Butiki Teas

Yumyumyum! I haven’t had this tea for awhile! I forgot how cute this tea is with the teeny pink flower buds!

I’ve been working on crocheting teeny owl feet with a 2.5mm crochet hook. https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=650489098299755&set=a.650489094966422.1073741828.632946396720692&type=1&theater for 2 owls I have already made.. missing feet and 2 more I have planned. I’m on my 3rd infusion and very yum still, despite the strawberry flavor faded.

I’m gonna finish this cup and give my hands a rest from crocheting tiny things and start cleaning rabbit turf. Oh boy..

I brought this tea with me to the rehearsal dinner – and man, I needed it.

Finding out wedding disasters (the fruit platter just vanished) and opinionated people nagging about non traditional wedding things happening plus self centered types driving me crazy. It’s impossible to have food to please everyone and their fad diets. I almost feel like I wanna do a wedding speech similar to Sookie Stackhouse (from True Blood TV series)’s speech at the funeral.

I steeped this one a couple times in a travel mug (Libre) and Strawberry Oolong held up and tasted amazing both times. Third time it got oolongy / weak – but I was also using a regular kettle and leaving the leaves in my glass. This tea kept me nice and calm too. The pink buds looked adorable in my tea glass and got lots of compliments on the appearance and smell of this tea.

Another Butiki tea sample!

This one looks very promising. I’m a sucker for florals and pretty looking teas! Also wanted something that had multiple infusions so I can hammer away at the Shawl of Dooom while having multiple cups of tea! Oh, funny thing is I finished knitting the lace section and thought “hey, this would look better longer” so I decided to extend the lace because I’m freaking crazy.

STEEPED: As I was pouring the tea from my steeper into my cup, an amazing floral and sweet strawberry smells came swirling up. HOT DAMN I’D WEAR THIS TEA AS PERFUME! Also a very pretty tea with the tiny pink flower bits. Tempted to just sit here and smell this tea instead of drink it! oh, is a gold cup of tea.

TASTE: One sip and I was drooling! Smooth, floral and a burst of strawberries that explode and cover the whole mouth. No bitterness, tart or astringency.
Sweetened, Strawberry Oolong tastes less floral, but the strawberry is sweet (duh). I like this tea unsweetened more I think, but both pretty good.

Second Steeping: Smells more sweet strawberry than floral to me, however tastes more floral oolong. Still tasty! Not bitter or astringent.

WHO SHOULD BUY THIS TEA NOW: ME! HAHAHAHAHAA! I haven’t even finished the first cup and I wrote this tea on my list for my next order.
Okay okay, this one is great for a floral tea lover, but a black tea sweetener type would also enjoy this tea as a venture into oolongs. The oolong isn’t strong so a peep into flavored greens or whites would like this too.

COMMENTS: Best strawberry tea I’ve had! The strawberry is not tart or fake. I need more!

Thanks Stacy! this was a sample and I put into my travel mug so I could have an afternoon pick me-up and I decided to try this. Well my travel mug is I think 16oz but you in this case I don’t think it made a difference. It’s quite tasty and I highly recommend it. It won’t steal my heart from the awesome Good Morning Sunshine but it is a good alternative. I’ll try some of the other samples tomorrow :D

Drank my sampler of this boiling hot, and quite quickly. I had enough to steep in 200 ml.
Don’t take my word for it as I have a cold, but the dry leaves ressemble that of black tea, the liquor green, the smell oolong, and the taste is a nice wrap-up of the all the aforementioned. More precisely an astringent black, combining the grassiness of green and the thickness of oolong. Also, is it weird that I find this fruity?

I woke up determined to get through most of the Butiki tea samples I have before I make an order. You know, so I don’t miss anything I need. Almond Indulgence is one I’ve been saving. Sounds yummy, I love almond cookies, but sometimes nut teas are hit and miss for me.

STEEPED: Very pretty to steep with the pink flower bits! A nice brown tea that smells of nutty cinnamon!

TASTE: Very smooth! Light flavored earthy and nutty. Slightly cinnamony. No bitterness or astringency.

Sweetened, smells like almond cookies! The almond comes out a bit more – real almond not fake extract stuff. I think I like this tea sweetened since I have a sweet tooth, hehe!

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: Peeps who like cinnamon teas that aren’t overpowering. Lightly flavored black tea lovers. Someone wanting a nutty tea that isn’t fake tasting.

COMMENTS: Yum! I was hoping for a more flavor blast, since I do like strongly flavored black teas, but this is expertly done.

I am surprised to be the first reviewer of this tea (and pleased at the same time since I have great respect for Stacy and Butiki Tea!)

I first noticed this Black Tea at the end of the list of on the Butiki Website and the notes describing floral,chocolate and pecan flavors were intriguing. I’d also learned that Stacy likes to steep her tea for a long time…really long. I sometimes do the same (although she wins) and I thought that if this tea tastes that good with a longer steep, I wanted to have some for my own cupboard.

The leaves were small, curly and a 50/50 mix of gold and black leaves from Yunnan, China.

The steep time was 5 minutes

The comments for this tea were correct when they said the tea is mildly malty. I wouldn’t have guessed that. Usually chocolaty tea’s have a hefty amount of malt as a supporting base but not here, and there was a definite cocoa taste.
Honey flavor was easy to pick up but the nutty and floral taste came in after the tea had cooled and lingered in my mouth.

This was a smooth and mild black tea but one that wasn’t flat. The flavors were rich and thick enough for adding milk and sweetening which I did for my morning cup.

This day marks a year since I traveled with my granddaughter Schey to Alaska, Canada and Washington State. Today was our last “Cruise” day before a week in Washington. We were heading to beautiful Victoria, B.C. (Wow did Victoria look beautiful at night!Lit up like Christmas in September!) and believe it or not, our two week trip was sunny!
What a wonderful time!
Every day there was a ‘tea’ on board ship. We went to a big Indonesian Tea one afternoon, and in Victoria we went to the Empress and bought more Tea. I bought some Canadian Maple Tea in another shop.
Now remember, I had never heard of Steepster. I had never tasted ‘loose leaf tea’. I was almost blind because I needed operations on both my eyes. EVERYTHING was different in my life a year ago!

This morning when I drink this Butiki Tea and discribe how it looks…I can SEE it! It’s beautiful. And I am writing a review on
Steepster with all my new friends! (Unbelievable!)
I am reviewing tea and enjoying it with a knowledge that makes me laugh…I mean…how can this be? It’s been less than a year since I’ve been on Steepster!

For me to say, “I think this is a grand Black Tea” with some knowledge about it is humbling. I’m fortunate that everyone on Steepster has taught me so much (including Stacy) and shared in swaps fine tea’s so that I know that this is indeed a fine tea.

Awesome!

I’m drinking this will eating pizza and it tastes great! Thanks Stacy! (this was a sample)

Mmmm, blueberry tea! My fav blueberry teas are by DT – White Tiger and Blueberry Jam. But this is a purple tea? Ultra fun! Thanx to Stacy @ Butiki for this sample on my last order!

STEEPED: low saturated brown colour, very interesting! Smells like sweet blueberries. After steeping, the leaves look pretty smushy.

TASTE: Floral, blueberries and light to moderate astringency. Very tasty aftertaste of blueberries. I’ve never had purple tea – with this it is kinda earthy but light. Like a really earthy green.

Sweetened, the blueberries come out in a mellow warm honey like form and less astringency.

EDIT: second steeping, no sweetener needed! The purple tea held up and is not astringent anymore with a good aftertaste of blueberry that is sweet! This purple tea stuff is intriguing.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: someone looking for something a little different. Blueberry tea peeps should try this to change up having the typical white or black blueberry tea.

COMMENTS: Pretty fun tea! I’d love to have more than a sample to play with the steeping times to minimize the astringency.

Drinking so much tea today!

8 MINUTE STEEEEEP!

Finally decided to try this at the 8 minute steep. Smells much stronger and fruity grape/raisin.

Yeah, that’s ice wine all right – not as sweet as the ice wines I’ve had, but flavor wise it’s pretty close. The longer steep has a strong woodsy and fruity raisin taste. Much sweeter but not overly sweet. It’s just barely starting to go astringent.

YUM! I like both the 4 minute and the 8 minute steep! 2 different personalities!

Woot, I won first place in the Butiki unflavored tea giveaway! Drinking my winnings away now starting with Gui Fei Oolong!
I’m sipping tea, listening to the new Devin Townsend Epicloud album and working on the knitted shawl of dooom! 12 rows left (that are 300+ stitches long with beading)! Nice and relaxing!

DRY: Kinda floral, sweet, and fruity.

STEEPED: Oolongy nutty woody and lots of other smells. Pretty complex.
I did the recommended 4 minute steep for my first steeping.

TASTE: I can pick out a great nuttyness, subtly sweet honey and a roasty taste almost. The honey note sits on my tongue, yum! No astringency or bitterness.

Second steep I did for 8 minutes at 175f, and it was much sweeter and fruity! Amazing! A slight slight astringency is starting to peek out, but no bitterness still. I could drink this steeping all day! Next time I’ll do the first steeping at 8 minutes.

COMMENTS: mmmm very tasty! I chose this tea because Kittena did a long steep saying it tasted like ice wine. MMm ice wine! Reading the description of this tea… “green leafhoppers are allowed to bite the tea leaves..” OMG bugs ate this tea?? I wonder how they rigged it so the bugs didn’t eat all the tea? I know if my bunny ate part of anything he’d leave broccoli and fur notes instead of honey notes!

Mmmm, love this tea!

Did a blog entry on it, http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/18/flowery-pineapple-oolong-from-butiki-teas-tea-review/

I’m spending the day working on crochet stuff and watching more Boys Over Flowers. That show is total soap opera like and addicting! Perfect to watch tea to!

Love sent to Stacy @ Butiki for this sample on one of my orders!

Uggg. I was walking down the stairs and I tripped but recovered. My tea pot didn’t and went flying and shattered on the carpet. BOOOOO! Luckily I have another small tea pot and there was no tea in the pot that broke! OMG, if I had a sample sized tea in there I would of cried!

DRY: I’m thinking I can’t smell much with teas in plastic baggies.

STEEPED: Lovely floral oolong smell in a light yellow tea. I ate a few freezedried pineapple chunks. They were deliciously sweet and yummy. Then I got mad at myself as that probably killed having a resteeping.

TASTE: Refreshing light oolong thats silky. A great taste of pineapple and sweetness as well. I’m talking fresh pineapple too, not that sugary stuff. No tartness.
Sweetened with some plain rock sugar (I should really get some brown rock sugar) the pineapple comes out more at the end and is amazing.

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: pineapple lovers and fruity tea peeps that need to be schooled!

COMMENTS: I’m really digging the silky oolong here, so tasty! The pineapple is so natural tasting and yummy! The more I drink, the more I love it! It’s simple but the silkyness of the tea take it to the next level! Yeah, I used a lot of exclamation marks!

Added to shopping list, dang!

I’m still gearing up for Little Terri’s Most Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza Ever!
I have a pretty good pile of teas ready to go, not sure how many, but I’ve been saving that last cup of so many teas in a box for awhile now, so it must happen soon. My original plan was to start Xmas day, then it was New Years day. Maybe I’ll start on Monday. Or maybe I’ll do it in February. But I feel that it must begin soon, because I have 433 teas in my collection, & it’s time to let go off those last bits of samples, trades, etc.
Besides, I want to be able to buy new teas for my birthday later this month!
For now, I’m enjoying a cup of this one, as my final package dwindles down….

Still as delicious as ever!

Yesterday was a beautiful day, spent with the man of my dreams, Tony. We went to brekky, tried to go to a street festival (it turns out we were 2 hours early), grocery shopped, took turns taking hot bubble baths, made & ate a big pot of stew, watched Cardinals baseball (sadly they lost), & I knitted. I’m almost done with the first sock in the 3rd pair. If you’re on ravelry, it’s a pattern I found there called Perge.

Today I’m starting with this tea. I OTed it a little, which brings out a clove like spiciness, making the cup less enjoyable for me, but that’s not the tea’s fault. I’ve finished the cup now, & am still enjoying the fruity after taste, & contemplating my next cup.

“Hello old friend! Would you like to take a walk in my garden with me?”
And so I brewed a cup. It’s been awhile since I ran out of this tea.
We watered the Northern Quadrants, picked some dill & cukes,
ate some berries & sungold cherries, & harvested some zukes,
We gathered some greens, asparagus, onions & garlic. And then I weeded.
This lovely cup of tea was exactly what I needed.

Good morning Steepsterites!
I actually drank 2 cups of this. The first one I oversteeped, ridiculously, but guess what, it really wasn’t all that bad, maybe a tad bitter, a little astringent, but not enough to make my empty belly get queasy while I was fixing brekkie, so no real loss.
But I went ahead & made a 2nd cup, simply because it was the LAST cup, & now I get to claim a sipdown. Of course, I’m sure I’ll restock soon, so it’s silly to log a sipdown on this tea, but I’m going to anyway, cuz I can!
First sipdown of the day!
311

Before I get started on day 12 of little terri’s Ultimate Sipdown Extravaganza!, I needed a cup of something black & beautiful, something tasty, something I hadn’t had in awhile. Last week I think I polished off all of my black tea sipdowns (at least for now), so although this one isn’t a sipdown, I’m getting close to the bottom of the barrel, so to speak, & I might polish it off later this week. Of course, if I do, it will only be a temporary sipdown, because while many teas in my collection are just visiting, this one is a permanent resident.

I enjoyed a cup of this in bed this morning, & then we had to leap into action. Tony’s son was in town this week, working on the duplex he owns, finding a renter for the downstairs unit, & this morning we took him to breakfast & then to the airport so he can go home (Denver).
So not too much to say about the tea at this point, except that everything I’ve said about it before is still true, & it is still delicious.

Always a nice smooth & sweet tea to start the day with. Today I swear I’m picking up flavor & aroma of sweet dried cherries in this one. I never know what my taste buds will say, but I say delicious!

I made a cup of this to sip while waiting during my vehicle inspection. Now I’m sipping the resteep at the DMV, waiting to renew my plates. I’m really hungry! Luckily this is one of those sweet & smooth black teas that I can drink on an empty stomach without getting queasy!

Good morning delicious cup of Goodness!

First cup of the day, I made the mistake of letting this go a little longer, & although it was still very agreeable, I didn’t enjoy it as much. That’s ok, next time I’ll pay attention!