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This is so good! Dry it indeed smells like cream and pistachio. Brewed it’s a lovely creamy pale green, and it smells and tastes like its namesake (and pistachios are my favorite nut!). I’ve been having a hard time tasting the nuances in tea the past week or so—hence my lack of logging—I think because I’m getting over a really bad bout of spring allergies that makes everything taste salty and vaguely snot-like (I know, ewww). But this shines through anyhow. Butiki’s flavored greens and whites are in a class of their own.

Today was stressful as all get out, and exhausting—maybe I’ll get into it later. Anyway, this came at the end of it as a very welcome surprise. And it was exactly what I needed. Smooth and bold, straightforwardly pleasing while also being as rich and satisfying as a cup of coffee (sorry teahards). I sat on the patio and looked out the window and it soothed and re-energized me beautifully. Like that “classic [to me] old school black tea taste” I mentioned jonesing for earlier, done really, really smoothly and well. It might make a helluva morning blend, we shall see.

Between that afternoon surprise cup, which felt like a coffee and cig break frankly in terms of “strong shot of chemical relief”, and the nap I took with my husband and both cats on the bed while it stormed outside this afternoon, I’m recharged and ready for tonight’s ping pong party.

Wow, this really does smell like chocolate and chamomile. Don’t think I’d have ever thought to combine those two things, but it’s pleasant here. I’m also smelling some mint and…I think fennel? Tastes as cooling and sweet as it smells. Reminds me of the best, most therapuetic elements of Stash White Christmas (my go-to sickie chickie elixir), but instead of a medicinal tinge there’s chocolate-y sweet richness. Novel—comforting but also exciting.

This grows on me more and more the longer I drink it.

This tea drinks like a meal—it feels chewy and full of grain, kind of the way stout makes me feel (not in taste necessarily, just, the heavy “sandwichiness” of both). And I get that toasted bakery rye or maybe even pumpernickel (there’s some molasses, especially on resteep) bread thing again! (Why am I the only one who smells and tastes that? Weird.) It almost feels savory to me somehow, not sweet. One serving’s worth of leaves could easily last me all day, because after a single cup you just want to lay back and pat your tummy, pacing your gut, aaaand it resteeps a buncha times. Very thick body, as thick as a heavy coffee.

Does this thing where upon resteep it gets sweeter AND slightly more bitter/toasty at the same time. Kind of impressive, that. The bittersweetness gives it a sort of chocolate-y effect. Also, second go-round it looks and feels like coffee in terms of opaqueness and body to the point of being nearly indistinguishable (not a bad thing).

I like that when you order samples from Teavivre they tend to give you two packets (separately sealed for freshness woot!), so you can brew gongfu and Western style, with significant time in between. Very cool. Going to try to hold off half of each type I ordered until my gaiwan from Verdant (! yippee) arrives at the end of the month.

This tea is so fragrant, smells like very sweet delicious sweet potato (cleanly so, like a steamed or boiled one, not a roasted, caramelized, or heavily spiced version) and just a little like bread/yeast , especially while brewing. This one’s also pretty in the cup, a very fine dark mahogany. There is a tinge of astringency, but the tea is sweet and “clean” enough tasting to make it bearable. This is yummy! I’m happy to find it’s not heavy or intensely rich like Laoshan Black; I don’t think I could devote myself to both, ha. It’s stronger, deep-darkier though than Honey Orchid or Mi Xian too (can you tell I’m trying to get my bearings with premium tea via plot point mapping dimensions?). I love that it’s not like any other tea I’ve tried so far, but at the same time very easy to drink.

Oooh, as it cools it deepens, and a slight, mysterious muskiness comes in. It also takes on a slightly bitter component, but somehow it’s not unpleasant. There’s some hay.

This may be the first tea I’ve had where the tannin and astringency build up doesn’t bother me somehow, because there’s also a velvetiness to go with it.

1st resteep per Teavivre’s instructions on the website yielded a darker, more opaque cup that is maltier, breadier, less sweet potato smelling than the first. Also a bit more bitter, but totally manageable.

Makes me think of my aunt living way out in Henrietta, her whole family (all those cousins) working summers at the berry farm, and how she lives off Huckleberry Lane. Again, for a fruit tea (for someone who generally doesn’t like them I sure am plowing my way through a lot of ’em this month…oh well, knock ’em out right away I guess) this was surprisingly palatable.

I can tell this wants very badly to be iced; it will be super refreshing, like nearing jamaica-level refreshing, that way. Bet when I do that my husband will be all over it. The fact it’s going to make perfect iced tea is what bumps this rating up.

Not bad straight up hot, but there are so many (!) good teas out there I don’t think I would get around to drinking it that way too often.

Della Terra gave me a (surprisingly large) sample of this for free with my last order, wasn’t expecting it. Wouldn’t have picked it out of my own accord; I am generally wary of fruit teas, especially with tarter fruits like apples and berries. But this was pretty good for one! It does smell like real blueberry, tart and juicy, and the chocolate doesn’t clash with or overtake the blueberry as much as I was expecting. Not a favorite DT pick (but that’s not surprising given it was packed at random for me) but surprisingly fine.

Never had guayusa before today, so this should be an adventure!

It brews up a muddy grey-greenish brown, like soil. Unusual, and pretty in its own way. Smells quite good and a bit novel—I haven’t been exposed to mint with vanilla before, and the combination is strange to me as mint feels cooling and medicinal while vanilla seems warm and decadent. But you know, it’s pretty nice here! The balance is really evenly struck between them, especially when freshly brewed and still quite hot (as it cools, the vanilla takes over more and everything becomes sweeter and mellower). And it does have both elements’ qualities: the alert, bright, revitalizing feel of mint (it’s the kind of mint I like; I’ve never bothered to figure out which is which, but some mint teas make me feel a lot better and some I find horrid, ditto mint cocktails) with the calming comfort of vanilla (ever present but never harsh or too heavy), fused together to form something I imagine would be ideal for things like dissertation writing, anything where you want to be in a state of flow (working in “the zone”) with a calm, steady level of focused energy sans anxiety or jitters. I think the next time I have a late night painting session I should brew this up.

Smells so, so, so good. I love a good pear as much as and sometimes even more than a perfect apple (seriously, I think 3/4 of my dessert recipe files are pear-based), so I had high hopes for this one. Also some trepidation though, ‘cause I’ve found I can’t stand apple in tea for some strange reason (despite loving apples otherwise). So I was a little afraid. This has the juiciness and magic of a pear combined with lots of warm holiday-ish spices, particularly cinnamon. And…I don’t hate it, I like it a lot! Yay! That painful astringency apple tends to bring doesn’t show up here. Eventually you even get the slightly reed/woody mouthfeel of having eaten a juicy pear (which some of my friends hate but I adore). This is a tea that automagically puts me in a good mood.

Brewing and in the cup this really does smell like those lifesavers, so mission accomplished, Frank. It has a creaminess in the sip too that reminds me of them. Pretty good, might try steeping a smidge longer next time. Bet some milk would work nicely here.