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Backlog from yesterday morning: I liked this tea anyway, but now that I know I’ll probably never have it after my stash runs out I like it even more. It doesn’t particularly evoke cheesecake so much as a rich creamy dairy-esque texture. I always accentuate it further with some milk and a touch of sugar and it is positively decadent.

I should really get daring and add some Bailey’s to it one of these days…I’m sure the irish cream would really pop then, but what if that makes me want it MORE when there is none left to be had? Clearly I’m just in mourning, nothing to see here, move along…

I was blissfully searching through my tea cabinet when I came across this yesterday. The pouch was almost empty, so I went ahead and made an extra strong cup. I had it with milk, no sugar, and it was perfectly sweet and caramelly.

I thought to myself, good thing its from a tea company that I know has been around a while so I can order more soon….and then I read one of Sil’s tasting notes about how Butiki is going to be closing permanently. Cue: record scratch breaking me out of my reverie.

I have been off of here for a while but that is truly sad news. :( I love Butiki teas, but I most especially love this, my perfect vanilla black tea. And I am lucky at least that this isn’t gone yet – time to order it rather than despair at a missed opportunity.

Like I said, a gorgeous vanilla black – and one I’m not ready to say goodbye to yet.

Backlog: I made this extra strong a morning or so ago. nearly 2 tsp. to 10 oz. water (vs. the directions of 1 tsp. to 6-8oz. water) It brought the vanilla out more, and really thickened the texture to how I like my tea (and of course, milk helped with this).

We’re getting to the point in the year that I somehow always forget about until it comes back – cold mornings not just in feel but in sound. The air is different and when there is a breeze it instinctively makes me want to curl up under blankets. And it’s a perk of night shift I’d forgotten, but: I can do this! I can have slow winter mornings.

I plan on enjoying each one of them, too.

5 months since my last tasting note? Well, that’s embarrassing.

Perhaps more embarrassing is that I have probably actually gone that long without hot tea. I have had buckets of it iced, but putting the Breville on to actually make hot tea? It’s been a glorified water heater for a while. :(

Since I’ve been on here, I have: gotten really unhappy with my job situation (coworkers, great, management and staffing/patient to nurse ratio, not so great), turned 30!, and gone on my first vacation to Europe. I got back from Germany and Austria less than a week ago and loved it. So much so that I had to drink this, my favorite of all breakfast teas, and take some time to remember everything fondly.

So, a little milk and sugar, nutella toast and an Empress Sisi biography on a cold morning? (After catching up on here, of course)? Yes, I think I will.

As always, this is a TASTY cold brew. It really gets more apple-y that way and it reminds me strongly of apple juice. Super refreshing!

I will say that for whatever reason I must have messed up the leaves this time because the resteep of this tasted wrong/moldy. I spit it out and dumped the rest down the drain, but its a mystery why this happened since its not like it came in contact with anything besides water, which was freshly filtered before I put it in the fridge.

I should try to make iced the traditional way just to see if there’s a difference in flavor, but I do enjoy it very much this way. I was very hesitant about buying 100 g. of this because it is quite a lot for me to drink but at the rate I’m having it iced a sipdown is NOT going to be a problem – if anything the problem is going to be how sad I am when I run out!

GAH. I have dropped off the face of the earth with these tea reviews it feels like.

Had this several days ago for breakfast only because it seemed the best idea of meh choices. I’m not super fond of this, honestly. But it did smell kind like the kind of sweetened custard that is what french toast reminds me of, so I went for it.

At a not quite boiling temperature I think it tastes slightly more accurate to what its supposed to be. Good choice for breakfast, though I think I’ll always prefer the pancake breakfast blend a bit more. Which is good, since I have a lot more of that one.

Hmm.. speaking of pancake breakfast, maybe I should make that one for breakfast today…

SIPDOWN. :(

I really, really liked this one. For my last hurrah with it I cold brewed it in my DAVIDs mason jar for about 24 hours.

One thing I really like about cold brewing is that simple syrup is way too much of a hassle to make and (to me, at least) really dilutes the tea itself, so I usually just opt for drinking it straight. Cold brewing also usually makes tea much more mellow – I was worried that the hops in this would be REALLY bitter but surprisingly all that came through was the really juicy, sweet peach.

Peach iced tea is my favorite summer drink (not sure where I got it from, even, since it was never something I drank as a kid) so I will need to get more of this for sure.

Basic math seems to be eluding me – I keep oversweetening this tea since I can’t seem to remember to half the sugar when you half the gallon.

So I made this half gallon too syrupy and I’ll remedy that by boiling up another half gallon and diluting it – the lime, raspberry and orange flavors are fantastic iced and I don’t want to waste any of it now that the weather is perfect for iced tea!

So many backlogs to do… I’ll start with the most recent first and go backwards.

I’ve been so lazy lately. Maybe its just the beginning of summer/warmer weather? Regardless I’ve been having to fight to get basic life necessities done. Even making food is an effort, which is why I finally got up to make a bagel and cream cheese and this tea for a late dinner at 9 PM.

A little creamer in this and I regretted nothing – except that maybe I have 2 cups worth of leaf left in the bag :(. Why don’t my favorite teas just refill themselves???

First time trying this iced – 3 tsp. leaf in my DAVIDs mason jar, boiled per blend parameters. Added 2 tsp. of turbinado sugar (so, less than my typical ratio of sweetener) and let it get nice and cold in the fridge.

This was sooo reminiscent of a cream soda when iced. I knew I should have put some carbonated water in it to make a tea pop, but as an iced tea it was still REALLY awesome. The notes of caramel and vanilla really stood out, and the sweetener added was just enough – I think if I had gone for my usual amount it would have been too cloying.

It’s not necessarily something I can drink with food though – this works much better as a nice, middle of the day treat by itself so you can really enjoy the flavoring.

Really really good – and I need to get over my hesitation with the tea soda thing because I know, with ‘pop’ in the name, that this would be GREAT served that way!