Butiki Teas

Second new tea to try!

The flavour of this one is quite tasty; a delicious green oolong paired with fruity pineapple notes. I’m enjoying the fact that it definitely does taste like pineapple! I’m not sure I am really catching the “flowery” aspect though. The flavouring here reminds me quite a lot of another tea… perhaps a DavidsTea (not Pineapple Oolong). It’s quite tasty though!

ETA: I re-steeped this one once, but can’t recall the results. I don’t think it was all that wonderful. However, I looked in the infuser, and it seems like I may have used way too little tea… so will definitely have to fix that next time.

This tea is now quite mild, but still surprisingly good. Like, a solid high-70s rating kind of good. I’m impressed.

Yet another attempt to get back on the tea-drinking, tea-reviewing bandwagon!

I’m making a valiant effort to get through some of my older teas, particularly those not in resealable packages, and lucky(?) for me, Butiki teas fall into that category! So I’ve been neglecting swap samples and having Butikis instead. Bad.

Anyways, despite being a bit elderly, this tea is still great. Delicate and melony and quite delicious. I’ve said before that I prefer Cantaloupe & Cream because of the creaminess, and that still holds, but this one’s still quite a treat :) A couple cups left to savour before I’m out!

Butiki selection #4!

I still prefer Cantaloupe & Cream, because I love the creaminess paired with melon, but this tea is certainly good as well, and if you like melon, it’s a must-try. I do think that in general, there’s just a “melon” flavour more than “watermelon”; so more along the lines of honeydew, which is kind of generic melon for me (generic and delicious… it’s probably my favourite!) Anyhow, this is a nice light cup for the morning to go with my breakfast…. pickles. Yes, I have pickles for breakfast. Just what I was craving for whatever reason. (And no, no insinuations here, I happen to love pickles and will eat them anytime!)

Finally got to some new teas tonight! Thanks to Azzrian for packaging up my multiple orders and shipping them off to me!

The dry tea smells much like Cantaloupe & Cream to me, minus the cream. Strangely, my roommate initially said it smelt like milk. Who knows.

There’s not much aroma from the steeped cup.

The flavour really, really reminds me of C&C, with a bit less creaminess (but a lovely smoothness). I’ll have to compare them side by side one day. I can distinguish the flavour as “melon”, but it isn’t coming through as watermelon quite yet. It still is quite good though; expected nothing less from Butiki! I’ll try some different parameters next time, perhaps, or the addition of rock sugar, to see if it bring the watermelon out more.

ETA: Re-steeped twice, both were tasty, but still remind me a lot more of just a generic “melon” flavour, not specifically watermelon. I still quite like it though! Sugar will be added to a future infusion just to see how it works out :)

My last cup! For now, at least, as I’m absolutely ordering more soon.

I ended up with none of those pretty Helichrysum flowers left in the final cup, since I’d been purposefully putting lots in previous cups. Regardless, this cup smelled just as overwhelmingly delicious as all the others. The cantaloupe tastes so real and sweet (as a note, I still haven’t had this one with sugar), the creaminess is perfect and complimentary, it even feels /filling/ to me. I guess that may be the dessert/ice-creamness to it – it reminds me of something edible and, as someone else mentioned, very thirst-quenching. This is definitely my favorite melon-related tea!

Thank you to Bonnie for this Awesome sample

This tea was Amazing , and I literally said aloud “Wow This tea is really good” !! It was quite shocking to find a green tea with this much flavor. It had a sort of “black tea” component , with hints of a very smooth green tea (No vegetal taste at all ;), and a floral note thrown in for good measure!! It was very smooth and re-steeped over 5 infusions for me, while still retaining it’s “black tea” quality (I’m not usually a fan of Black tea..but this tea was lighter and more floral)! I will be ordering some very soon to enter it in my daily rotation of green teas, along with my Jasmine Dragon Pearls, dragonwell, and genmaicha !!

All the hype has came down to this one moment. I just got my expedient package of gracious samples from Stacy at Butiki Teas.‘We was giddy as schoolgirls reading the names of and smelling the selections recieved. The leaves are beautiful and you can see that there was great care taken in the packaging not to damage them. On with te drink.
Dry leaf smells scrumpteous,though I’m running off of memory. You see, my wife whisked the samples from the mailbox and started the tea in a flurry whilest I was waking. I got a quick whiff and then the finished product thrust in my face. That aside I still have a great tasting note to share (great in the sense of the tea, not my writing). Color is a golden brown. Due to just waking I won’t bother mentioning wet smell(nose wasn’t working yet).
First taste I am impressed by just how how creamy this really is. A vanilla flavor almost sweet enough to compare to ice cream, yet still light and airy. Speaking of that there’s a subtle silky dryness with thirst quenching attributes. This tea is a gulper!
It took a few drinks for the melon to come out, but it definitely showed up. The afterflavor is pleasant and leaves you wanting more. As I said in my last note I don’t gravitate toward flavored teas normally, but maybe I will start to branch in that direction.I’m getting ready to start my third steeping. Thanks again Stacy for a wonderful sample that I was glad to write a note on

I ordered one of these little cuties a little while back & I’m definitely going to order a few more!

My tasting note for this isn’t going to be a very detailed one, sadly. I stayed up all night with my daughter Kira Monday night (literally all night- no sleeping for this lady :| ) because she was feverish (turns out she has an ear infection) :( Her fever finally broke around 4:30am and as soon as she went to sleep it seemed, Danny (my eldest) woke up for the day. I don’t often make a big pot of tea, usually opting for a mug at a time, because when I make a lot it tends to get forgotten in the shuffle of the morning. But Tuesday morning, I knew I wouldn’t forget it.

So I pulled this little nugget out of my cupboard.

The smell of the dry tuo cha wasn’t all that strong, but smelled of fish. I rinsed it for 30 seconds & as I poured off the liquid it smelled of hot muddy fish. Very earthy.

The finished pot of tea was very smooth. A good puerh for someone new to them I’d think. The aroma was lightly fishy, but reminded me more of horses after steeping than fish as it had after the brief rinse. Unfortunately I was too tired to remember to write down my notes on this tea so the more subtle observations I made have been lost, but I greatly enjoyed this tea. I will definitely be purchasing more to have on hand for those days when I have the time to sit down and enjoy a full pot (my teapot is small :P) of tea.

This tea really looks cool – it does indeed look like the scaly belly of a dragon. They almost look like they’ve been crimped with a hair crimping tool! The color is much more like the color of a silver needle tea – the leaves are a very pale, silvery green color. Lots of downy fuzz on the leaves.

I played around with this tea until I found just the right way to brew it. I wasn’t very satisfied with how it brewed up in my Breville, so I decided to slow things down a bit and brew it in my gaiwan. This produced a much better cup. The tea is very delicate, and I think it was too delicate when brewed in the Breville vs. brewing in the gaiwan. The gaiwan managed to get more flavor out of the tea and that was what I was after.

Very vegetative – almost like kelp and steamed, buttered vegetables, but, again the flavor is delicate, so it doesn’t taste too vegetative if that makes sense. The flavor is almost all vegetal … but because the overall flavor is delicate, the palate isn’t overwhelmed by the vegetative notes.

I love how smooth this tea is. Very soft, very soothing. Very nice.

I’ve had this twice in the past 24 hours—hot last night and cold brewed this afternoon (stretching till now, I drink iced tea very slowly ^^;). I love cider, guayusa, and Butiki, so I knew I was going to love my little sample from Stacy. In fact, I’ve been saving it up for some reason, but I plan on placing an order soon so I need to get through my samples!

I think apple and guayusa are a perfect combo. The cider is apple-y and spiced without tasting like a chai, and the grassy plant-like (in a good way!) taste of guayusa is a perfect balance. It’s like a light, airy cider. A little tart, a little sweet, just perfect! I think cider teas are usually pretty heavy (like Adagio’s apple chai) so this is an interesting counterpoint. It’s not overwhelming, and I think I could sip it all day easily! Actually, I kind of did. Two hot steeps and a cold brew without losing flavor, which is nice since tisanes often only hold up to one or two infusions. I’m debating between this and the Apricot in my order, the cider is currently a bit ahead.

So much canning done!

First: picked lots of pomegranates, like 15 or 20. Then I took the seeds out, blended and separated into juice, about 10 cups. Then I turned it into jelly and canned them. Turned out fantastic again!

After that, blubarb jam – so had to cook down some rhubarb and mixed it with fresh blueberries and turned it into jam and canned that.

Then bleach down the giant mess made, pomegranate splotches everywhere! I probably need to do more watermelon jelly, but after that I’ll be done the canning (and xmas presents sans the wine jellies planned for the when next 5cent Bevmo sale)

After all that, need a big glass of iced tea – tamarind pop! Very tasty, I added some light agave for sweetness. Flavor is great, as always – little tarty tamarind candy and a slight caramel like taste at the end.
Time to relax and knit!

Life has just been busy and crazy. So, last weekend when my husband rescued that turtle, we went to the hardware store to get a pond setup. We found out the hardware store was going out of business, so we came home with a new refridgerator and deepfreeze that were like 65% off!

This weekend we got the fridge into the house andddd I now have filtered water and ice! I’ve been slaving with brita pitchers and icecube trays. Took 24 hours to get ice, and I had to make an iced tea – how about tamarind pop! I haven’t had it in awhile!

Very tasty! Caramelly, spicey, sweet and a nice black tea base. Well, I made some bibimnaengmyeon (korean spicey cold noodles) for lunch so I only got to enjoy this ice tea at the beginning until I lost my mouth to super spicy heat.

Tamarind Tea? Ohhhh yeah! I got really excited when I saw this tea on Steepster! I needed to have it and try it!

Tamarind, if you never had it, has an interesting sour taste but also sweet. As a kid, I’ve eaten it as tamarind candies – that are sticky balls rolled in sugar (or salt) with the pod seeds in the middle. Also, I’ve had tamarind often as a soup base for Sinigang (a filipino soup or stew). When I starting cooking Sinigang myself, I would go crazy and make the soup base super strong for ultra sour soup!

DRY: Tangy sweet? This tea dry has an unusual smell that was hard to identify.

STEEPED: As I had my steeper pour the tea into my cup, there was huge wafts of tamarind and black tea smells – very awesome! Steeps up to a dark amber brown tea.

TASTE: Is addictive a taste? It’s earthy, sweet, creamy, non-sour tamarind pop (ha!) to it. Great black tea taste in there too. I’m picking up a teeny bit of astringency, however does not take away from the tea.
I didn’t add sugar because I was lazy.

WHO SHOULD TRY THIS TEA: Tamarind pop sounds adventurous (especially if you never had tamarind and just read I make sour soup with it) but has a lot of flavors going on and isn’t weird crazy. Black tea drinkers would like this tea for sure.

COMMENTS: Very addictive tea! I drank Tamarind Pop so fast as if it was a cold soda and now I’m craving more. Maybe iced or cold steeped, oh yeah!

Very expertly blended tea! All these teas I got from Butiki are amazing, I think I might have to break my “no buy” to get some more!

Sipdown
This would be a sad sipdown if I didn`t have the premium assam, because it is even better. I really enjoyed this tea. On to better and brighter assams!

Experimenting again tonight with eggnog. Note to self: eggnog does not mix well with Assam.
This Assam is best with just a tiny splash of milk

I accidentally way over steeped this yesterday. I was busy with my baby and missed the timer. It was a little astringent but still ok. My bad

Latte this morning with a bit of rock sugar, and it is delicious, smooth, and malty. I will really miss tho when it’s gone. I am going to have to order some more straight blacks soon. Like the Taiwan mountain and the premium Assam. Soon!

Backlogging from yesterday.
I had to have a Butiki tea because I put in another order! Yay!

Mmm… Assam. Malty and smooth with a tiny splash of milk. I will have to try their newer Assam some time. It’s probably even better and that’s why Stacy stopped stocking this one! I did order the caramel Assam and can’t wait to try it!

I have decided that I deserve and tea an treat morning! This smooth malty Assam paired with a dark chocolate cookie. The flavours of the cookie really bring out the sweetness and chocolate notes in this lovely Assam!
I don’t think this is available anymore from Butiki, but I will certainly enjoy my remaining package.

Backlogging from Friday before we went camping for the weekend. I didn’t really have any good tea on the weekend, other than this one.

This is a lighter assam, not as bold as other assams I have tried. It is also less astringent than others, which is a plus. Sometimes it is nice to have a breakfast tea that doesn’t kick you in the face! It is malty and smooth.

I added a splash of milk halfway into the cup because I feel any Assam or English Breakfast really needs that milk to taste really good. The milk brought out the malty flavours to this tea even more.

I am glad that I picked this up while it was on sale. Less than $3 for an ounce!

2nd in the taste test/Jasmine Pearl Marathon:)
The dry pearls smell of a nice lovely light jasmine flower.
The color of this tea is very light and almost tan-ish colored.
The smell is very distinctively jasmine, but not overpowering.
The taste is not as jasmine-y as the smell.
This tea is very elegant and graceful.
Certainly a beverage that should be served in a high class spa.
I can feel this weekends stress floating away like jasmine petals in the wind:)

Going through my pu’erh box this afternoon, I found this sample disc from mercuryhime which is ancient, oh well, at least it’s had more time to age… :)

I’ve been trying to make an effort to drink more of my pu’erhs. Shu is especially nice s an after lunch drink, where it seems good for your digestion and it’s early enough that I don’t have to worry about the caffeine keeping me awake. This disc is good because it doesn’t have any post fermentation flavor that you sometimes pick up with shu. I am getting mostly cocoa in my cup & I will enjoy a few more steeps of this today. Farewell Butiki…