Butiki Teas

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I just realized, as I drink the last of my stock, that I never logged this tea. Surprising, really, as it is one of my all-time favorites (along with the Cantaloupe & Cream).

Here in Israel, watermelon is a very popular fruit and it is so abundant in the summer that it’s almost a national food. For me, this tea, even just the aroma wafting up from my mug, always brings up memories of summer days at an the beach, hot sun on my face, warm Mediterranean water at my feet and a big bowl of cold watermelon. Heaven.

The flavoring is gentle, sweet watermelon on an exquisite white base. A perfect pairing. It’s sweet without any additives.

I am very well suited to the Middle Eastern weather. I love the blue skies and the heat. However, these last few days have been chilly, I pulled this tea out today to give me that sense of summer that I’m craving.

Sadly, I’m all out of it now, and I do believe I will break my tea-buying hiatus and order some more. I also only have one cup’s worth of the Cantaloupe&Cream and also of the beloved Tamarind Pop, and well, there are some teas I just can’t be without, hiatus or no hiatus :)

Going through my tasting notes, I noticed that I had wanted to try this as an iced tea by combining the first two steeps and popping it in the fridge. Being on an iced tea kick, I decided to give it a go. I steeped this twice at 180 for 4 minutes, combined them in my stainless steel water bottle and added a dab of honey before cooling.

This is an absolutely fabulous iced tea! The oolong base did not get bitter at all. In fact, it’s very flavorful while being light and refreshing. The sweetness from the honey helped the peach flavor pop just a little.

Dear iced, juicy peach oolong, I will have to make you more often!

Well, I’m kind of embarrassed that I’ve had this tea in my cupboard for so long without even trying it. Today I’ve been loving fruit flavors, whether actual or in tea, so this was a good choice.

It is a pretty tea once steeped – brown with lavender undertones. It’s possible I’m seeing purple because its in the name, but blueberry does tend to give anything its in a purple tinge.

This certainly smells like blueberry! It reminds me of blueberry pancakes, but I think that’s because both those and this tea are served hot and have blueberries in. The steeping parameters were right on, too – there’s no bitterness, though things haven’t cooled down enough for me to say whether that’s the case for the whole cup. Right now I get all aspects of a natural blueberry – sweet, tart, perfect.

I’ve never had a purple tea before so I can’t attest to its flavor in this. If you like blueberry then for sure give this a try, though – it doesn’t get more fabulous, and it doesn’t need any additives to make it that way!

I am LOVIN’ this oolong today! On my second steep right now, and YUM YUM YUM! I love how well this oolong comes out brewed western style, and because of my new variable temperature kettle, I was able to brew it at exactly the parameters Stacy recommends. At this point in my tea journey, I don’t feel like I can be bothered with gong fu style brewing, but I’m sure this tea wold be delicious brewed that way.

I got some caramel sweetness today, and it’s deliciously roasty, but still smooth. Like an oolong hug!

I definitely need more of this tea! On the shopping list it goes!!

Stacy was so kind to put this on sale last month, so I ordered a couple ounces. It is one of my most favorite teas. So smooth and delicious and flavorful, I love how the vanilla complements the natural guayusa flavor. And the lavender is so soothing and lovely that I really can’t hate it the way I usually do.

Thank you, Stacy! This tea is just perfect.

Apparently this was from my very first Butiki order! I had one tsp left and it got lost at the bottom of the abyss that is my tea drawer. I dug it out this morning and have been enjoying it today. I can’t wait to place my next Butiki order! I’m running out of my favorites :( This one would be wonderful iced all summer long…

Have had this tea for a while but never got around to tasting it. I think it came from a swap with Azzrian, but I can’t quite remember! But thanks for sending it along.

I often go along with odd steeping instructions from trusted retailers (like Butiki) but I cannot for the life of me bring myself to steep a green tea at boiling. So I didn’t. The resulting tea smells green and a bit nutty. The flavor is very smooth and pleasant. Sweet, a hint floral, buttery, and a bit of savory-umami notes. I am quite enjoying this one! The flavors are light and subdued, but present enough to make a tasty cup.

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I just got this in the mail today! I’m not normally a fan of fruity teas, but this one is nice. It literally brought a smile to my face as I was drinking it. It tastes like sunshine in a cup! I love the creaminess mixed with the citrus notes. I approve!

A nice little start to my day.
I’ve reviewed it before.
It’s tasty.

I was always like, what’s with all this assam talk? Pff, boring.

THIS TEA IS SO GOOD. Mmmmmmalty.

Yanno when this is iced, the mint comes through more strongly than when hot. I like it hot but the temperature requires iced tea lately.

Yay! I’m so excited. I feel so privileged to get to try this. Unless I’m just sleepy and was stupid with the search, this tea is neither on Steepster’s database, nor is it available to purchase yet.

Anyway, I got a sample of this with my Butiki order. Stacy asked if I was interested, and I immediately responded with a resounding YES even though I detest all kinds of soda, and I’ve never had honeybush ever. It just sounded so fascinating, I had to try it.

I held out the dry leaf to everybody and asked what they thought it smelled like without telling them what it was. They all said rootbeer! You know when something smells authentic when you can tell that story. :) Anyway, this smells and tastes so much like rootbeer that it’s mind blowing. Even though I’m drinking it hot, it feels so much like I have a glass of rootbeer, that I can almost swear there’s even fizz in this, haha.

Now, I don’t really taste “float” (AKA ice cream) but I’m drinking this without sugar, so it’s entirely possible that you’ll get more of an ice creamy flavor with sugar. This tastes so much like rootbeer, that it’s actually unbelievable. I honestly didn’t think this was possible.

For anyone who even mildly likes rootbeer, definitely pick some of this up when it’s available! :)

Hooray! My big box of Butiki arrived today! :) My sister asked me “How was your shift?” as I came into the door, already tearing into the box. My response was, “Who cares, look what I’ve got! :D” as I started pulling out the almost embarrassing amount of pouches of tea from the box and onto the counter.
(I did have a good shift though, mind you. But even if I didn’t, it’d be forgotten at this point anyway)

The only sad thing though is that by the time I had a quick shower, and a quick dinner, this’ll probably be the only tea I get to drink. It’s 7:50PM right now, and I have to get up at 4:30AM tomorrow for my early shift, so … yeah. Technically I probably shouldn’t be having any caffeinated ones at all, but … How can you tell yourself that when a huge beautiful box that contains 98% black tea that you have to wait until after 12:00PM tomorrow? You can’t.
(By the way Stacy, thanks for the little present! Such a nice surprise, and very pretty. :D)

Anyway, so here we are with the tea. This is one of the samples I requested with my order. At the scent of the dry leaves, I’m getting pretty excited. See I’m crazy picky with chai. In the sense that I have yet to find my ideal perfect chai. This smells pretty close to that. Mostly cinnamony+cardamomy, but still with a good kick.

I’m drinking it now with milk, and then added a bit of brown sugar. Afterall, what is a chai without milk and brown sugar? Anyway, this is very good! It’s mostly cinnamon which is fantastic, as I have a bit of a fixation on cinnamon… (it goes on oatmeal, red river cereal, pancakes, French toast, hot chocolate, cheerios, blueberry bagels, raisin toast, buttered toast, vanilla ice cream, apple crisp/crumble/pie … and I’m sure I’m forgetting something)

While it is mostly cinnamon, it’s more complex than say DavidsTea’s Pure Chai (which it should be, the whole point of that DT one was to be simple) I get a bit of cardamom taste and it has a pleasant burning spiciness, but in a the cranked up cinnamon way, rather than pepper and ginger that brings roast beef to mind.

I’m curious to see what this would taste like blended with Butiki’s Pumpkin Crème Brulee… I’ll be sure to pick up a bit of that along with this sometime in the future. That’s a combo worth exploring. :)

All in all, this is excellent! As of this note, so far this chai is the closest to my ideal, so I’m quite thrilled. Thanks for the chance to try this, Stacy! :)

I’ve been away for a while, due to finals and moving into a new apartment. I’ve finally unpacked everything I need for tea making, and decided to try out this tea as my first cup in the new place. While it was steeping, the smell really reminded me of this candy I used to have as a kid. It was fruit flavored gum in little spheres. There was grape, strawberry, melon, and many others. They came in little individual boxes held together by plastic wrap.

The taste reminds me of the same. I almost feel like I’m getting honeydew more than cantaloupe, though it’s still delicious! It’s sweet, probably from the cream and the tea itself.

After letting it cool down to a warm, not hot, temperature, I’m noticing that it seems more juicy, like I just bit down into a piece of melon. I’m not sure what else to say about this lovely tea that hasn’t already been said, but I really enjoy it!

Thanks Stacy for the delicious sample!
I’ve been shying away from rooibos, but Butiki lured me back ;)

Enjoying this one as a late night latte with milk and agave. It’s so darn creamy and smoooth. I’m still not feeling you rooibos – but with this flavour I can really enjoy this late night treat. aahhh

I got this as a sample from Shelley_Lorraine! Thanks for sharing! I just realized that this will be my first guyusa!

The first few sips bring the word FINAALLYYYYYYYYY to my mind! This is spicey! Like really spicy, not just spicy but really only has a hint of spice to it. This has kick and I like it, but it’s not so intense I can’t drink it. I can pick out some cinnamon and the burn lingers for a minute or so. I’m getting over (I hope) being sick right now and even tho I can’t taste all the flavors, this tea is perfect! I would love to find a chocolate tea with this level of heat!

Sadly tho, I’m learning the hard way that I shouldn’t drink guyusa until I have weaned the baby. The child hasn’t slept all day and won’t go to bed. It’s going to be a long night!

Enjoyed a cup of this with milk and sugar. Of course I deserve a treat!!

Whoops! Forgot to log this from a few days ago. I’m down to nearly the bottom of my bag (I think some’s promised in a swap, so this may have been a technical sip down for me, although I think there’s enough left for one more cup for me). I kept the infusion to 3 minutes, which I think was a good idea – tasted quite mapley and nutty, without astringency. Really quite enjoyable! I added a bit of syrup to the last of it, but should have added more to make it a bit sweeter.

Sipdown! 799.

Well, I’ve had this tea for a year, so I guess it’s high time to have finished it off! I didn’t much care for it initially, but it did grow on me gradually, though not enough to purchase again. It does taste like unsweetened mango, and the rooibos is certainly quite mild, but I think I was looking for a more in-your-face juicy, creamy tea than this ended up being. That said, it’s certainly worth a shot if you’re fan of mango, or if you don’t have a problem sweetening your teas! (Speaking of that, I totally should add some sweetener and milk to my cup before it’s all gone, to see if I can make it more mango lassi-esque by doing so.)

I shared this with my co-worker who loves flowers during our afternoon snack attack. Lovely as usual. I only have the one tea ball at work, so I took the second steep. I find the second steep a little more peppery and I like that about this tea.