Butiki Teas

First review. Visually this is the prettiest loose leaf tea I’ve had. It almost looks like baby’s breath laying on some grass. The liquor is lovely yellow and the fragrance is truly real deal melon. You know that by now I’m excited to try this tea. Cantaloupe in the Springtime and Cream! Uh!
The first taste is heavenly, smooth and creamy with a cross between cantaloupe and honeydew melon. You would expect a nice light flavor but this is more than that. The melon coats your mouth with silky smooth flavors and lingers there a minute, continuing to remind you of the creaminess. The next time I have this tea will be with my son next week. I am going to have salty Halloumi cheese from Cyprus which you can pan fry for breakfast with pita bread and olives. This Cantaloupe and Cream Tea would be delicious to play against the cheese. This is a superior melon tea. I’ve tried others that fall flat by comparison. This is very good!

Thank you TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

This is yummy! I love that I taste the pumpkin and the spices, as well as a touch of the creme. Smooth and deliciously creamy, sweet and just YUM!

Definitely an autumnal feel to this tea, but, as we are still having some rather chilly spring days here in the Pacific Northwest, I find this to be perfectly enjoyable right now! I love that this tea is available year round, too, because even though it is an autumnal celebration in a teacup, I happen to LOVE autumn and love celebrating its splendor year round!

First Review. My Butiki Shipment came in today! Cool! This is my first experience buying from this company and I am impressed! When I ordered online I heard back from the owner, Stacy, and she asked which 2 samples of tea I would like? Really?! OK then, I picked 2 samples that looked interesting and told her that if those 2 were not ok here are 2 alternates that she could subsitute. She sent me all 4 samples and a nice thank you note. She also let me know when the items shipped and when they would arrive. Pretty great service! Both Butiki and Verdant get my vote for A+ customer service!!!

Now to the new tea!
When I saw the Pistachio Ice Cream tea on special…I could not resist. I bought one for me and one for the grandkids. My biggest glass pot is 22 oz. with a stainless mesh infuser which I filled with 1TB. tea and heated my water to 160. The steep went to 2.5 minutes. The smell is….um….so good! I took a sip and was blown away by how naturally sweet this tea is straight up! Creamy, nutty in a pistachio, vanilla, milky and almost almondy way…so interesting and good that it’s hard to pin down all the complex flavors. I think this is wonderful tea! I know that I like to say that when I find tea that I like and you’ve heard it before so this may not be the best tea I’ve ever had but it is pretty unique! Not bitter or too sweet, not overly nutty or sour, really well thought out and delicious.

This is fun tea! Good as Dessert…please add sweetening and WOW! My grandkids are going to love this tea! (no milk…it looks wierd and makes no taste difference whatsoever)

This sample was provided by Butiki in my last order – thanks for the sample. :)

These leaves are so long and slender with beautiful brown and golden colors. My wet leaves smell slightly sweet of cocoa and malt! I don’t believe I’ve had a kenyan tea before so I’m a bit excited.

This was steeped via regular infusion mug method and is quite surprising. The color is a dark orange and the flavor is yummy, like roasted sweet potatoes or carrots – it reminds me of a golden monkey type of tea. I am also getting a lot of walnut in the cup and a tiny touch of oak. The fruity aroma of this tea reminds me slightly of a darjeeling and the flavor is very clean with a rich mouthfeel. Ahhhhh

Normally with black tea I’m tempted to dump soymilk in, but this is delicious plain. This would be a great afternoon tea – Super relaxing. I really enjoyed this!

The afternoon cuppa. Technically a honeybush although it’s listed under the rooibos section of their website and they call it a rooibos on the bag. weird. I like this though!

This is a nice experience even just smelling it in the bag. I haven’t had too many flavored honeybush teas but I do like honeybush plain and sometimes I make it at home with other ingredients i add to it.

This is a slightly sweet, earthy blend with a touch of vanilla. Sometimes flavored teas can be a bit much but this blend is very subtle. I decided I needed to add some soymilk to mine and this is making for a nice, after lunch dessert tea. It’s simple but good. I might have to try adding some other things to this as well – I am thinking perhaps cardamom? (experiments are fun)

My only other experience with a melon tea (by a different company) reminded me of cheap homemade wine made of melons (ew, can you imagine that?) so I was a little intimidated about trying the cantaloupe and cream.

This was a definite pleasant surprise. The cantaloupe is light, refreshing and tastes very natural. The “cream” element just reminds me of a light and freshly baked pastry. The white tea is in the background providing just a touch of sweetness. I didn’t find it necessary to add any sugar to this, felt like it was perfect just as it was. A great afternoon or evening blend. I can’t help but wonder what this would be like iced because it just screams “summer!” to me.

Thanks again for the sample!

This came as a sample in my latest order from Butiki – thanks for the sample!

I was in the mood for something decadent. We got some bad news that my sweetie’s department is getting eliminated and we are both very anxious. I might have to cut back on tea spending for a while… boo

I steeped this at the recommended parameters – 210 F for around 4 minutes. I like the base of this tea but I felt like the flavoring was very light. After reading the notes I decided to add a bit of turbinado sugar and some soymilk. That seems to have helped bring out the flavor a bit. Perhaps if I had more to play with I could try using more leaf but I wasn’t terribly thrilled with this, although it is not altogether unpleasant or anything. Instead of a truffle it’s like a light dusting of cocoa with a faint peep of a raspberry….

This tea was weirdly oily… is that strange to say?? There was alot of little oil bubble things at the top of the mug.. or is that just london water for you? I don’t know…

the taste of the rasberry was so strong that I couldn’t really get the chocolate in this,, even with actual chocolate chips.. maybe the oil was from this?? Sour after too much brewing…

This is my first experience with guayusa – I only got a small bag of this because I wasn’t sure about it but am open to new caffeinated beverages since I quit drinking coffee over a year ago due to heartburn.

My first impression is good – I like this! It’s earthy and slightly sweet and is definitely not as herbaly and bitter as mate. The apricot flavor is a nice touch here, it is fairly subtle but that’s much better than being overly fake or cloying.

I did do a resteep for about 8 minutes and although the apricot flavor has diminished quite a bit it is still a very pleasant drink. Glad I tried it!

Sipdown for me today!
I am not the biggest fan of white teas in general but this is a really good blend, has a great juicy pear flavor and the touch of anise makes it really interesting. See previous notes if interested.

yum… exotic pear.
It took me a while to decide if I wanted to try this tea from Butiki but now I’m glad I did. I believe I’ve had a few pear green/black teas but no pear white teas aside from the Celestial Seasonings brand. Overall I find pear flavors are tricky to get well into tea, or at least the ones I have had are not exceedingly well done.

I did steep this for 3 minutes at 180 F along with some of the yellow flowers that came in the bag. The pear flavor is pronounced but not overdone or too sweet. Reminds me a lot of a barlett pear. Star anise is an interesting choice to blend with the pear and the floral element of this white tea, but of course I like anise in all its forms. The blend is smooth and delicate but still quite flavorful. I quite enjoyed this!

This is a sipdown for me – I’ve probably had this tea for too long so it’s lost some of the freshness but it still tastes pretty good to me, and is good with a bit of almond milk. I don’t think it will be part of my permanent rotation but I’ve enjoyed it. Finishing it off gave me some motivation to place another order with Butiki- hee hee.

Tea of the afternoon. I do like this and it still seems good even though I got it a few months ago. So much tea and so little time! See previous notes for more info.

this is a pretty yummy flavored green tea from Butiki!

okay so it doesn’t taste that much like ice cream to me (it is a hot beverage after all)

I think the base of this tea is a Chinese green and I am getting some nutty flavors from that already. I did add a touch of sugar per the recommended suggestions. The pistachio flavor is slight and there is a touch of vanilla and a bit of floral type sweetness. I will need to try this again with soymilk, perhaps as a green tea latte. :)

The description of this sounded pretty awesome: “Subtle notes of cocoa, leather, dried plum and wet earth”. On tasting, to me, it’s like a pine-smoked tea. I’d compare it to a pine-smoked tea more than any other tea. (And I’m a fan of pine-smoked tea!) It’s a great smokey flavor. It is a bit leathery, but silky smooth. Sometimes I just like strong tea. And I’ll be steeping for a longer time and at a higher temperature the second cup to get even more flavor out of it. Another amazing tea from Butiki! I could probably be satisfied with only drinking Butiki teas the rest of my life! But then again, so much tea, so little time! It’s overwhelming to think of all the fantastic tea companies like Butiki that I might miss! Try anything from Butiki. There is no way you’ll be disappointed! Butikiteas.com

Additional notes: Sipdown of my sample. I just wanted to mention my original note might not have been fair… maybe I don’t know what to expect with a purple tea. The tea isn’t bitter, like I mentioned in my other review, but it is a bit tangy. I guess I just expect it to be smoother with the blueberry flavor. It’s good… but my palate might not be understanding it!

Be warned: This tea does not steep purple. My steep color was more of a olive green (I don’t know how the official picture above is more of a red.) There is a definite blueberry flavor here (which I know is hard to do in most teas unless it’s artificial), though in my steep I didn’t spot a single blueberry. The tea seems dry, if that makes sense, which I attribute more to a white tea. The flavor is a bit bitter, though I don’t think I over steeped it or used water that was too hot. I love the look of the blue cornflowers, though I have no idea how it affects the flavor. I’m not sure if this has caffiene though. Another great tea from Butiki! Seriously, try any of them. Trying so many samples from them, I wouldn’t hesitate to buy any of Butiki’s teas, since they have all been amazing.

I really like this.

I mean REALLLLLLY like this. It’s slightly peppery and has a very full flavor and aroma. It’s delicious and I love it and it’s going on my list of teas to buy!

Additional notes: This was the last of my sample from the awesome Butiki Teas! I didn’t have enough leaves for another cup, so I used a slight bit more for this last cup! (I actually got to remove a tea from my Steepster shelf… sadly, it was just a sample!) Since there are more leaves the flavor is very full & strong this time. Very delicious. There is a slight biscuity flavor, with a sweetness that lingers on the tongue. The perfect amount of astringency for a nice kick. I needed a wake-me-up tea. I’ll be outside on one of the last few nice days this year to read Italo Calvino’s ‘If On A Winter’s Night A Traveler’, which I’ve wanted to read for a while now.

I love a strong black tea. I don’t drink coffee, so black teas kind of stand in for them. This one is delicious. It has a strong smoky, roasted flavor, but also silky. One sip even tasted slightly perfumey, but in a good way. The best tea I’ve tried of its kind. The color in the cup is a medium brown. If I had the money to spare, I’d probably buy every tea Butiki has! You can not go wrong with Butikiteas.com.

I haven’t been keeping track of all the teas I’ve had for a few weeks now. I felt like I needed to write about this since I finished it up today. I love the sweet, slighty fruity smell of this dry. I wish it would translate more in the steeped tea. Nonetheless, this is a good nonbitter black tea. I don’t think I would buy this in the future.

I’ve been afebrile all day! woo! Still having the wet cough and a new onset of runny nose, but I’m so happy there is no more fever. Having fevers stink! Anyway, I decided to drink this tea and write a review. My notes may be skewed considering my current situation.

This smells like Butiki Tea’s other Kenyan teas. Delicious, fruity, and sweet. In the cup, it is a honey brown color. On my tongue, it is light and airy. There is a touch of toast in there and warmth with a hint of fruits. It is fine on its own. There is a tiny, tiny hint of astringency. It is barely there. Delicious tea overall. Not one of my favs but it is still good.