Butiki Teas

Once upon a time there was a girl who drank Assam for breakfast everyday. Then she got caught up in comparing various English, Irish, Parisian, & other breakfast blends. She loved them all, & it’s so much fun comparing them, savoring them, but once in awhile it’s nice to go back to your roots!

This is a really nice Assam! It’s everything it should be, Malty, hints of chocolate, & not a touch of astringency or bitterness! Thank you, Stacy, for your lovely teas!

Yayy my first order from Butiki came! So excited to try it. Wonderful customer service thus far, and quick shipping. I went for this one first since I am super exhausted tonight. Is it seriously only Wednesday? Sigh. Plus it smells wonderful.

I did a 5min steep, which turned out pretty well for me. I’ve only had one guayusa blend, and I only drink that one iced. I wanted hot tea tonight, so I might as well give hot guayusa a try. I sweetened it just a tad, to hopefully bring out the creamy vanilla.

This is such an interesting blend! When I tried it hot-hot, I could taste mostly earthy guayusa. It’s a nice flavour, but I notice a slightly sour note at the back of my tongue. It’s not entirely off putting, just a little strange. As it cools a bit, the vanilla comes out fully and is just amazing. It’s followed by smooth, sweet mint and just a hint of lavender. The guayusa flavour really holds the whole thing together, and the more it cools, the less I get of the sour note.

I really like this blend! I think I’ll bring it to work to get me through the afternoons. Can’t wait to get into the rest of my order :)

Ok for WEEKS I have been meaning to write tasting notes but I barely drink much tea when at home. I am sooo tired of working omg I’ve got 30 hours this week and 36 next week! My only day off is Saturday…actually I had Thanksgiving off but working Friday morning ruined that so my family’s gonna come down for lunch on Thanksgiving and then we’ll eat at home Friday. So I figured they’re not coming early enough (or apparently my mom was how dare I make her have to wait for noon) why not take advantage of making 1.5 times my usual pay to stand there and do nothing.

So I have been drinking my pumpkin teas a bunch. This one is still tops in pumpkinland right now. I tried it sweetened with cream but I think I like it just with a little sugar the most. By itself its okay but it is creme brulee so it just needs that to really bring it up to real dessert status.

I’m washing all my dishes that have built up out of wanting to do nothing after work/school so maybe that will make me go drink tea. Also I’m cold. But I keep going and buying stuff at Teavana because my discount is 40% this week ughhhhh

In less than 4 hours, it’s dropped 10 degrees! Yay fall! I’ve got chicken noodle soup in the crockpot, and it’s almost done, so a cup of tea until then sounds great.

First important thing of the day is my zombie makeup. I don’t think anyone understood I was a Bond girl let alone which specific one. So whatever.
And we left after like 90 minutes because I didn’t feel good so there’s also that but I don’t think more people would have made it better.

First here I am failing at being scary: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thethrillstheyyield/8128971885/
not much better here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thethrillstheyyield/8128997734/in/photostream/
And before I took it off I tried it and I think I did better but I just look grumpy hahaha: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thethrillstheyyield/8128998386/in/photostream/

So there you go, my inability to be all mean zombie is why I’m glad I wasn’t available first time around with Walking Dead extras to get an “lol no” response. Funny, I was sarcastically given the “spirit award” for my failure at smiling all the time during rehearsals for a musical.

This is the second in my pumpkin beverage trifecta for the day. I had pumpkin spice coffee earlier, and later I have this pumpkin beer: http://www.stbcbeer.com/seasonals/seasonal-imperial/pumking-beer-page/ apparently it’s amazing and hard to find so double yay.

I really need to drink this when I have agave around, just to see how much more amazing it gets, though it’s already amazing with no additions. It just tastes so much like pumpkin puree poured right into a black tea, minus the weird texture that might have.

I definitely will drink this when I’m at my own apartment, since there is a carton of coconut milk creamer…I bet a touch in there will put this one right over the top.

This really is my favorite pumpkin tea. Granted I have only had like 4, but I don’t feel the need to go on with any search like that when this one tastes so much like a real pumpkin. I think it tastes a lot like pumpkin pie with no additions, so I assume it’s even more like creme brulee with a touch of cream. I don’t think it’s a problem that it tastes like pumpkin pie, because I think such a rich and creamy textured pie like that is pretty similar to a creme brulee, minus the crunchy shell.

Yay fall again! I would drink this ALL the time though, let’s be real here.

I am so angry right now, I thought F1 qualifying was at 8 and it turns out it’s at 9, and nobody seems to want to answer me as to WHY it is at 9 and it makes me extremely angry to have to be awake when I don’t have to be awake. And I have this tea now so I can’t nap for 45 minutes, not that it would work well anyway.

Except this tea makes it too hard to be angry, it’s sooooo good. I think it’s time I rescind my pumpkin beverage hater card. It smells like pumpkin pie, and definitely tastes creamy as well as like pureed pumpkin mixed with spices. And best of all it’s not like a nasty canned puree taste, just like fresh pumpkin but verrrrrry smooth. I can’t believe how real it tastes, it means I never have to go through the trouble of cutting up a pumpkin especially because I don’t want to!

I think in the meantime of waiting I will have to try another of my new Butiki teas too.

I’m sick, so forgive me if my notes aren’t exactly spot on. I have this really bizarre issue. I hate grapes. Hate them. I can’t recall the last time I ate one, and I don’t even like looking at them. But grape is probably my favorite artificial fruit flavor, haha. So whatever. The dry leaf smells exactly like that grape candy flavor I so adore. I was sort of hoping that it would brew up purple, but nope, just a pretty gold. Also, I love watching the leaves unfurl. Anyway, brewed up, most of that super sweet grape smell was lost to me…it had transformed into something else, which initially reminded me of spaghetti sauce (don’t ask me why…) but eventually I realized it was a flowery smell. Sorta reminded me of this plumeria lotion they sold at a store I worked at in high school. I’m not getting much of a strong flavor at all in this first brew…I put sugar in it and it’s tasty, but I’m not getting any specific flavor notes. I’ll report back after a couple more infusions.

I got this sample in my Butiki order, thank you Stacy!!

Picture, if you will, a 4 year old with a little glass tea pitcher that looks just like a miniature of the pitcher on the old Koolaid commercials. The pitcher is filled with a golden liquid that smells like thanksgiving, or at least like her favorite thanksgiving food. She has a tiny 1 oz cup, white ceramic, images of bamboo & butterfly in blue with pink highlights. She also has a jar of thick coconut milk with a tsp in it. She dips a tsp of coconut milk, puts it in the little cup, adds an oz of tea (sweetened with stevia), swirls with the end of a chopstick, and slurp! Again & again, savoring every taste until it’s gone. That’s me, a little while ago; a little kid with her tea set.

I’ve never had creme brulee, but I love pumpkin pie!! This is such a tasty, OMG treat, that I had to stop everything & just be 4 again. This is nicely pumpkiny, the only thing missing is the whipped cream.
After I buy some I’ll brew it stronger, cuz it really lends itself to the coconut milk treatment, I’m picturing an awesome coconut milk & pumpkin Creme Brulee Latte…

Just as delicious & juicy as it has always been, yum yum.
Sad Sipdown

It is always my goal to drink a cup of every tea in my collection every month. It used to happen, LOL, but I have not succeeded in a long time now, probably at least a year. It won’t happen this month either, because I have too many teas!
So far this month I’ve drank 73 out of 313 (current total, although I started the month at 330). The month is 2/3 over, & I haven’t even drank cups of 1/3 of my teas. To be fair, there are several teas that I’ve drank more than once also. I’ve also been on a serious black tea binge for a long time, even though I enjoy all kinds of teas.

This is one that I do love, but haven’t drank for awhile. The watermelon taste is so awesome, & this is one of those teas that I have to sweeten. It’s like drinking watermelon juice!

Bubble Bath Tea #1 – Yum Yum!!

I say that I’m not a big fan of flavored teas, & in particular I mean artificially flavored teas. Sometimes I have wierd reactions to them, like my lips & tastebuds puffing up a little. It doesn’t usually last a long time, but it’s wierd & unpleasant.

Even teas with ‘natural flavoring’ can be suspect, because you never REALLY know what is in them, & I have a lot of allergies.

This tea is delicious. I have no problems with it at all (or with anything I’ve gotten from Butiki so far), & although I don’t drink it often, when I do I’m in love. And usually in the bubble bath.

Sipdown!
Leif & I did some gardening, pulling weeds & re-trellising some of the raspberry canes. My raspberry patch is really crazy & happy, & very productive, so we also picked more berries. Tonight is our first official “game night”, so I think I’m gonna make an almond flour cake with black raspberries in it, topped with coconut whipped cream & red raspberries. I still have to pick the black raspberries, later when it cools off a bit.

Anyway, it got too hot & sunny, so we came in & made an iced version of the last of the watermelon xylo, adding a little stevia. It was so yummy & refreshing, & very quickly gone!

Although I’m not a huge fan of white teas, I love this one. Stacy is the Mistress of the Art of Flavorings, as far as I’m concerned. I’ve gone through several orders of this tea now. So my 2nd student wanted something white but fruity, & this one hits the spot to perfection. We shared a pot of it, lightly sweetened with Sweetleaf (stevia). Another mild but lovely tea.

Boy did I screw up!
I measured this out, then I thought I’d also measure out some Jin Jun Mai, but I accidentally put them in the same cup! ACKCKCK!
It’s all Theresa’s fault (nobody really likes her much). She distracted me with her endless list of “You have to do this today”, & "you need to (blah blah blah).
Luckily they look very different from one another. This one is beautiful sage with hot pink amaranth, the other is black & brown & smaller leaves. I meticulously picked them apart, & although there may be a pink flower in the Jin Jun Mei, no harm done.

Delicious & a sipdown!

First, Stacy, I love this tea! This is my last cup, and I’ll be ordering more soon!

I have students all afternoon starting at 1:00, and a gig tonight, so I’m headed off to the bubble bath with 2 cups of tea to enjoy. This is one of them, which I’ve reviewed already plenty of times. I’m not a huge fan of flavored teas, & even less of a fan of flavored green & white teas, so for me to say, “I love this!” really means something!

I’m finally some writing done on my NaNoWriMo project! I’ve been enjoying a pot of yumyumyum tea while working on the Prologue! I’m up to 734 words so far!

Watermelon xylo is SO delicious!

This tea is like a miracle! I mean, how could a tea taste like this? The smell is awesome too, & it is one of the most beautiful teas I’ve ever seen. This is one of 2 teas I’m taking with me to the bubble bath, & I love it. I’m still fairly new to Butiki teas, but Stacy is an amazing artist, & I need to sample more of the wonderful teas she has to offer.

I spent a couple hours running errands, including delivering Tony’s teas to him (he was SO happy!). Now I’m home again, and really dragging from having stayed up so late last night working on my website. Maybe a little more caffeine…just a little…

First I have to confess: I don’t really usually like watermelon flavored things, & I only like watermelon alone. I don’t even like eating it that much, but I will run it through my juicer during the peak of summer, or when I’m having kidney problems (which I no longer have since I changed my diet). I juice the rind & the insides separately, drink the rind first, then chase it with the pink juice (or other color, I usually grow my own watermelons, although this year was a fail…on many thing in the garden…

Confession part 2: I bought this because it was on sale, and because the name was just too good to pass up!

So: It is a beautiful blend! The silver needle a litely fuzzy green, the amaranth flowers bright pink (giving you the image of pieces of watermelon), & the smell is amazing! To me it smells more like a Honeydew, but whatever, it’s awesome!

Taste: unsweetened, it reminds me of that watermelon rind juice, not unpleasant, crisp & clean. Sweetened OMG, it’s like an ambrosia! Delicate, melony (definitely watermelon, a really tasty one). I might have to get some more of this elixer…the sale ends when??

Thank you Stacy for the sample of this yummy tea!

First off, this tea looks like a valentine! Pretty raspberries on a bed of black tea, with the cutest mini-chocolate-chips ever! I wanted to eat them, but I only got a sample, so I made little Terri (my inner child) behave & wait.

We (me & little Terri) brewed this one as directed, inhaling the waftings of chocolate & raspberry. She kept saying, “is it ready yet?” while we were blowing & blowing so we wouldn’t burn our tongue…then sipping. The tea base is strong enough to support all the players, but not so strong as to overpower them. All of the flavors are so nicely balanced, & my addition of stevia (just a pinch) really made the whole cup sing!

This is a tea that I want to swirl around in my mouth, like a somalier, & in doing so it made my mouth water, it was juicy! The underside of my tongue tingled from the raspberry, the chocolate rolled over the top, so that my tongue became a Truffle! Yum!

After students from 9 – 1, a quick lunch, and the booking for 3 xmas gigs (Yeah!), I had a few errands to run and wanted something sweet, and a break from caffeine, so I went with the last cup of this, with some stevia. It is creamy, and well flavored, tasting of coconut, graham cracker crust, even with a hint of lime. I used the finum and was extra careful not to get any of the ‘shake’ into the cup itself, but still have that ’akkkk" feeling in my throat. Sometimes rooibos just breaks into teeny tiny particles, and they find their way into my cup. I should have included the muslin tea bag, as a double straining system. It works so much better that way. At least the tea tasted good!

After lunch, Drew & I shared a pot of this tasty tea for dessert!
This is a cup of Yummy, with flavors of coconut, cream, & a hint of lime.

We sipped & slurped. It’s Halloween, & we haven’t really done Halloween for a couple of years, so I said, “I think me & you & Leif should dress like Pirates & hand out candy”. So at 3:00 I went to the salt room, Drew went & bought candy, then we came home & pulled out my ‘dress up’ box, which is full of belly dance clothes, a variety of scarves, cloaks, pin on flowers, all kinds of things. I used to Belly Dance, I used to play at a renaissance festival, I also ride a Harley, so between all that stuff, we put last minute costumes together. When Leif got home from his college classes, we were setting things up on the front porch.

Drew (age 23) wore a scarf, a tie-die jacket, he held a 3 prong garden tool in one hand which I wrapped a scarf around (so it was his ‘hook’), & tie die baggy pants.

Leif (20) wore my old renaissance festival cloak, a bandana covering one eye, & a black beret.

I wore purple harem pants tucked into black harley riding boots, a white lacy shirt, my black harley leather vest, a scarf on my head, an ugly necklace, & an eye patch.

We sat out on the front porch, with “Yo Ho Yo Ho a pirate’s life for me” playing over and over again, singing along with the recording we had downloaded, stomping in unison, speaking pirate lingo to all the little kids, threatening to make them swab the deck & walk the plant & such, and making plans for next year. LOL, it was a great night!
photos are available on my FaceBook, Terri Stamper Langerak.

I’ve had a busy day of students coming & going since 10:00am, & one of the pleasures of working from home is I get to brew tea while my students are warming up, & sip it throughout their lessons.

I had 2 wonderful packages arrive today, one from Verdant & the other from Butiki, so I couldn’t wait to try some of them out! Coconut Cream Pie has been on sale, & although I don’t usually buy a lot of flavored teas, & I’m not a huge fan of rooibos, I need some herbal teas around here to drink later in the day so that I don’t keep adding to my caffeine buzz into the evening. It sounded interesting…

Just for the record, with my allergies to milk & wheat products, I haven’t had a coconut cream pie since I was a kid, but I LOVE coconut, so why not?
Dry I smell rooibos, maybe a little of a crust smell, & a creamy lime undertone…not what I expected.
Brewed, it’s another thing all together. I went upstairs for a minute, & when I came back down the entire house smelled like…you guessed it…coconut cream pie! WOW!
Plain, it’s ok. Add some stevia & now we’re talking! I also added some coconut milk, & this is dessert in a cup, people, dessert in a cup!

My student was ranting about the smell, so I poured a little into a cup for her, & we both sat there, smelling & savoring. This is a tasty treat, & the rooibos wasn’t too prominent. Thank you for this lovely blend, Stacy!

Hooray! I have time to try some of my new teas today! This is a sample sent by Liberteas and is my second Butiki tea ever.

I made a 22 ounce pot to share with hubby. I was surprised to see a recommended temp of 170F for an oolong but I obeyed, and took it to about 2 1/2 minutes on the steep. I served it with lunch, which may have kept me from picking up all the nuances of this tea, but I can say it was very good. It had a nice level of complexity, it was sweet and smooth, and my first sip made me actually think of frost! I kept feeling like I was picking up a hint of some spice, perhaps a mild Ceylon cinnamon, but it was awfully hard to put my finger on. There was a nice baked stone fruit flavor.

I wish I had tried it by itself first. The food had a good bit of seasoning – we had asparagus with lemon pepper, small red potatoes that had been boiled, then smashed on a pan and baked at 450F for twenty-five minutes with coarse salt, pepper, and rosemary until they were a bit crispy, and black bean soup with a lot of chili powder in it. All this seasoning kept me from picking up all I wanted, but fortunately I have enough leaf to do a little gong fu serving later!

Overall, a delicious oolong!

This is a tea that I was very excited to work on. I love love love fresh maple syrup but when I was young I never liked it. I would always use fresh fruit or butter (before being vegan) or ice cream or whipped cream but I could not stand maple syrup. It wasn’t until my 20s that I was coerced into giving maple syrup another chance. Before that I had only ever tried Aunt Jemimas or some other artificial syrup that doesn’t even contain maple syrup. Now I buy my syrup from a farmers markets or Whole Foods. I’m still making up for lost maple syrup time.

I decided on using the Nilgiri Frost Oolong as a base for a number of reasons. The tea had some similar characteristics to the flavor of maple and pecan and I knew the notes of the tea would mesh well with the flavoring. Also, it had a nice weighty body. A thin body would not seem right for a maple blend. The leaves are long and strong enough to carry some heavier chunks of pecans. I love to use high quality bases that work with the flavorings and not just simply cover them.

The base tea is a Nilgiri Frost Oolong grown at a high altitude that exposes the tea leaves to a light frost during some of the winter nights. This tea is grown in limited quantities because of the special conditions that must exist. It is a sweet tasting tea that has citrus, pecan, peach, and oak notes.

The leaves of Maple Pecan Oolong are long, thin, and wiry, ranging from chocolate to charcoal in color. Large chunks of pecans are present. The leaves produce an intoxicatingly sweet aroma. Without sugar, the tea is naturally lightly sweet with a light maple and pecan flavor. Citrus and oaky notes are also presenet. Reducing the tea to 1 teaspoon for 8oz of water will reduce some of the citrus and oaky notes. With some sugar the maple and pecan notes are intensified and the citrus and oaky notes are lighter but produce an almost crust like flavor. It tastes just like a pecan maple pie. The maple lasts long after the sip and I can taste it on my lips.

Mmmm, thanks for the sample, Stacy! I was eager to try another herbaly caffeine tea that wasn’t yerba mate, which I don’t like at all. I just finished drinking my cup and I’m not feeling much caffeine yet, but I love the taste, which honestly reminded me a lot of Tazo’s chamomile blend, Calm. Low key minty herbal flavor. I’d totally drink this again. But right now….I’m going back to bed before my next class, haha. A potential side effect of guayusa is lucid dreaming. Hm! Maybe I’ll have one.