Butiki Teas

Thanks Stephanie for including this in the swap.

Aw dammit this is too good. There goes my tea budget.

Polished off the last of my sample from T.C. today. Thanks!

I enjoyed the first steep hot. There’s a really nice sweetness from the watermelon. I also detected some honeydew flavors which was an unexpected but welcome surprise. All in all a truly fantastic tea.

I combined the second and third steeps with a bit of honey and stuck it in the fridge to enjoy as iced tea later. After about an hour, I got impatient and starting drinking it. It was so good! The watermelon flavor was even more prominent than before. I added a few ice cubes from the office fridge to speed up the cooling process, but that ended up being a terrible idea.

Luckily for me, there is a box from Butiki sitting in my mailbox waiting for me! I can’t wait to try more of their teas.

Assam has always been my favorite black tea and this one is astoundingly good. I was quite surprised at the natural sweetness of this tea, almost like maraschino cherries and a bit of sweet almond. Multiple infusions in my trusty gaiwan revealed sweet malty Assam goodness with little to no bitter notes or astringency, even at 3+ minute brew times with freshly boiled water. Remarkable! This tea is so very solid and consistent, it embodies everything I love about strong bodied black teas without any of the negatives and its fairly priced for the high level of quality. A luxurious daily drinker for sure!

This is very very good black tea, I have encountered maybe one or two other black that I could “rate” higher. Easy 95 here, will be buying more of this!

A cold and rainy day + frustrated with the report I’m working on = Time to put it aside and sipdown some tea! (because I’ll be more productive after a break, right?)

This is rich and custardy, yet light and refreshing. Basically the delicious enigma that is Butiki. This was a good buddy to me, but since the summer is (supposedly) coming I’ll wait a few months to order this again. It’s totally drinkable year round; it’s just that there are a bunch of summer teas that I want to try in the meantime! Goodbye for now pal; I’ll see you again before you know it!

This smells so good that I practically put my whole face into it (my pail-sized work mug allows for this). Then I got too excited and burned my tongue. Aw man. I hope this is worth it.

And it soo is! It’s got that perfect balance between the base tea and flavoring that Butiki is so good at, and it’s surprisingly light-feeling for an eggnog-flavored tea. But you still get that eggy creaminess at the end of the sip. The spice level is very mild, so to me it tastes more like vanilla custard with just a pinch of spice on top. Which totally works because it means I can drink this year-round (and I will). Yummm.

I somehow lost track of this sample and re-found it again this morning and decided to finally taste it. It has a very nice peach flavor balanced by the fruity oolong. I think I would really enjoy this one even more iced!

Sipdown! Thanks for sending me a sample of this tea to satisfy my curiousity, Boxermama!

I wasn’t sure how I should go about brewing this (I always entertain notions of properly gong-fu brewing pu’erhs and other fancy teas)… but rationality won out, and I went with Western-style gong-fu, which is more what I usually do (if not strict Western-style). Hence, a full tbsp of leaf in about 8oz. water (instead of 4 oz.), and a 20 second infusion. And no, I didn’t rinse.

First impression? Wow – this sure coloured/flavoured up nicely with such a short infusion! And the taste? Light, a bit spicy and earthy. And now for a momentous occasion… while sipping, I thought to myself “gee, this sure tastes like a sheng. I wonder what type of pu’erh it is?” And sure enough… it’s a sheng! Woaaaah I can differentiate the two major types of pu’erh! What an accomplishment. (Yes, there’s a bit of self-directed sarcasm there.)

Anyhow, as per usual, I really have no other taste descriptors for the flavour. It’s enjoyable, and it reminds me of other shengs, obviously, otherwise I wouldn’t have guessed correctly (or likely thought to guess, for that matter). Providing descriptions for things has always been a weak spot for me; while I do think I am capable of tasting nuances in fancy, expensive, delicious teas, I am incapable of describing them. [I’m the sort of person who picks up on off-flavours in various items quite readily.] It’s kind of annoying, but certainly nowhere close to the top of my current list of annoyances, so perhaps sometime in the distant future when my life no longer belongs to my thesis, SAS, my advisor, the university… I will attempt to remedy this. Until then, you get “tastes like sheng” and “tastes like yabao”. Le sigh.

On that note – my memory for flavours is also rather crappy sometimes, and I can’t remember the last time I had a sheng… and so really couldn’t tell you how this ranks up against others. I do enjoy it though!

ETA: Second infusion 30s, stronger sheng flavour, still with a bit of sweetness. I suppose smoky or leathery might be some good descriptors here.

This one smells just like the name suggests. I found the flavor to be less pronounced than it smells. The flavor was more at the end, and as an after taste. I found this a little strange, and I’m not sure I liked it. As the tea cooled, the flavor did come more forward, but I’m not sure about this one, will have to try it again.

I tried this again tonight. Was really careful with measuring both tea and water. I still found it to be very weak, and lacking in flavor, UNTIL I added more sugar. I really needed to add a lot of sugar to get the flavors to come out, and by that time I found it to be too sweet. Still not a fan but have upped my rating some. It’s too bad, I really wanted to like this tea.

Almond Indulgence? I didn’t get much almond flavor at all. In fact I didn’t get much black tea flavor at all. I found this to be really weak, even when made with more leaves than suggested, and longer steep time.

I tried this again. I used twice the amount of leaves as recommended and steeped twice as long. I still think it only tastes like weak black tea. I don’t understand why my experience is so different from everyone else’s, but this tea is not for me.

I’m sorry. I was really excited to get this tea. Brewed according to directions, added some sweetener, and settled in to enjoy. Hmmmm, nothing – that’s what I tasted nothing. It was VERY WEAK black tea with just a tiny hint of cinnamon way in the back. I didn’t taste any pumpkin (and after reading some of the reviews here, I’m wondering why there aren’t any orange pumpkin bits in my leaves?). The dry tea doesn’t really smell like pumpkin. Really disappointed. I’m going to try it again with more leaves, but am not optimistic when the leaves don’t really smell like anything. :((

Thank you to Queen of Tarts for swapping this one.

I like rooibos, I like coconut, and I like Butiki. So what’s not to like? It’s delicious!

Kind of wishing I’d ordered an ounce of this one, instead of just a sample! A solid coconut aroma greeted me when opened the little baggie. The scent was much milder after steeping than it was dry.

Taste is very pie crust-like. I love rooibos, and this one is excellent; really well-suited to this blend. The coconut is definitely there, but it’s mild and doesn’t have that sickeningly sweet coconut extract taste. More like fresh coconut in a freshly baked crust. Glad I got to try it!

1 tbsp in 16oz + 1 tsp sugar

Really loved drinking this while teaching today. Like I said previously, I am not “into” flavored tea, but this one and Butiki’s almond just have such a natural and subtle flavor, that I just love them and will certainly make them staples.

Last time I thought of pancakes when I drank this, but today I thought of butter pecan (soy) ice cream. My favorite flavor!

1 1/2 tsp in 8oz

Exactly as good as I expected it to be based on the reviews. I found a touch of sugar really enhanced the flavor for me. I’m still not sure I would make a habit out of flavored tea (even one as great-tasting as this one), but I’m really glad I got some of this. What more can I say, it tastes exactly like maple and pecan. Great, now I want pancakes.

I drank a to-go mug of this while I taught my block printing class this afternoon. It helped keep me alert but not jittery and tasted lemony and great! My class went really well but now I’m so tired and kind of have an adrenaline hangover headache, lol. I will feel much more confident if I get to do this again, and way less nervous the next time :)

Made a cup of this and threw it over ice to drink with my lunch. It is delicious iced. I’m super dragging today, Zzzzzz… Tea to the rescue! :D

Good Afternoon Sunshine for me today! Gotta make it through the dreaded Monday afternoon at work. This stuff sure perks me up! ;)

I’m going on vacation in the morning! Driving 9.5 hours to the beach :) I’m brewing up some of this to take in my giant sippy cup iced in the morning. I am going to NEED it! Getting up extra early so we can make it down there for dinner. Anyway, I probably won’t post any notes for the next few days. I have a bunch of baggies of swaps and samples I’m going to try to sip down while we are gone. waves bye Steepster!

I really can’t handle much caffeine but this stuff tastes SO GOOD! I love the grassy guayusa flavor paired with all the lemony goodness. Smooth and well balanced! Perfect when I need something a little stronger and doesn’t seem to give me jitters like too much caffeine usually does. Love it!

I’m feeling kind of pitiful today so I decided to try my first guayusa! This was a sample I got with my most recent Butiki order. Seems a bit inappropriate to be drinking a tea with morning in the name in the afternoon, but oh well. This tea has a very pleasant lemon/lemongrass flavor with an extra “grassy” kick which I have to assume is the guayusa. I am enjoying it and would consider ordering it in the future! I hope this perks me up before my boxing class after work :)