652 Tasting Notes
I’m back at work after my glorious year of Mat Leave so at break times I have no Netflix (and no sweet baby) to distract me… Therefore – Hello Steepster! I have returned!
I ordered a hilarious amount of Butiki teas when Stacy announced her imminent closure. Hilarious to a non-tea drinker anyway. I had to hide my two massive orders, let’s just put it that way.
I took my opportunity to try things from my wishlist and just threw caution to the wind.
This tea was one of those – really wanted to try it, so I bought some!
Not at all disappointed.
Part of my going back to work preparations involved packing up my tea supplies with a good assortment of teas – some that I’ve wanted to drink and get rid of, and some that I knew I would look forward to drinking at work. This included three Butiki teas – only ones that can be made with boiling water because ain’t nobody got time for messing around with themometers at work. We are lucky enough to have a mini kitchen here with a kettle in it!
So I had a cup of coffee in the car but then when I arrived at work I made this tea. WOW so good! I recognize it as the base from Three Friends… I think? I mean it smells and looks the same. I’ve always loved the texture and colours of that delicious blend.
Very pleased to report that drinking it on its own is equally delightful!
I added milk, because that’s how I like my morning tea. It’s malty and flavorful with that whole bakedness and raisiny goodness to it.
Now I just need to find another existing company who sells something similar!
Preparation
I have to admit, when I added this tea to my last ever Butiki order recently, I was living on the edge.
I’ve never tried a smoky tea like a lapsang before, only smelled them. I’ve actually had a sample of Adagio’s Sherlock tea on my counter forever from when Cavocorax sent it to me this summer…I’m terrified of it. I sniff it every now and again and flinch a little bit.
I like smoke flavored meat. That’s probably it.
But I admit the idea of this intrigued me. I figured it couldn’t hurt to add one more ounce of tea to my order…and if anyone can make me brave a smoky tea for the first time ever, it would be Butiki. And if any added flavours make me enjoy it, it would be bananas and maple!
Success!
I still found the smokiness to be a bit off putting, but overall the tea was enjoyable, even!
A really nice blend of banana, smoke and maple, balanced well. The black base was good and sturdy!
Definitely worth trying, and I think that finishing off the bag over time won’t be a chore at all! Hoping it encourages me to try others in the future!
I don’t understand how unflavored white tea can be so tasty!
I haven’t had much luck with it in the past, but clearly this is different! I really really loved it!
Exclamation points!
Had a good robust taste to it, not an average white tea. I enjoyed the whole experience. Thank you to Teavivre for the sample!
Wish listed :)
Had this again last night – yup, it’s good.
I really like it.
It honestly satisfies my craving for eggnog (for now, anyway) most of the time!
Aside from being obviously much thinner. It does taste pretty creamy considering what they had to work with.
Good job, David!
Sent samples of the Spring harvest of this tea by the generous Teavivre, am clearly ungraciously late in my review.
I admit I have a very hard time with straight white teas, because I don’t find they taste like much. I would even rather prefer a vegetal type of green tea instead.
This one smelled pleasant and haylike in the bag.
Tonight when drinking it. I admit I am surprised to report that I was tasting something slightly haylike, yet still refreshing somehow, and juicy?? Maybe like a tiny hint of peaches or honey.
Nice to see my tastebuds are improving slightly!
I will keep working on my white tea tastes.
Thank you Angel!
I never reviewed this either! EGADS!
This is my last backlog for tonight. I’m hungry, borderline hangry.
Sorry for the flood in your newsfeed. Or whatever Steepster calls it.
I have never had a roasted chestnut in my life, but being a huge lover of Christmas I’ve always been intrigued by the concept, and “chestnuts roasting on an open fire” always sounded like perfect heaven to me. So warm and cozy.
That said, there is something odd about this. I debated between this one and the chocolate one, and went with this. So i could taste the chestnuts on their own.
It’s enjoyable… but I wouldn’t rebuy. I can’t help but wonder if the idea of roasted chestnuts would probably be better than the reality for me – it’s still something I’d like to try someday though!
Perhaps I’d appreciate the tea more if i were able to compare it to the real thing.
How strange… the description for Joyeux Noel is the same. Roasted chestuts on the streets of Paris. Do they have two names for the same tea?! I haven’t tried JN yet, it just arrived in my last order, but I have tried their chocolate chestnut and it was okay. What I like better than that is their chestnut green. The two work really well together.
I somehow never reviewed this!
It is DELICIOUS.
Definitely a realistic melon taste. And green rooibos is a-ok by me, unlike disgusting loathesome regular rooibos that tastes like wood!
I only got one tin of this. But I have the melon oolong which I realize is a different tea base, but is equally melony and realistically flavoured, so I like them equally.
I bought a cup of this at the mall while I was walking around with my cute little baby.
Then when I went back, I decided to buy some, because I was pretty impressed with it.
I love eggnog. I thought DT did about the best job you could possibly do in translating something like eggnog to tea form. Considering what tea is – flavoured water.
I wonder if it would have been better as a black tea, something you could add milk to to get more of a creamy note?
But as someone who HATES LOATHES DESPISES normal rooibos, I am pleased to say green rooibos is not so bad. I didn’t notice this at all. Thankfully, no gross hay taste.
Just spices, a creamy note, the white chocolate helps.
I bought 50g and I will enjoy this as a caffeine free holiday treat!
I prefer green rooibos over the red as well. I don’t hate red rooibos, though, as I’ve found several different blends that I actually quite enjoy. But I’d prefer the green over the red … and honeybush over either one of those.
I can’ wait to try this!
And speaking of cute babies, mine is grabbing my hand so I can only type with the other. She wants to draw on my tablet and doesn’t understand why I won’t let her. :P
I’ve committed a tea sin.
And I don’t even care.
I’m on this mission to get my stash down, stop hoarding things, and make my cupboard (the real one, not the steepster one) seem less daunting.
So, i drank this to try it out when I got it.
I enjoyed it. But not any more so than I enjoy the normal LB, which is a lot, obviously.
So when I was going through my stash recently, I saw this…relatively new purchase that I had tried once, and enjoyed, but not any more than the normal LB – and I decided to just dump it in with the rest of my LB in its designated LB tin.
GASP!!!
Even though it cost more. I don’t even care. Since I didn’t notice a difference myself, I just decided to enjoy it as regular LB. So now it’s all mixed up.
Feel free to judge me, tea snobs! :)
A sample from VariaTEA! Thank you!
I was interested in trying this, because his other marshmallow genmaicha blends always sounded so good… but then I was always let down. Just MEH. You shouldn’t really go by my ratings though, because I always seem to be let down by 52Teas blends.
No offense to them, they just don’t work out for me.
This was another.
I didn’t NOT enjoy drinking it, it was pleasant enough, but it didn’t really stand out.
Nothing super tasty.
The idea is better than the reality. IMHO.
Anyway, still happy to try it!!!
The whole Steepster world should be proud of me because I just made a point of sitting down for an hour or so to crank out a bunch of backlogged tea reviews. They’ve been hanging around forever! I keep empty packages to remind me to log the ones I drank, I’m so pleased to finally be able to throw these ones away!
I am proud of you! It can be a real challenge to keep up with tasting notes. I know that there are a lot of teas I never got entered.