Butiki Teas

Sipdown 2020! 28/365

Sad sipdown, because this is absolutely my favourite type of green oolong (alongside pouchong). Just so creamy and perfectly balanced. The good news is that since this is a straight tea, I should be able to get it elsewhere once the world sorts itself out. Until then, I will drink other things…

Utterly delicious. My favourite kind of green oolong (aside from pouchong). A tad lighter on the flavour than I remember, but it’s creamy, smooth, and sweet, and evokes thoughts of drinking something fluffy. Idk, it’s good.

How on earth have I not rated this?? Anyways, a pleasant surprise to find my baggie of this tea in the Butiki box. The lime was a tad more pungent than I remember, and there was less cream, but it was still delicious. However – it was very much not delicious the next day. I don’t know if anyone else has ever left an infuser with spent fruit tea out, in a way that it can’t dry (e.g. stack another infuser on top), but this tea smelled like that the next day. Decomposing fruit, or something. YUCK. It was really strange, because I can’t even think of the last time where a tea tasted so off the next morning (I frequently finish off cold tea in the morning.) Anyhow, I’ll probably try and drink the remaining cups a little more quickly.

Up sometime in the future: a comparison of this and AQ2T’s Lime Pear Fluff!

Oh hey, another unrated Butiki…

Anyhow, this was yummy. I have no clue what it is. Darjeeling? It was light and flavourful. No astringency. Need to pay more attention next time.

In other news, the baby has been asleep for four hours straight. This hasn’t happened in a month. Not expecting this (he usually wakes up three times in that span), I have been awake this whole time. Unsure if I should be sad or pleased. Also unsure if I should go to bed now, only to be awoken rudely in 15 minutes… or wait, and have him sleep the night through or something. Ugh, unpredictable babies!

Not actually sure I had even tried this tea before. I believe it was a freebie in one of the final orders. Anyhow, I don’t think I’m a big fan – it didn’t taste off or anything, but it was a little on the side of mariney/fishy. I should have written this note while I was drinking it, so I could write a bit more, but it was definitely a different type of green, and also definitely not my preference. Will drink again, but may try and send this one elsewhere.

Obviously this tealogging thing is near-impossible being back to work. Sigh. There’s just literally no time in the day to spare for it.

Anyhow, this is diminishing in flavour but still thoroughly enjoyable.

And here I thought I was drinking another dupe of one I’d had a week ago – nope! That was Pistachio Horizon, this is Praline Horizon. Surprisingly, Pistachio was better (I thought I loved the praline flavouring more). Not that this was bad, but there was more flavour from the latter. I’d never be able to guess which was which if you brewed them side by side, though. I also screwed up and both oversteeped AND overleafed this one, so that might have caused some fixable problems. Anyways, nice to know I have 4 crimson horizon-based teas (well, 3 – the grapefruit one will go to a better home). Also nice to know this was not lost to the mice. I had a significant moment of sad a couple days ago when I was perusing a couple of my 52teas orders from years past, and saw a couple teas that I recall were heartbreakingly lost to the work mice. In addition to Butiki’s Pistachio Ice Cream, 52teas Calico & Black Cat tea (OMG I didn’t ever even rate it! I may have to retroactively do so. I enjoyed it.) and the reblend of Cashew Turtle. Ugh, my heart. I shouldn’t lie; it was no moment of sad, I’ve actually been mourning those teas full-time ever since I remembered. On the plus side, at least the blender is still active, so if I was sad/desperate enough, I could at least try begging/pleading!

Drat. Another unrated Butiki. Which is odd, because it says it makes 7 cups, and it’s nearly gone… but I don’t remember drinking it much. Anyways. It was a pleasant enough darker oolong. Kind of sweet, not a classic dark oolong for flavour (i.e. not particularly toasty/roasty). Not astringent, either, though I was anticipating that because of the other Butiki purple tea I had lately, which IIRC is very touchy.

I’ll try and write something better on this next time.

Unrelated, I believe it’s the base to… one of the plum teas I enjoy, as well. It does seem like it would make a nice base for a flavoured tea.

This was… just okay. I expected more sweetness. There was certainly some, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted. Will have to give this another shot to see if maybe my brewing parameters were off. Or, you know, perhaps it’s just too old.

Couldn’t recall why I hadn’t liked this tea (espresso flavouring + smoky tea, which is what I thought it was, sounds ok). Then I saw it was pu’erh, and remembered. Haha. The tea tastes like a blend of earthy pu’erh and smoky tea. No coffee flavouring at all.

Going to pop some maple syrup and cream into the last of it to see if I can improve it.

Not a fan, but this probably wasn’t intended for me. I do wish there was some espresso flavouring present, though. Now that I’m revisiting it, I recall missing that the first time around too.

Non-sipdown cupboard removal: 13 [I sent the last of Lupicia’s Watermelon Barley off to Roswell Strange, although it’s been two weeks and has yet to arrive… :( ]

It annoys me when I find teas that are almost gone, but I haven’t written a note. Although who knows – I have probably hundreds of unposted reviews sitting in email drafts, and maybe it’s in there somewhere.

Either way, this is much better than I could have expected. Not only strawberry, but there’s a delicious sweet nuttiness here – it’s actually quite incredibly delicious. I also feel like I’m both smelling and tasting coconut, but it would have to be a flavouring, as there are no coconut pieces visible, nor is there any sign of rancidity. I knew I had enjoyed this one, but I didn’t remember it being this amazing. It’s really boggling my mind how well the majority of these teas are holding up. I genuinely expected to be quite disappointed in myself, but I’d say 90% are good enough that I want to still drink them – because they’re good, not just for nostalgia. This one may be a sipdown soon though, there’s one, maaaybe two cups left in the package.

Well, I like this one better than Watermelon Lime Slushie, for sure. The flavouring is great – creamy strawberry with a hint of tartness. I’m sure it was once stronger, but it’s still pretty distinct. Not keen on the base, again, but either it’s different pu’erh (I have no idea), or the flavours meld a little bit better. Not a go-to tea for me, but it’s not bad. May still try and pawn this off, though.

faded mildly plummy glory

Had some of this a couple nights ago – still so delicious!

This is delicious. Another tea I probably picked up during closing sales and never properly reviewed. However, I’m not sure it’s lost all that much – it’s sweet, minerally, and quite tasty. Maybe a little less potent than it once was. A nice treat to have found, since I’d been craving a black and now have a great sipdown candidate (though there is a lot of this one left).

I was really craving lavender tea tonight, and remembered I dried a bunch of lavender flowers this past summer. Sooooo, tried an experiment, mixing lavender with this tea! I was a little heavy-handed on the lavender though… so that’s really all I taste, but it’s not too bad. Now I want to add cream and lemon and vanilla flavours :D (I debated putting some lemon zest, a drop of vanilla extract, and whipping cream in the cup, but held off for now. But I might try that tomorrow for curiousity if nothing else! I of course don’t have flavouring oils, so those are my available options.)

Another tea where I’m annoyed to find that I failed to write a note about while it was fresh. Oh well. This tea is still excellent. I’m getting tired so all I can say is that it’s nice and flavourful, malty, delicious.

Wow, even after 3 years or however long it’s been out of business, my remaining Butiki teas are still good! I’ve just realized that I didn’t review them. Oops. I guess it doesn’t matter so much now, but I’m just that kind of person.

Anyway, still very chocolate and raspberry. I didn’t get a waffle flavor (or anything pastry-ish or vanilla-ish) but very nice. And somehow, it has a slight floral quality, probably most rose-like if I had to pin it down. If memory serves, this is pretty much how I felt about it when it was new and fresh, lol, but I won’t give this a numerical rating because I’m not sure that would be fair.

Peach, malt, and honey make up the flavors of this smooth and mellow tea, which ends will a vanilla-like creaminess.

A bit of sugar makes it delicious chilled. Add a drop of milk when drinking it hot to accentuate the vanilla.

The opening taste matches that scent perfectly, with chocolate and raisin dominating.

Lovely tasting tea I have recently been using this tea before bed! Love the taste and always wanting more!