Various Artists

This is a sample of Kagoshima Sencha by Art of Tea from Tea Sipper. Thank you!

I brewed this with a splash of cold water for about a minute. This tastes mostly like spinach to me. My mother-in-law cooks fresh spinach and garlic in olive oil, and it’s the best spinach I’ve ever had. That’s what this reminds me of, but without the garlic. I’ve heard the adjective “brothy” used to describe green tea on occasion, and I think it might fit here. It has a savory vegetal flavor that makes me think of a hearty soup. I don’t taste any bitterness. It’s quite good, I’ll have to check out more Sencha’s in the future.

I toasted some sesame seeds a couple of weeks ago to put in my cereal in the morning. Today I decided to brew up a teaspoon to see if it worked as a tea. It makes for a tasty cup of tea. It’s toasty and nutty and good. It’s similar in flavor to toasted rice, but certainly not identical. I’ll have to try toasting rice in the oven, since that would take less constant attention than toasting it in a skillet does.

I just toasted rice for the first time! I used the long grain white rice that we had laying around. I threw a few tablespoons into a non-stick skillet, and toasted it just above medium (I started on low, but I have a ceramic stove-top that takes forever to heat up). I stirred it pretty often, and transferred the rice to a tin when it was golden brown. I let it cool a bit, then brewed a teaspoon of it in 8 oz of boiling water. It’s very lightly flavored, but tasty. The flavor reminds me of popcorn, actually. It brews up almost colorless, which is interesting. I don’t really like the Genmaicha I’ve had, but I think that’s because I’m not a big fan of green tea. I really liked Verdant’s Black Chocolate Genmaicha, which is sadly discontinued. I’ll try blending this with other herbals right now, and try it with black tea eventually, too. I’m pleased with the success of this experiment. I may need to try roasting other grains for tea. I already know I like roasted barley, so that would probably be worth roasting myself.

Rooibos Chai + Vanilla Rooibos = Vanilla Chai Rooibos! Should be obvious, but sometimes combinations don’t work out like one would expect. I used a bag of Fireside Chai from Zhena’s Gypsy tea, and the Vanilla Rooibos is from Indigo Tea Company. I made this as a latte, and its a mild chai, so the spices got a bit drowned, but it’s still good.

First tasting note in a while. I got super busy with real life stuff.

I finally found a chocolate herbal blend I’m happy with! And it’s herbal! I tried barley tea for the first time a few months ago, and I really, really liked it. Recently I decided to try it in a chocolate blend. It was definitely the ingredient I’ve been missing! It really bolsters the chocolate flavor and adds just a touch of toastiness, making the cup feel rich and decadent, rather than weak and watery. It’s definitely a dark chocolate flavor, and I prefer it without milk, but it makes for a nice alternative to hot chocolate. My current chocolate tea blend is: 1 tsp Cavella (Crio Bru), 1 tsp Cacoa Nibs (Nuts.com), 1/2 tsp Honeybush Hazelnut (Adagio), and 1/2 tsp Barley (from Herbal Blending box). I added a small amount of sweetener to my cup.

Butiki Educational TTB. Taiwanese Shan Lin Xi.

Another black tea that tastes like sweet potatoes. These are really good! I’ll have to find a good place to buy tea like this.

Butiki Educational TTB. Bihar Black.

This is an Indian tea. When someone says “black tea” to me, this is the flavor I think of.

Butiki Educational TTB. Taiwanese Golden Dragon.

This is the first tea I’ve had that tastes like sweet potatoes. This definitely does. It’s really tasty. I may keep this. I’ve pulled out a few black teas that I definitely want to try and several more that I’ll try if I have the time, but I plan to send the box along by Monday or Tuesday.

Butiki Educational TTB. 1993 Aged Oolong.

I was curious about this one as I’ve never had an aged oolong before. It tasted somewhat like toast in a way that reminded me of barley tea, but I think I actually prefer the barley. On to the black teas!

Butiki Educational TTB. Chinese Roasted Oolong.

Mmm. this is more like it! Smooth, roasted nutiness. This is my kind of Oolong. I was hoping for a wider variety of dark oolongs. I’ve liked most of the ones I’ve tried, and I know I’ve had some in Asian restaurants that I’ve liked and have yet to identify.

Butiki Educational TTB. China Oolong.

There were surprisingly few Oolongs that I was interested considering the size of the bag. Mostly because I prefer Dark Oolongs, and these appeared to be mostly green. This one was pretty unremarkable. I liked the nuttiness of it, but there was also an aftertaste that I didn’t particularly care for.

Butiki Educational TTB. Kenyan Purple Silver Needle.

This tea has a flavor I don’t think I’ve encountered before, and I’m having trouble describing it. It’s interesting, but I’m not sure what else to say about it.

Butiki Educational Box. Hawaii Needles.

Oooh. This is good. Good white tea makes me think of liquid sunshine, and this is definitely a good white. It’s sweet, with hints of green growing things and flowers, and maybe a touch of autumn leaves. Anyway, I really, really like this.

Butiki Educational TTB. White Peony.

So, I tried this one and it tasted exactly like the Bai Mu Dan White tea I have, which I love. I looked online, and they’re the same thing. Good to know! I feel like this TTB will give me greater confidence in choosing unflavored teas in the future, which is terrific! It’s nice to be getting an idea of what I like in this area, it can be a bit intimidating at first.

Butiki Educational TTB. Silver Needle

On to the white teas! There aren’t a whole lot of white teas in the box, so I decided to tackle them next. Again I picked a few samples out based on the scent of the leaves. I don’t know how reliable an indicator that is of the flavor – the puerhs I picked had relatively similar scents, but wildly different tastes – but I can’t sample everything so I have to pick and choose somehow. I’m not sure if I underleafed this one or what, but I’m not getting much flavor out of it. What I do taste is pleasantly floral, though.

Butiki Educational TTB. Puerh #9.

So, I need to find out what kind of Puerh this is, because I really like it. It tastes similar to the kind used in Rishi’s Puerh Bordeaux, which I also really liked. It’s smooth and earthy with hints of stonefruits and citrus. I will be keeping the rest of this sample.

Butiki Educational TTB. Puerh # 7.

This one tastes like hay. It’s pretty good, but not so much that I’ll miss it after I finish this cup.

Butiki Educational TTB. Puerh # 5.

I didn’t particularly care for this one. It had more of a fermented flavor than I prefer.

Is anyone here a fan of the Hobbit? If you are, you should check out “There and Back Again: A Hobbit’s Tale” It’s a fan edit of the movies. It condenses them into a single three hour movie that is actually quite a good adaptation of the book. It cut’s out all the ridiculous CGI and random side plots to focus on Bilbo’s story. It’s pretty much what I was hoping for when I heard Peter Jackson was planning to adapt the Hobbit.

Butiki Educational TTB. Puerh #2

It’s difficult to know where to start with this box, it’s so packed. The samples are separated by tea type, and in the end I decided to start with the Puerh bag, since its what I’m least familiar with. Even then I needed to narrow my selection, since there are so many things in this box that I’d like to try, so I did that through the very scientific method of smelling the dry leaves, and grabbing a few that smelled nice. This one tastes earthy and a bit metallic, though not in the unpleasant way I associate with certain artificial flavors. Still, it’s not my favorite cup of tea ever. It will be interesting to compare it to the other samples I grabbed over the course of the day.

Butiki Herbal Blending Box.

I’ve tried the Honeysuckle, Star Anise, and Hibiscus so far today. I didn’t care for the Honeysuckle, but I’m taking some of the Star Anise and Hibiscus. The Star Anise is sweet and tastes like black licorice as expected. This is the second time I’ve tried straight Hibiscus. I used half a teaspoon of flowers with about a third of a teaspoon of sweetener. It was better than the kind I had before – not quite as sour, and with a more complex flavor. I do wish these herbs came with an indication of where they were purchased from, so we would have an idea of where to look for them in the future.

Butiki Herbal Blending Box.

Dandelion leaf. Anyone who likes green tea might want to give this a try. It’s nutty and buttery and reminds me of spinach. There’s no bitterness at all. I may keep some of this.

1.5 tsp. Adagio’s Summer Rose + 2 tsp. Herbal Infusions Milk Chocolate Cacao Tea + 1/4 tsp Hibiscus flowers + a bit of sweetener = Deliciousness.

I thought this flavor combination would be a good one, and I was right. I think the only thing that would make it better is if I replaced the hibiscus flowers with a berry-flavored hibiscus tea. Raspberry would probably be my choice, but strawberry would be good, too.

Butiki Herbal Blending Box.

I’m kind of picky about what I put Rosemary in, since it’s such a strong flavor and it doesn’t always play nice with other tastes, but it makes a surprisingly tasty cup of tea. It’s like drinking a pine tree, except silky smooth rather than prickly. I wonder how this would taste with cinnamon and vanilla, or with the carrot tea I grabbed. I’m definitely going to be doing some experimenting with this.

I got Butiki’s Herbal blending box in the mail today, and have tried a few things already. I tried the marshmallow leaf, the cilantro leaf, the lavender, and the carrot. I’m getting the impression that lavender tends to upset my stomach. The marshmallow and cilantro were pretty uninteresting to me – both lightly herbaceous/vegetal. I actually really liked the carrot, I’m not sure that should have surprised me so much since I know I like carrots, but it did. It was surprisingly sweet. I’m definitely going to be keeping some of this.