Butiki Teas

Thank you Stacy for this Sample with my order!

I’m cracking up! I drank coffee this morning when I got up with some LS in the brew basket…yes, yes, yes…even there folks…I put Lapsang Souchong in my coffee! Har Har!

Soooo, here I go thinking later that a sunshine cuppa would be the best beginning to my tea day…forgetting that it is a Guayusa…uh…more than your average kick of caffeine!
My house is going to be super clean today, I’m going to be especially well groomed, my shopping will be done in a snap efficiently…before the CRASH! (which will come…we know the feeling). When the crash comes later what will I do? More tea of course!

With the joke on me, I have to give it to Butiki again…this tea is fragrant, not bitter with improperly processed lemon peel and very creamy. All the best flavor of Lemoncello without acidity. Smooth and lingering softness, sparkling and a tea that I want to have on hand. A very beautiful dark golden tea.

I sweetened mine a bit…but what can I say beyond delicious? It is like sunshine!
(Oh….hyper thought! I have fresh mint growing outdoors…a bit added to the second cup…just a tiny bit would be good with this….or iced… I like lemon and basil when It’s a hot day also!)

A very HUGE THANKS to fellow Steepster, Bonnie, for sending this sample to me! I LOVE ice cream! If I could keep my weight and cholesterol down, I would a la mode everything, maybe even Brussels sprouts. So, I knew that ice cream flavored tea would be no stretch for me.

When I opened the little package, a wonderful sweet and nutty pistachio aroma emerged. I couldn’t wait to plop the sample into the tea maker!

I steeped this tea at 180 degrees for 2 1/2 minutes as recommended. A pale green brew was the result. I didn’t notice any distinctive pistachio smell but that could be because it’s allergy season.

The flavor of this blend is amazing! It is sweet and nutty. The pistachio taste lingered on my tongue after each sip. The flavor is smooth and totally absent of bitterness. There is also more than a hint of vanilla in the taste and a slight milky quality.

Although I prefer black tea over green tea, primarily due to the shock therapy that black teas give me in the morning, I could easily make this tea an afternoon habit!

This weekend is the big Bohemian Night’s Festival in Fort Collins and I have never gone downtown to see what all the fuss is about. I imagined a nice little downtown affair with some street vendors and a stage with music much like there is every weekend.
I called my granddaughter, picked her up and we went to the event.
Neither of us had any idea that the whole downtown area was blocked off for blocks and blocks and blocks with 7 stages and huge amounts of food, drink and everything else imaginable.
We went for tea of course and Schey had her first Macha Latte, and later we ate bacon, raspberry waffles from the Waffle Lab truck. It was sublime.

This morning, my wake-up tea was a revisit of Butiki’s Premium Chai.
Oodles (great word) of spice just crying for cream and sweetening.
(I happen to think that this Chai is BEST with additions especially some kind of milk!)
Whatever your day will be. Mowing a lawn, paying bills, riding a bike or walking for hours at a community festival, a great spicy Chai wakes you up and kicks your butt with just enough caffeine to get you going without making your stomach angry. This is a nice little Chai from a great lady (Stacy)!

I feel for those of you sweltering in the heat! Must be awful!
Up here in the clouds all is calm, all is bright…(wrong time of year..oops). The weather is nice and cool. Gentle rain expected tomorrow maybe. All weather in Northern Colorado is MAYBE. The Rocky Mountains can change the weather and like a Giant Magician laying down on his back…they wave a Magic Wand and Prest-o Chang-o the rain is gone.

Therefore, I can drink Chai! It’s not too hot!

My evening brew created by Stacy at Butiki is straightforward. I wanted a Chai that was upfront, bold but uncomplicated, without a twist of some exotic addition. Just a good quality, spicy Chai. I saw a special deal on this Chai when I was ordering the Blue Nettle Green Tea and Puerh…(love good deals) and added it to my order. Glad I did!

This Chai has cinnamon and clove…cardamon…pepper and a nice black tea base. The spices are just right and not overdone. I hate a spice level that becomes bitter when heated…so blechy! This is good! This is a strong brew though…made for sweetening and milk, soy, coconut, moon juice or whatever you put in to make it good…RUM!

I like this…Chai…um…good!

After my dark and stormy night experience (and another to come), I chose a favorite Puerh from Butiki to enjoy and review a second time.
The morning was cool and I remembered the flavors well enough as comforting and smooth.

I did a quick wash of the small pressed puerh coin and steeped the tea 1.5 minutes in a gaiwan. I learned from my first experience that this little jewel takes a bit of waiting for the first liquor to release.

Oh this was good. So sweet and smooth. This was a puerh that enveloped me in everything I love about puerh’s. A bit of desired, craved earthiness, the comfort, richness and a mouthfeel that is like you’ve just eaten a flaky buttered pastry. (like baked filo dough?)

I made a second and third steeping…all at longer than the suggested
steep time. I do like my puerh’s bold. At 1 minute to 1.5 the time was just right for me. Not bitter or too over the top. PERFECT!
So, So, So, yummy! (I do not use that word very often!)

Hope all those facing storms today are well! ;)

It’s no secret that I’m a Puerh loving woman!
There is something about Puerh that takes me to a place so far beyond myself and expands my vision. Yes it’s tea, but there is a bond with the earth that is mystical.
Ever changing and without end.

This tea was interesting to look at. Pressed into quarter sized coins and simply beautiful. It smelled promising making me remember being a child playing in the mud and making canals for small handmade wooden boats in my backyard. I chewed on sour grass.

After 1 quick wash I did a 1 minute steep in my clay gaiwan. The Puerh Coin had remained pretty solid and the liquor brownish and mild tasting. Not bad tasting, spicy like cinnamon bark and sweet. I was not overly impressed.

The second steep on would be…10 seconds!

What a color change! The liquor would never be brown again! Such a beautiful auburn color that little more red tone and it could be mistaken for a Sangiovese!
The flavor was richer and had more pepper than at first. My lips tingled…my mouth tingled with the spice and then it drifted away before hitting the back of my palate.
Later the flavor changed to a sour, french roast coffee bean taste. The tannin increased. This was not something I cared for.

By the 4th infusion a mellow comforting sensibility began still with sweet flavor and juice but astringent. There was a little earth, a little pepper.

I thought about how Puerh makes me think about the earth in so many ways. By earth I mean the ground itself! How the dirt or mud smells. Shivering on a riverbank wrapped in a towel. The taste of dirt and melting M&M’s in my hands as a kid. Boots and puddles.
The scene in A River Runs Through It…and expansive beauty!

By infusion 5…the Puerh had become really delicious. A fine creation somewhat like building a thatched home and moving in. All is right and comfortable. The flavor was smooth and sweet. The pepper and spice and juice and earth had harmoniously blended into a oneness. It was worth it to come to this place and I can’t imagine stopping short of this part of the journey.

I am sure that I have more steepings to go. The liquor has not weakened.

Thanks Stacy for sending me such a unique sample!

As green teas go, the Blue Nettle is a standout performer. It reminds me of the spinach and artichoke dip that we whip up for football parties, and that is definitely a good thing! Other reviewers have already alluded to the shape that the tea is rolled into, and the glass bodum pot that I used to brew it up let them twirl like a slow motion spinning top. I was a bit worried about how weak the flavor might be because of the faintly pale yellow liquor it had produced after its 3 minutes were up but I guess strength of color and strength of taste don’t necessarily go hand in hand. As tasty as this one is, I can only imagine that it might be hard to source down the line as its popularity grows since it is thankfully one of the fair trade and small farmed teas. I would order and experience it while you can!

Thanks Stacy for this unique and invigorating sample!

I feel slightly out of place here as the first to review the base Guayusa from Butiki.. If you have never tried this variety, please be aware that the leaves are very finely minced and will benefit greatly from a quality strainer like the ForLife Extra-Fine one that I use with any of the teas that like to drop floaties through my other strainer. But I digress.

This was actually quite a diversion from anything else that I have tried to date. It has a grassy sweetness that doesn’t really parallel the grassy taste I get from an actual green tea. Would it sound silly to say that this one tastes like a different kind of grass altogether?! There is the slightest earthy aftertaste that lingers in the back of your throat like the very first infusion of a gaiwan-steeped Pu’er that was given the four second treatment and hasn’t actually put down its roots. I don’t know that I would give it an extremely high score on my preference of its taste alone, although I could see it steadily growing on me and wouldn’t be surprised if ordering an ounce or two might bring me around. I liked it less in the yummy yummy sort of way and more in the intrigued and captivated sense. Overall it is well worth a try if for no other reason then to expand your horizon a bit and for the clean alertness it delivers without the jittery buzzsaw effect that some other beverages with similar caffeine levels usually inflict.

Thank you Stacy @ Butiki for sending me this delicious sample!

Although I had never tried a Guayusa before (which is not proper tea but is still tasty), I was very excited to give this one a go since I thoroughly enjoyed the Pistachio Ice Cream from Butiki and now have high expectations for everything Stacy is working on in the Northeast. I must say that this did not disappoint! The tangerine flavor doesn’t taste artificial in the least. In fact, it tastes very much like biting into a bit of dried real fruit. I found the creaminess to be slightly muted and more of a mouthfeel than a flavor but half a spoonful of agave turned a great fruit forward base tea into a delicious creamsicle of a dessert treat!

This one is going right back on the shopping list and the extra oomph from the added caffeine was just what I needed to get the afternoon going. Well done Stacy!

So although I recently picked up 1 oz. of this, I left the majority of it with my mom over Christmas. Unfortunately, it seems I left myself with mostly flavouring (little tasty flowerbuds) and tea crumbs, and barely any actual tea. Very literally, my teaspoon pulled out what looked like dust from the bag (well, half dust and half flowerbuds and oolong balls) :( On the plus side, it does still seem to be pretty delicious, but a bit of the oolonginess is missing. It’s weird, because I don’t remember there being a bunch of dust and such at the bottom of my first bag of this (and now I’m a bit concerned that I took all the buds and left my mom with just oolong??)

Oh well! I guess I will just have to buy another half ounce for myself in my next order. Shucks…

… did I seriously only drink this tea twice before gifting it to my mother? Bleh. Well, I have Sil to thank for one more cup of this before I have to order more! This is just so floral and oolongy and delicious. Love love love!

Not surprised, I think my mom enjoyed this the most of the teas we tried tonight! She drank the whole cup (so I get the second infusion). I love this tea so much… rating bump. It’s really delicious tonight.

Mmm, first infusion smells light, fruity and delicious, and… are you kidding me. I just spilt it on my bed. :( I guess I got a bit overzealous in swirling it around. Luckily only spilled 1/4 of it.

The flavour is a light oolong with overtones of fruitiness. The fruit flavour here does strongly remind me of that in DavidsTea’s Blazing Strawberries, yet strangely also makes me think cherry blossom, like in Den’s Sakura Sencha. It’s pretty tasty though, and plenty strong enough.

The second infusion (4:30, 180F) is similar; definitely more oolong flavour and less fruitiness. Could probably get another few infusions, so might give that a shot tomorrow evening.

My one kind-of complaint is that the flavour is not so much of strawberry to me, and much more of cherry blossom. So more of a cherry blossom oolong. Don’t get me wrong – it’s delicious, but not quite what I was expecting, especially after the grape oolong.

ETA: Oh look! I finally remembered to mark a Tasting Note milestone!!! I’ve hit 400, woo! Missed every other landmark prior though, whoops. (And technically this tea shouldn’t even be #400, since I have two iced teas to log that I drank earlier, but oh well!)

ETA again: Third infusion (180F/4:30) is light and pretty tasty, with a floral-y, oolong aftertaste. Fourth infusion (180F/6ish min) is pretty similar. Basically tastes like a floral oolong now. Surprising amount of flavour left. I might try one more infusion, but I’ve had nearly enough of this one for the time being. Fifth infusion (180F/7min) tasted metallic and off; I threw it out as the leaves had probably sat too long, but I suspect it would have still been good.

Sipdown! 799.

Well, I’ve had this tea for a year, so I guess it’s high time to have finished it off! I didn’t much care for it initially, but it did grow on me gradually, though not enough to purchase again. It does taste like unsweetened mango, and the rooibos is certainly quite mild, but I think I was looking for a more in-your-face juicy, creamy tea than this ended up being. That said, it’s certainly worth a shot if you’re fan of mango, or if you don’t have a problem sweetening your teas! (Speaking of that, I totally should add some sweetener and milk to my cup before it’s all gone, to see if I can make it more mango lassi-esque by doing so.)

I’m not even trying to sipdown teas today… just drinking whatever I see that’s appealing. Such is the case with this. It was sitting next to my bag of Wild Mountain Black, and sounded appealing enough, so I went for it. Added some brown sugar today because that’s the sort of mood I’m in. Still not my favourite – a very raw/unripe sort of mango flavour, or perhaps unripe banana – but for whatever reason it’s hitting the spot. I have a cup or two of this left, maybe I’ll drink the rest tonight. Who knows.

ETA: I think I noted this previously, but a hint of spice starts to come out in the aroma during the second infusion.

Ok, I seriously overleafed this one today in a pretty-much last effort to get some flavour from it. The result is what tastes like an unripe banana-flavoured rooibos. With a hint of some sort of spice. Now… I actually like unripe bananas, so that’s not as bad of a thing as it sounds. However, it is not mango… (of course, the second I say that, the flavour in my mouth morphs into crisp underripe mango). Hmm.

Oh well. This is still not anywhere close to a favourite of mine. I’d prefer more mango flavour and creaminess. I think there’s a cup or so left now though, and I think I should be able to successfully drink it, as long as I remember to use at least 2 tsp.

Odd, so the smell of this one steeped is absolutely screaming fresh, slightly underripe banana to me. Which is delicious, but not mango lassi. Admittedly, that’s the association I’m making with the flavour as well. I’m getting maybe a touch, oh yes, there it is, of cardamom, and lots of banana flavour. The rooibos is present but not overwhelmingly obvious, which is definitely a bonus.

I saw some mango chunks in the dry tea – maybe I missed getting one into my cup. Either way, I have lots left to try again and tease out a more mango-y flavour!

Sipdown! Not a favourite, so I’m ok with this being gone. Raspberry/strawberry teas are not what I am finding I want right now.

Very close to a sipdown here. Not my favourite tea (now that I’ve tried Red Queen Cupcake, I’d prefer that one), but still decent. The last time I drank this one, the second infusion was actually superior to the first, which was interesting. It was more truffley and had a bit more raspberry flavour… or maybe it was my tastebuds. Anyhow, just enough left here for a final farewell cup (who knows when I’ll get around to that though!)

Actually drank this one a few days ago on my day of Butiki (which I intend to keep going with at a later date). It was still fairly tasty, but there are other chocolate teas I prefer. That said, raspberry is also not one of my favourite flavours, so it’s hardly surprising!

Hmm, so I made some of this up to take alongside my Pot O’ Gold on Saturday (and even sweetened it with rock sugar as recommended!) but it wasn’t doing it for me that day. The base was coming off as too weak, and the flavouring as somewhat artificial. Not sure why, but I’ll be having it again at some point, and hopefully it’s tastier then! I remember it as being so before!

I tried this previously as a sample from Stacy, and enjoyed it, although at the time wasn’t looking to pick up any more flavoured blacks. However… then it went on sale. So here I am, with an ounce of it!

The aroma is divinely chocolatey, as is the flavour. I’m not getting as much raspberry as I did previously, but I also don’t think there were as many raspberry chunks in my infuser as when I tried my sample. The tea is absolutely smooth though, and devoid of bitterness/astringency, which is important to me! This is another tea I really need to try sweetened, to see what it does to the flavour. I’m reasonably happy drinking this unsweetened, but would really like some more fruitiness, and perhaps some sweetener would kick that up a notch. Still tasty though! Tiny ratings bump.

ETA: Added rock sugar on a whim to the second infusion… yum!! Perhaps a touch too sweet (whoops!) but I have high hopes for a sweetened first infusion!

Wow, does this tea ever look wonderful in the bag! Huge pieces of dried raspberry, lots of chocolate… mmmmm.

Steeped, it smells like a chocolatey black tea. I’m really hoping the raspberry comes out, because I’m not getting too much in the aroma!

..oh man! This is good! I can definitely taste both raspberry and chocolate, although neither is overpowering, and I can taste a great, just slightly astringent black base supporting both flavours. It’s also almost… creamy, in a sense, which helps reduce the tiny bit of astringency. I wish I could taste a touch more raspberry, but I have to say that this is far beyond the similar chocolate/fruit flavoured blacks from DavidsTea. Really delicious. I’m not hugely into these sort of flavoured teas for the everyday, so probably won’t pick any up, but would definitely recommend this to to those who like to start off (or end) their day with a fruity, chocolatey, delicious tea.

Thanks again to Stacy for this sample!

ETA: Re-steep is very light. No astringency, but perhaps a longer infusion would be better. There are some cocoa notes and a hint of raspberry, but that’s it. Still will finish it, however.

Thanks to Stacy of Butiki Teas for sending a sample pack of this tea (and a few others!) along with my recent order. Great to try some teas that I’ve been eyeing but have been wary of due to ingredients (e.g. this one has star anise, but I’m looking for a great pear tea!)

Steeped, the tea smells… perfumey. Not really all that pear-y. It tastes similar, in my opinion. There’s some flavour, but it’s not terribly strong, nor does it taste how I expected. Certainly not objectionable, but just a flavour I’m completely indifferent to. I can maybe taste a hint of the star anise, and it’s not bothersome, but to me personally, there’s nothing terribly special about it. (On the positive side, at least I don’t feel like I lost out by not ordering a pouch of this one!)

ETA: 180F/far too long – Eep, I’m smelling the licorice/anise now. Oh yuck… that is pretty much all I taste. Down the drain you go. Definitely not regretting only getting a sample of this one. And I’m very thankful the sample was just one cup’s worth, so I don’t have a bunch left to feel guilty about!