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So I decided on this tea for tonight to try. It was one of the teas I picked with my winnings from Butiki picture contest and boy am I glad I did. The scent of the tea in the bag was very caramel-y and awesome. And the leaves are so neat looking.

But trying to measure it out…Hah! Like trying to herd cats hyped up on catnip. Not that I’ve ever done that, but I can barely handle my own cat after she’s gotten into the nip. Lol! I swear the leaves were alive. Trying to spoon them up in a teaspoon was near impossible and they kept jumping out of the spoon and tangling in the bag. XD I ended up pouring the bag into a bowl and half spooning, half pinching it as a measure so I didn’t break any of the leaves.
3 min steeping in 205 water and the leaves had uncurled and puffed up in the basket quite a bit. Next time I might just dump them directly into the pot to steep to give them enough room. The leaves had lost alot of their smell but it wasn’t the leaves I was interested in at the moment.

Now, I like my teas with alot of sugar, some more than others. Maybe a bit of milk depending on the tea. But this tea, I have to say I’d actually be pretty happy having it without any sort of sugar at all. I was astounded at the taste and ended up drinking half the cup before I realized that I didn’t add anything to it yet. Lol. And when I added the sugar (cause I couldn’t resist), it was such a small amount compared to what I usually used since I didn’t want to overwhelm it. Wow did the flavor pop even more. Very caramel and sweet and wonderful. I didn’t really get the vanilla as much as I was hoping, but it may be that I was concentrating so much on the caramel flavor that it was just a supporter in the background and a casualty of my novice palate. Not sure about the cacao, raisin or citrus that Butiki’s site says should be around, but what was around was wonderful in any case.

I figured I’d give a second steep a shot, since at the relatively pricey cost (though it’s very much worth every penny) I would hope I’d be able to get more than a single steeping out of it. Same temp for the water but I steeped it about 30 seconds longer since I was afraid of it getting bitter.
It was… disappointing to say the least, especially after the amazingness of the first steep. I’m not sure if I just didn’t steep it long enough the second time or what, but the brew tasted watered down and weak. Very sad. And after reading the other reviews, I’m almost certain that I did something wrong. Next time I’ll try maybe a min longer and see if that makes a difference. Does anyone have any recommendations for a successful second steep? I’d hate to think of this as a one steep wonder.

This is one I’ll definitely be keeping in my stash to enjoy.