.

So now it’s your turn. What are some of your favorite bands? And don’t hold back on the embarrassing ones. I went first.

If you haven’t been over to their site I recommend you pay a visit. It’s uncanny, but they seem to like all the same things I like! They get it just right, and all the food & bev pics are very easy on the eyes.

After Magnum this is easily our second favorite TV show ever.

We decided it would be fun to put together a set of what we consider to be the classic flavored teas. No, we don’t have anything against the crazy, outlandish flavored teas that some enjoy (nor did we look down on wine coolers in high school). Hey, be yourself and enjoy what you like. It’s just not, um, our cup of tea, really.

When we’re looking for some soothing, scented leaves to brew we look to these three: Earl Grey, Jasmine Green and Russian Caravan. Every tea shop has ‘em, we can’t live without ‘em and these are some of the very best we’ve ever found.

Hope you love ‘em as much as we do.

Rock on!

The good news? In the course of our hand-wringing and soul-searching we found we still had a few familiar labels lurking about so we sourced ourselves a little more damn fine tea and are proud to offer a very limited re-release of Series 1! (and just in time for the Holidays!)

Come and get ‘em while they last — we’ve only got 40 sets and once they’re gone they’re really gone this time.

a) bummin’
b) eh
c) so-so
d) need a hug
e) all of the above

If you answered yes to any of those, cheer up because we’ve got good news for you. We’re teaming up with the super nice, optimistic people over at the Bright Side Project to give away some of our tea!

Here’s what they do: they give stuff away. Click over there and enter the contest. It’s a really, really easy contest — on par with buying a box of cereal but without having to leave your house or buy anything — and we’ll pick two winners and send them (could be you!) Tea and Prints.

C’mon, do it!

The McKnight Foundation does good work, which we at Andrews & Dunham Damn Fine Tea support. They “believe that the arts cannot flourish or enhance community life without the ideas, energy, and drive of individual artists, and that artists cannot make these contributions without unfettered creative time.” So they established the McKnight Artist Fellowships. They give out grants so artists can do art. Yay art!

We exchanged ideas and themes with Stuart and the talented lads at Aesthetic Apparatus. We decided to merge the creative process and the process of brewing tea: “Brew Tea. Make Art. Change World.”

The tins look great, the black tea tastes damn fine, and anecdotal evidence suggests they were a hit.

We’re proud to have had the opportunity to work with Stuart and the McKnight Foundation. And congratulations to the 2009 McKnight Artist Fellows.

Photos by Kathryn Andrews

We’re proud as punch to be featured in today’s Steepster Select, “a daily showcase of deals, community favorites and rare/exclusive teas and teaware hand-picked for Steepster users”. Yowza.

Head on over and take a dive into the richest tea community site on the Web. In fact, there is a coupon code over there for a discount on your next order!