Butiki Teas
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Thank you to Stacy of Butiki Teas for adding this sample with my latest order!
I have found that I just love guayasa. Granted, the only guayasas I have tried have been flavored ones from Butiki, so there’s that, but I haven’t been let down yet. This cup is nice enough, a smooth concoction. However, I can’t get over the smell and taste of banana that I am getting from this brew. I really dislike banana flavor. :-( I think my taster might be broken today, so I am refraining from rating this one. I know Butiki Teas are wonderful and despite the banana thing I drank it all, so it couldn’t have been that terrible!
Preparation
I had been searching for a good aged Oolong and I’m glad I found this excellent tea. Like a great roasted fruit compote, this tea has a great depth of peach and plum flavors. The roasting burnishes the sweetness with a nice bit of autmunal smoke, perfect for this crisp fall day. By the way, Stacy is a pleasure to do business with and added some great samples to my order, including a rarefied Keemun that wasn’t even on the web site yet. I’m giving the other teas I ordered from her a few tries before reviewing them, but they are all quality teas.
I’m starting the day with this tea, mainly to get some caffeine going in my system so that I can leave in an hour to go play a wedding over in Belleville, IL. Like yesterday’s wedding, it’s a pretty basic wedding: I’ll play 30 minutes of classical music, play the entrances for everyone, play a unity candle piece, & the recessional. I love playing at weddings & could probably play one in my sleep! Like yesterday, I’ll spend more time driving than playing, & for that reason, I need caffeine!
I’m starting to get my sense of taste back a little. I can taste sweet, & as of this morning I can taste salt! All the tea I’ve been reviewing has led me to really notice ‘mouthfeel’, & the mouthfeel of this tea is bright & a little on the acidic side. Of course, you might not want to take my word for it, as I’m still getting over being sick, and I’ll give it a more fair review in a few weeks when it comes back into rotation.
So the Bridal Teas today went well. I set up a small pot of Butiki English Breakfast, some hot water & a few herbal tea bags just in case, some iced Ginger Peach (Republic of Tea), grapes, macaroons, & German Rock Sugar. I also let everyone know I had milk & almond milk available.
One bride drank a cup of the English Breakfast (commenting on how delicious it was), the mother of another bride drank iced tea. Everyone else drank water, they were not tea drinkers. Nobody ate the cookies or grapes either. After my Brides left, I finished off the pot of tea, a few grapes, & one of the cookies. I let my sons have the rest. It is a bold brew, a contrast to the sweetness of the cookie & grapes.
This is one of the many tea samples sent by Bonnie! Thank you, Bonnie! This is my first Butiki tea ever.
First, the aroma of the tea seemed primarily raspberry but we were eating Pinwheels and Pepperidge Farm cookies at the time! As i lifted my cup, i could have sworn I smelled roses! More than once as I sipped I was just sure of it. The base is smooth, very good, not astringent. The raspberry flavor seemed more subdued than the scent, but that may have been the cookies. As the cup cooled a little, the chocolate flavor came out more.
This was delicious, and I will be serving it again in half an hour to my new Moroccan friend! She did say she wanted to try more teas!
Thank you so much, Bonnie! This was delicious!
It is really time to finish this sample. I have had it for far too long. I think it was sent to me by Will Work for Tea I think.
Last time I tried it, I recall it being a little astringent. I looked at previous notes, and Kittena had mentioned a 2 minute steep….now this is better. Slight almond notes with a nice black base that isn’t too “in your face with a light baked goods taste.” I also get a slight citrus note in the aftertaste. I will certainly stick with the 2 minute infusion from now on.
Preparation
Thank you to Will Work For Tea for this sample!
First, I taste the black base which is a smooth black with good almond flavour. Then the cinnamon at the end of the sip. It is a little bit astrigent but not overwhelmingly.
I brewed this according to Butiki’s website at boiling for 4 minutes. Now that I am writing this note, I noticed the steepster description says to steep for 2 minutes. Maybe that is why it is a bit astringent. And by my previous Butiki experience with tea, they are not usually astingent. So……next time I will only brew for 2 minutes.
I would rate it at maybe 84 right now but I will not rate it for now because I will try again later on and review.
Will Work For Tea-4 minutes is correct. 2 minutes is for our old blend. If you are finding it to be too astringent, I would recommend either using less tea (maybe a teaspoon) or steeping for a little less, maybe a minute less.
I will try that! Thanks Stacy
doh!, I meant tigress_al. Sorry about that.
hmmm.. I do four and didn’t notice anything wrong. In fact it’s in my favourite comfort tea category :D
Yum yum yum, still not sure about how I feel about guayusa itself, but the flavor of this is fantastic!
I completely missed class today. In fact I am confused as to how it’s noon. I have been awake for at least 90 minutes and I’m wondering what I’ve been doing? The dishwasher is running though so I did that much. And made this tea.
I’ve got another guayusa too so I really wish I could get into the flavor of guayusa. I want to say I have had one before, I know I’ve had it blended with mate, but now I’m not sure. I have the apricot one from Butiki but I haven’t tried it yet. There’s just something so grassy/earthy about it that is just slightly off-putting for my tastebuds I guess.
But, the apple cider flavors going on here make it a heck of a lot more difficult to notice. I can’t tell if it’s the apple or the spices but something is blending in amazingly well with the taste of guayusa, and I have to actually sit here and try to pinpoint the guayusa taste on its own.
Hopefully this provides a good push for the day. The hurricane or whatever he is now has made everything feel so groggy with cloud cover for 3 days now. It was sunny yesterday for a bit, but it’s just so hard to do anything when it just looks/feels like it’ll rain (of course then it never does).
Also I have a question. I applied to a job almost a week ago and I haven’t heard back, would it be appropriate to stop in there (a store obviously, hey office crashing) and “check in” or something? Come with a non-typo resume in hand? Would it be ridiculous to just redo the resume? I am sad.
That’s sad! I’d just stop in or give them a call and say “Hey, I applied, I’m just following up with the application” or something. I hope it works out well for you :)
Don’t be sad. A week is a good amount of time to wait before checking in with them about your application status. Definitely go in with your fixed resume and ask! Try even a cover letter and some references.
I applied to a bajillion jobs and never heard back from almost all of them. It took me almost a year just to land a temp assignment, which indirectly led to my recent permanent position. It’s really tough out there, but don’t give up! See if you can make friends with the people at the store. It’s sad, but that helps immensely. Possibly more than a flawless resume.
Good luck! Stay hopeful! Enjoy the time you have now for tea. You’ll have less when you’re employed. :)
Thank you!
nothing wrong with following up with them
My textbook for business writing has way better info on resumes than I had before so of course I didn’t have it at the time. Now I do, so I will also do a cover letter with this one.
Worst thing that happens, they’re like no, and I’ll still get a mall pretzel out of the trip.
Mall pretzels are the best :)
Yeah, try again. Who knows, maybe they are just a bit scattered.
And maybe it’s not you! I mean, I applied to a jewelry store this summer. The manager called me back, and when we couldn’t arrange something that week she said, “I’ll call you next week.” I called her again the middle of the next week to see if she was still interested. She said yes, but I’m busy, let me call you back. In the meantime, I found another dang job of course…a month later I heard from one of the employees there that I’ve worked with before that the manager was asking about me and wanting to call me. Nice try!
I’m sure the timing (10:30 Friday night submission) didn’t help. I’ll just at least take this cover letter in, because I’m very proud of it and hopefully that will do the trick.
Good luck Amanda!
Daniel, looks like you avoided disaster by missing that job. That manager sounds terrible to work for.
Good luck Amanda!
I don’t doubt it! She never did actually get back to me again, and I heard head office was unhappy with her because she had to fire three new hires almost right after the store opened (it was a new location, hence there being space open). But I also found out from the aforementioned friend that female employees are absolutely required to wear make-up, get their nails done every week and wear high-heeled shoes (even on 8 hour shifts). I understand that a high-end store has visual standards to maintain for their employees, but as a feminist, I object to the conformation to oppressive beauty standards reflected in those requirements. So even if I’d be offered the job in the end, I would have left it.
Thank you again so much, everyone. I was lucky and one of the managers was there, and so I talked to her for a bit so hopefully I will hear back soon.
@Daniel – that’s horrid. There’s a restaurant that opened by one of my favorite burger places where the entire hiring process was simply, look good in a skimpy outfit, you’re hired so here’s tan and gym memberships. My friends have gone, one FOUR days in a row, had the same server two days in a row, and she couldn’t remember him. They didn’t hire based on anything but looks and it will probably cost them their jobs in the end when it shuts down. And you’d never see a restaurant employing only men with this same scheme. They also do this stupid thing where if you get a smaller sized beer it’s a “girl size” and then they’re supposed to taunt the guy. Nothing like emasculation AND sexism all in one go!
Ugh! Heels! My nemesis! Glad you avoided that place.
Amanda, that restaurant sound terrible. Usually one that gimmicky has horrible and over priced food too. No reason to ever patronize it if you ask me.
Finished off this one too today! After 3 cups of matcha (!), I think I needed a good honeybush to start winding down…
The creamy vanilla in this blend is hitting the sweet spot that usually starts creeping up at this time of the evening. A little rock sugar helped even more. A little sad that I’m out, but I know where to get more. :)
Preparation
Gosh, I love this tea! Yums! Perfectly cocoa and caramel notes for my mood! Merry KwanzaaChristmasDiwaliHanukkahSolsticeFestivusNewYearsAndAnyOtherHolidayIMayHaveForgotten Everyone! Yay! :)
Merry Variousholidays to you too! :)
Thanks Stephanie! :)
w00t merry everything!
I’ll have to try this tea. I love Assam, but your’s sounds like a particularly good one! :)
Mike-I’m so sorry but we are no longer selling this.
Oh, no problem! I’ll check out the teas you do have available! :) Thanks for letting me know!
Mike-We are closing up shop this week but will have a big sale soon. If you end up buying something, let me know and I will give a sample of the Premium Taiwanese Assam that I set aside for myself.
^I meant a sample from the PTA that I set aside for myself. I did set aside quite a bit.
Wow, that’s so nice of you! I’ll definitely take a look now! I’m sorry that you’re closing shop, it sounds like you make some great teas! Thanks so much!
Mike-No problem. We will be doing a sale in a few days, roughly 35%-40% off. If you do buy, just send me an email to add some PTA for you or mention it in the “instructions to seller section” and I’ll be sure to add that for you. I’m happy to be closing even though I’m a little sad. :)
Awesome, thanks again! I don’t want to cut too much into your stash though! :P The Caramel Vanilla Assam and the Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black both look amazing, I’ll most likely order them if they’re available!
Mike-No problem, don’t worry I saved quite a bit for myself. Unfortunately, those teas were some of the first to go. We have already lost over 2/3 of our teas.
That Glenburn Estate Green looks great…looks like you still have some of that, right? :)
Ahhhhh, finally getting to enjoy PTA again. I missed it so much! Sometimes it is really nice to have a long break from one of your favorite teas just so that you appreciate it again when it’s back. Malty, caramely, chocolaty awesomeness!
I’ve been doing a lot of experimenting with tea cocktails lately. So far, the reviews from friends have been very good. I’ve also been testing out cocktails against each other to see which ones are favored. The Hello Sweetie teatini is just a huge success. For anyone that is interested in the recipe, here’s a link: http://butikiteas.blogspot.com/2014/08/butiki-after-hours-hello-sweetie-teatini.html.
Last weekend I tested out the Red Queen martini and Lemon French Macaron martini. The Red Queen martini had an espresso vodka and plain vodka and had a mostly espresso flavor with strawberry at the end. This was a huge success with espresso and coffee fans. The Lemon French Martini had Frangelico and plain vodka. The combo of the lemon and fragelico (hazelnut liquor) was similar to a chocolate cake shot but more just like birthday cake. Everyone seemed to love that even people who were not fans of citrus. This one was pretty complex.
Oh yeah! I haven’t made that Hello Sweetie tea-tini yet!
Thanks for posting the recipe!
Stephanie-You so need to try it. If anyone does try it and doesn’t have brown crystal sugar, sugar in the raw can be substituted but you would want to use less sugar.
mj-You’re welcome! We will also be posting the other 2 recipes at some point as well. :)
Oooh what about Red Queen with Bailey’s or Kahlua? I know what I’m brewing tomorrow…
Those sound delicious! If you try them, let us know how it goes. :)
Having a nice cup of my favorite tea today on my anniversary. Today the hubby and I have been together for 20 years and this Sunday will be the 12 year anniversary of our wedding. Woo hoo! This week is really packed, we have a good friend’s birthday, our anniversary, father’s day, and a wedding. This week will certainly be busy but for now I’m relaxing and enjoying this delicious cup of chocolaty, caramely deliciousness. In other news, I noticed that the CDC came out with a list of Powerhouse (nutrient dense) Fruits and Vegetables. That’s pretty awesome, but ugh watercress, really. Guess I will have to look into some recipes that kind of hide the watercress. Here is a link for anyone interested: http://www.cdc.gov/pcd/issues/2014/pdf/13_0390.pdf.
Happy Anniversary!
Happy Anniversary!!!May the happiness that you share grows deeper with each year
Happy Anniversary!
Have a wonderful anniversary and many more years of happiness. :)
Happy Anniversary!
Aww, Happy Anniversary <3
Awww, thanks guys! :) The hubs and I are going out to our favorite vegan restaurant (Vedge) in Philly to celebrate.
That CDC link was interesting too. I wonder which chinese cabbage they used in the study exactly. Aren’t there a billion of them?
I have heard wonderful things about Vedge. Enjoy!!!
Stephanie-I was wondering about that. Some of the categories are rather vague. Maybe Bok Choy? Another thing that left me with questions was using B12 as a basis for determining nutrient density. I thought B12 couldn’t be obtained from veggies or fruits due to the depletion of B12 in our soil. Maybe I’m wrong but this is big issue with vegans since we need to supplement B12.
Thanks Cheri, we love Vedge. Some people don’t love the small plate sizes but for me that just means we get to order more dishes.
Happy anniversary. In Denmark you’d wait another 6 months and celebrate your copper wedding at 12½ years, possibly with a larger do for friends and family. Half way to silver wedding, you see. :) (Husband thought this was bizarre)
Happy anniversary!
Angrboda, that is a great idea! I love it. (Ours is coming up, and that would be a blast of a way to celebrate it.)
Angrboda-Love that! :)
Thanks, TeaBrat!
Happy Anniversary!!
Aww, so glad I saw this post, Happy Anniversary!!!
And thanks for that awesome link! The addition of banana and pear help to reduce that watercress taste in green smoothies, it works for me at least, just thought I’d share :-)
Thanks, Tea Pet!
TheTeaFairy-Thank you! Hmmmm, that sounds like a wonderful way to mask the watercress. I will have to give that a try.
Had to get up at 6:30 today, which is brutally early for me. That is why I made this tea “Tea Fairy” gaiwan style, meaning using a ton of leaf with 10 second brews. I think I’m starting to feel alive and I love this tea tastes very different and much fruitier than the way I normally make it which is more chocolatey. It tastes almost like a different tea. It is very strong this way but I sometimes enjoy a bit of astringency.
Tonight, me and my friends are having a surprise birthday party for my best friend. We are doing a potluck, decorations, and a painting/creative session. Normally, she hates birthday stuff but for some reason this year she wanted to do something special but both days (one with her boyfriend and one with her friends) she had stuff planned, it turned out to be a disaster so we are organizing tonight to make up for that. We are trying to do a lot of special little things for her today. A couple days ago, me and my really good friend decided to make special guayusas for her. She loves guyausa and strawberry and chocolate so both of us came up with special blends for her based on that. My friend made a Salted Chili Chocolate Strawberry Truffle and I did Espresso Cupcake with Strawberry Cream. We even put some really cute pics of us with her on the labels. Here are the pics if anyone is interested: http://i1094.photobucket.com/albums/i446/butikiteas/tea_zps574ae381.jpg. I’m crossing my fingers that tonight doesn’t turn out like her other 2 disaster days.
The Espresso Cupcake blend sounds amazing! I hope she likes it and enjoys the party. :-)
It sounds like she has some pretty incredible friends :)
Aww, perfect. See, this is why Birthday Week is a good thing; you get a few chances to make it right!
sounds complicated but worth it!
sundaysipping-Thanks! I would make it part of our collection if we didn’t have so many teas with strawberry in them. Maybe if we change the fruit. It’s very tasty.
adagio breeze-Thanks :)
Anna-Indeed! I celebrate birthday week myself. I’m really low maintenance but when birthday week comes around everything is me me me. I get all of my high maintenance and selfish wants in one week.
donkeytiara-it was a lot of work but my friend is the type that really truly appreciates effort and she deserves it! She is a great friend.
Wow how special :D
Aww, thanks for sharing this with us, and what an amazing personalized present! Your friend must be really special :-)
(Lol, I see you are now an adept of my brewing method, an eye opener on those early mornings, that’s for sure, and sooo goood!!!)
This week has been pretty busy for us. We just got back from vacation mid week which was really a work vacation and will start prepping for another office closure as we will probably be taking off for another 2 weeks in about two weeks but this time for a real vacation. Also, we received in a ton of tea, including many new teas. We are also changing up a few teas. Here is a sneak peek of just a few of the many changes:
Adding: Hattialli Golden Paw (very similar to our Hattialli Golden Lion)
Changing: Irish Cream Cheesecake. Based on the reviews, we are thinking the base is just wrong for the flavoring. We used our everyday Sourenee, which is very good but also very fickle. It can be pretty challenging to get that tea to its sweet spot and it can turn astringent if the water cools too much.
Changing: Sourenee. We are exchanging the current everyday Sourenee for a very high quality limited edition Sourenee.
Adding: Hello Sweetie. It’s coming soon but first we will be doing a promotion with it.
Changing: Da Yu Ling. We moved too slowly on the Da Yu Ling for the winter harvest but the Fu Shou Shan is a fantastic replacement!
Adding: A baked Ali Shan.
Mi Xian: Just a little warning. We are low on Mi Xian right now and will not be able to get more when we run out as it is scarce at the moment.
These are just a few additions and changes. There are many more to come and many more flavors in the works, including the Custom Blend Contest tea which is getting close to finishing the recipe. We will also be removing a few flavors and teas that just aren’t up to the standards of the rest of the teas. I would love to hear any suggestions from anyone who believes there is a tea that should be removed from our collection.
On to the tea! This harvest has a slightly deeper dark chocolate note. There really isn’t much difference from this harvest and the last harvest but the chocolate is stronger and the malt is slightly stronger. There are less stems, which is fantastic! The upgrade version on the other hand has some cherry notes that were not detectable in the previous version.
YES Hello Sweetie! And Hattialli Golden Paw. :)
Courtney-Glad to hear you are excited about those 2! :)
Very excited to be able to try Hello Sweetie!
Also the others haha, but especially those two.
Excited about Hello Sweetie too, but also a little sad that the Irish cream cheesecake is changing. It was one of my favorites from my last order! Hope you have a great vacation in a couple of weeks :)
Hello Sweetie!!!
I have a lot of Butiki teas from the BF sale, and from what I grabbed off other people, but I WILL be buying 2oz+ of that one… And to make the shipping worth it, I guess I’ll have to get some more Caramel Vanilla Assam etc.
Will you give us all warning on the blends which are being removed? Just in case some of them are near and dear to our hearts?
Oh my! Hello Sweetie and a baked Ali Shan. Be still my heart. :D
Wow, lots of changes, everything sounds really good!
As for the teas that should be removed, the one that comes to mind is apricot Guayusa, never did anything for me, but doesn’t mean it no good, just my own personal taste.
I had stock up on Taiwanese Assam, but now I’m running low…hmmm, for the upgrade, did you really mention cherry notes??? OMG!!! I might be in trouble…
P.S. I won’t wish you a good vacation in february cause I just know it will be awesome :-)
Hello sweetie!!! Been dying to try that and the hattialli golden paw and Ali Shan!!! I have soooooooooookko much tea from you from BF though!!! So much!!!
i need more caramel vanilla….. and i think i have to have a hoard stash of black lotus. i drink it and it makes me poetical— i think that’s a sign, don’t you? and btw, the fact that steepster’s auto correct is not freaking over the word ‘poetical’ is HYSTERICAL! it must be a fan of firefly…..
Roswell Strange-Excellent! Glad to hear that you guys are looking forward to that one. It turned out so good!
Stephanie-Well, I hope you like the new version! I’m glad you enjoyed the old version. Thanks for the vacation wishes! :)
Cavocorax-The Hello Sweetie won’t be coming out completely until March, so you have some time. :) We will be giving some warnings when we decide which blends are getting chopped. I’m not quite sure which ones will go. All of the popular, highly rated teas will definitely be staying.
Moraiwe-Glad to hear you are interested in those two :)
TheTeaFairy-And those are just some of the changes. I can think of at least 10 new additions that I didn’t mention, including maybe one of Stephanie’s tea entries. I think you might be right about the Apricot Guayusa. It really has only stayed around as long as it has because a friend of mine requests it. I always make her a pot of it with a cinnamon stick and rock sugar. Oh yeah, I am definitely tasting cherry notes. Well, my February vacation is changing a bit but not sure how yet. Unfortunately, I tore a tendon in my foot pretty badly from ignoring my plantar fascistis and continuing to stay on my feet despite doctor warnings. Not sure how the vacation will change but will definitely be traveling less. Thanks for the vacation wishes, I will definitely have a good time!
BrewTEAlly Sweet-Glad to hear you are interested in the Hello Sweetie! A big thanks to James on that one, for letting the tea go wherever it goes.
JustJames-Hahaha, poetical. Love that word. Glad you are a fan of The Black Lotus. I love that one so much! :)
Oh nooo! That’s pretty tragic about your foot, so sorry about that…Hmmm, I understand why it might change your plans a little, that would suck though. I’m sure you will figure figure out something no matter what :-)
It will be hard to resist ordering soon…( keep it quiet, but I’m suppose to be on a tea hiatus)
TheTeaFairy-Of course it had to happen now. Doh! I can’t complain though, I have certainly had my fill of fun vacations. I know this will be fun too, even if scaled back. No worries, your secret is safe with me…and the rest of the internet. :D
Tea fairy… The two assams are totally different teas imo. I prefer the non upgraded version, but the upgraded one is tasty, but just a different tea. If youth in k of it as an upgrade to PTA, it falls short….treat it like a new tea:)
Sil-This upgrade harvest is a little bit different though. :)
SO excited for Hello Sweetie! :D When I read the description for it, I positively whimpered that it was a custom blend, haha. Especially since PTA is the base!
So glad that PTA and Upgrade are back in stock. :D I haven’t tried out all the teas I got from my last order from you, but I’m already loading up a cart for another. I miss my two PTAs!
… Just promise me that Foxy Roxy Banana Walnut Treat isn’t going. D: If it were to be discontinued, I think I’d go crazy and buy ALL of it and make it last as long as possible. xD
Will Mi Xian be gone forever? Or just until the next harvest?
For obvious reasons, I also hope you’re not removing Foxy Roxy :-)
No worries guys, Foxy Roxy is here to stay!
Chizakura-Glad to hear that Hello Sweetie sounds interesting to you. PTA is my morning tea, I’m glad its back too! I was rationing my tea out for that one.
It’s one of my favorites. At the moment its scarce but hopefully not for too long.
I meant to say that Mi Xian is one of my favorites and is scarce, not the PTA. Just wanted to clarify in case that is confusing.
Aw, I seem to have a curse where my favorite Butikis relatively few others dig and they get changed or discontinued! I’m not complaining really, I totally understand, but it’s funny being the odd duck out. I mean this as a compliment, not a complaint, but I love the Irish Cream Cheesecake! I’ve been drinking it as a breakfast tea and loving it that way, where it’s brisk like a breakfast blend but with that treaty reward for getting out of bed, ha. Looking forward to seeing what’s new and excited about Hello Sweetie!
oooo… I hope Pistachio Ice Cream isn’t going anywhere. I love that tea.
lolainred-Pistachio Ice Cream is safe! That was one of the first teas we made!
Just taking a minute to relax before I plunge back into the craziness of Black Friday. This morning I had to go to get blood work done for my annual physical. I’m so glad I finally got that done because I dread it for months before I go. One time I went to have blood drawn and it was such a horrific experience which left me covered in bruises and a little mentally scarred. Because of that I now can pass out while having blood drawn, so I have to wait for a special recliner and an experienced lab person. Luckily, I did not pass out this time. Yay! No cold sweat either. Only had my heart rate elevated just a little and a bit of fast nervous talking. Go me.
This Black Friday sale is insane! At this level we may surpass last year’s sales in a few hours, and we still have more than 3 days left. We have already run out of Vanilla Carrot Cake and there are a few other teas that are in danger of running out. I love the insanity of these 4 days and at the same time, I’m a little terrified that we will have all sorts of issues of running out of teas and whatnot.
I love this tea! If I could drink only one tea for the rest of my life, this would be it. The caramel and cocoa notes are just perfect right now and since I brewed it a little extra strong, the maltiness is coming out nicely. Yum. Perfect tea for my mood right now. Next I think I’m going for the White Rhino. That is just a real caramel-y tea.
Ooof, I hate having blood drawn too. Apparently I have tiny veins and they always have to use the baby “butterfly” needle on me! I get way light headed but luckily I’ve never actually passed out! I bet you are glad to have that overwith and congrats on the excellent Black Friday business!!
Oh no, that doesn’t sound like fun. So glad to have it over with. It was really quick too since I was the only one there. I guess everyone was busy shopping. Thanks! :)
I’m quite similar to you about getting blood taken, I get so fuzzy headed and nervous, close to passion passing out but not quite. Happy it went better for you today! :)
I really wanted to get some of the Vanilla Carrot Cake…sorry I missed it!
MissLena-Thanks. :) Fuzzy head and nervous is no fun. I don’t know if you’ve tried it but I find lying down when getting blood drawn really helps.
Terri-Oh no sorry. :(
Mmmmmm. This tea is my favorite. I know I’m not supposed to have favorites but this one is it. It is my go to tea. Whenever things are all wrong, this tea just makes me feel good. So chocolatey and caramely and smooth.
Today is a short day for me. At 4pm, I leave for Philadelphia. The hubby and I will be catching a Flyers (hockey) game and getting some good grub. But first I’m going to test out how the Irish Cream Cheesecake came out on both our Premium Taiwanese Assam and our Sourenee tea. This week is a packed week. I’m hoping to get up our custom blend kits, Vanilla Frosted Carrot Cake tea, Doke Silver Needle, Sourenee, and Doke Rolling Thunder Oolong on our website. The Rhubarb Vanilla Beer Tea will be up shortly but probably next week. I was hoping our Chocolate Hazelnut Honeybush would be up soon, but I’ve seem to run into some issues with that blend. So, I have to say that I am excited about our upcoming “I love Leafhoppers” sampler. I had an idea for a graphic and worked with my friend to come up with a really cute cartoon-ish pic and we had some magnets made for the sampler set and also to be sold individually. I really like the idea of doing some more graphic fun tea stuff.
Sweet! Have a great trip :) I can’t wait to see the leafhoppers graphic. I’ll be sending you my tea mandala as my art contest entry very soon :D
Stephanie-Thanks! I know we will have some fun!
Thank you! I think the magnets are super cute but it may be too tea dorky. We will see. I might post a preview soon. I can’t wait to see how the magnets came out. We did nice 20mil magnets with rounded corners and gloss coating.
I can’t wait to see how your mandala turned out! I’m sure it will be fantastic! :)
^I meant that the design is super cute (we haven’t received the magnets yet).
Those teas all sound so exciting, including that leafhoppers sampler! I’m jealous you’re headed to Philly—the food and drinks there are amazing.
ifjuly-Thanks! Very excited about Philly. The hubby and I only live 45 min from center Philly and it is very vegan friendly which is a huge plus for us. We will either be headed to the Memphis Taproom which has vegan and omni options and was featured on Diners, drive-ins, and dives show. They do an amazing smoked coconut club sandwhich or to Blackbird Pizza which is a vegan pizza place. They have an amazing mushrooms with truffle oil pizza. Yums, I can’t decide which place to go.
Oh, have fun! I’m intrigued by the Irish cream cheesecake, although have to admit I’m not exactly sure what Irish cream even tastes like. And I would love graphic tea things to show off my tea affair :).
Thanks keychange! Ever have Baileys or any other whiskey/cream liquor? It is a pretty obscure graphic. My friend did a leafhopper drawing for me. He is super cute. He has a cute cartoonish look but also a slightly punky attitude.
Haha, I read that as your friend is super cute, with a cute cartoonish look and a slightly punky attitude. Crying.
Anna-Hahahaha. :D …but actually that could describe her a bit.
hahaha I read it that way as well! and oh yes Stacy, Baileys and I go way back. Can’t wait to try the tea!
Ooooh that all sounds so good, especially that smoked coconut club! And “a cute cartoonish look but also a slightly punky attitude” sounds awesome and made me laugh out loud.
Your Leafhopper sampler sounds like its right up my alley!
Love it! Have fun!
ifjuly-I ended up having the smoked coconut club! It was sooooo good.
Donna-Good to hear that!
Heather-Thanks, we had a great time.
FYI, I tasted the Irish Cream Cheesecake with our Premium Taiwanese Assam base and also with our new Sourenee and oh man was it good. The Sourenee was the clear winner. Without sugar, the flavor was perfect and dead on but I’m not loving how it tasted with sugar so I think I may need to tinker with the flavoring combinations a little more.
Because of my plantar fasciitis, I can’t stand for more than a few minutes without searing pain so I haven’t really gone out much these last 2 weeks. Yesterday I ended up missing going out on a tour of local farms with my friend and her adorable son. This lead me to binge buy a bunch of stuff on Amazon to help with the pain and recovery.
This morning I was determined to get out at least a little bit and enjoy the sun. So, I decided to make my way to the local organic farmers market. It was just so beautiful out and I love those markets because everyone is so friendly and the veggies are amazing. I think I ended up with 7 different kinds of greens, so I will be making a ton of salads. Right now I’m enjoying a delicious baby kale, baby mustard greens, butter lettuce, and shaved apple salad with a little fancy olive oil, lemon, salt, and pepper. It is fantastic! While I was at the market I decided to make my way to the juice bar since I was too lazy to make my own juice this morning. The guy that made my juice was the same guy that used to take my orders at a local deli where I would buy lunch while I worked at an investment banking firm. That’s so weird that he remembered me from 15 years ago despite that I look drastically different now. The second he said he remembered me I knew who he was, which is really weird for me since I have horrible facial recognition. He now owns his own juice bar and we discussed possibly working together. I love running into people from my past. It definitely has me a little nostalgic.
I made this tea absolutely perfectly today. I practically never measure out my tea (except when doing an official tasting), so when I make a tea absolutely perfectly and its one of my favorite teas there is just a moment of ahhhhhh. I had that moment of ‘ah’ and this tea is just absolutely perfect for my mood right now. So caramel-y and chocolaty with some light maltiness. Its just absolutely perfect and I am feeling really great right now.
This is the same tea I started the morning with today. It’s always such a pleasure to drink!
Sorry to hear about the Plantar fasciitis. I know how aweful that is. I suffered with that for about 20 years. I’m grateful that my feet started healing about 9 months ago. After years of having to wear special inserts, etc, I’m going barefoot, can take a walk around the neighborhood, etc. Hang in there!
Terri-I agree. This is my favorite tea. I always come back to it.
Wow, 20 years. Yipes. I’m glad you are finally healing.
I love this tea! It has officially replaced Royal Golden Safari as my morning black tea. Every morning I either have a guayusa or a strong black tea since I am not a morning person at all. I must admit when I normally make this tea, I load in the leaves and let it sit forever. I love my black teas crazy strong. Today I’m sticking to the parameters that we set on our website. I’m not quite used to drinking this tea this way.
As the name suggest, this is an Assam that comes from Taiwan. In the 1920’s, under Japanese rule, Assamica tea bushes were brought to the Sun Moon Lake area of Taiwan. At the time, the Japanese wanted to compete with the British in the black tea market. Since then this Assam has been refined by the Taiwan Research and Extension Station.
The long chocolatey colored leaves smell so amazing. I’m picking up notes of cherries, peaches, and dry earth. The body is rich and velvety and has a lovely malty-ness. I’m getting notes of cherries and apricots almost immediately then some cacao notes. When it settles I’m picking up raisins, clove, and cinnamon. There is some pleasant and balanced astringency to this tea. I would recommend this tea to any fans of black tea and especially to any fans of Assams that have not tried a Taiwanese Assam. This tea will definitely be a staple for a long time, very delicious, very interesting.
Preparation
This just went on my shopping list for next time!
mmmmm…i second that!
Will Work For Tea-I snuck a sample into your order, since you were interested in the Organic Assam. We are phasing that Organic Assam out since we have this Assam and I found another Indian Assam from a really cool estate that I like more. The Organic Assam will probably end up on sale for $1.00 an ounce though. We have a lot of great plain teas coming out pretty soon.
Sil-Its definitely worth trying. Very yummy!
Oooo – you are sneaky! :) Thank you!
You’re welcome! :)
Mmm..this sounds so good and thanks for including the history! I will get around to trying my sample sometime soon I hope!
tigress_al-Let me know whatcha think of it when you try it. :)
Yes! Did you all read it?! Here it comes again : “I load in the leaves and let it sit forever. I love my black teas crazy strong.” This from Stacy, a person we all totally admire and look up to!
No more will I be ashamed of steeping my black teas till they cry for mercy! :)
TeaRunner-Hahaha. Definitely, don’t look up to me. I murder my teas sometimes.
Thanks for the sample Sil! you are so generous to share with me :)
Now let me begin by saying that I am not a cantaloupe flavoured fan. I don’t mind the fruit but it’s certainly not my fave… and scented teas usually remind me of creams. Specifically those you can find at Bath and Bodyworks! I don’t do too well with those scented creams so I was a little apprehensive after sniffing this tea. Thankfully, it did not taste like hand cream. The tea was very smooth and crisp, I quite enjoyed it… for a cantaloupe tea that is. Not something I’d buy for myself, but I’m so glad I got to try it out!
Oh and for some reason this reminds me of Cucumber Fusion tea (52teas). Am I the only one getting that?
Rating: undecided
