Butiki Teas

I got a 2011 and a 2012 and bewed them exactly the same with Lances help, These brew up very pale and have a wonderful young Raw puerh taste/flavor, anybody who drinks puerh knows what i’m talking about, Sweet slight astringency, very little bitter, some greenish toasty notes but Not grassy at all, the 2011 version may be slight stronger in all these notes and may have a better “Raw puerh” flavor. They both give a very nice feeling after drinking, a general feeling of well being :) I like these a lot.

I haven’t had this tea for awhile, and I just have a little left!

I went a little heavy on the leaf and Yummm! So creamy and silky! However, I’m really sleepy still, I think I need to switch to something stronger!

Oh man, this tea is super yummy! It’s totally not eggnog season right now, but I was saving to try this tea for the perfect day, and I totally regret not trying it sooner!

The eggnog flavor is perfect, I like it more than my non-dairy options for eggnog. I wanna try steeping it with a cinnamon stick sometime as I do like a spicy eggnog.

Full review and pics at my blog http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/02/03/creamy-eggnog-from-butiki-teas-tea-review/

I have just enough of this to make one more pot, and then I am going to start thinking about reordering some Butiki teas. I bumped the rating of this one up a bit too.

This is a really excellent black tea. I would have given it a higher rating except that I didn’t like it that much when I brewed it in my usual gongfu style. I recommend following the directions and steeping it for 3 minutes in boiling water. Even brewed western style, this tea was also lacking a little bit of- I’m not sure if I’m describing it correctly- weight in the mouth?

Sipdown, 118. Back up again because of tea deliveries today! This is still pretty tasty, but I don’t love it as much as I first did. I think it’s the guayusa… I like it with a citrusy blend, but I don’t think the apple stands up to it enough. It’s a bit too “guayusa” flavored, which is hard to describe but isn’t sitting well with my tastebuds right now. So this won’t be a restock but I’m glad I had some to try!

It is SO cold in my office right now! Wish I could go home, ugh. Instead I’m having some of this. I might have also thrown in a raspberry leaf tea bag that is giving this a sweetness and kind of muddling the cider flavors, but it was necessary.

I’m not sure I love guayusa, although I still do like it with citrusy flavors at least. I just don’t crave it a lot. For a while I was also a bit turned off by the smell of the dry leaf, but that seems to have passed and I am enjoying this cup.

kicks Steepster This is the first time in like 18 hours that I have actually been able to get Steepster to load. Granted I was in bed for some of that time, but geez.

Last night sucked. A huge storm system came through from 3:30am to 6:30am and kept me awake for much of the night. I have been known to sleep through anything—storms, fireworks, fire alarms—but there is something about large hail on your roof and thunder that shakes your house that was impossible to sleep through.

So I am pretty significantly tired today. Hoping I can perk up this afternoon a bit. I decided some guayusa might be a good idea; not sure if its working yet, but maybe it just needs a bit more time. This one is pretty good, but I think I like Good Morning Sunshine better. I like the cider flavoring in this, which is spot on, but the guayusa itself is kind of weird here. I think Good Morning Sunshine more successfully masks the weirdness of the guayusa with the citrus, and to me guayusa is still pretty weird. But I did enjoy my cup of this.

Yay, another guayusa blend to try from Butiki! This one comes thanks to KittyLovesTea and our recent swap. I love apple cider, so this was one I really wanted to try.

Aaand I set my timer up to steep for 6 minutes and then forgot to start it. No idea how long this has been steeping, but hopefully it’s forgiving!

Yes, it is. This is quite delicious. Cider, yes, but also that leafy, woody flavor of guayusa, along with cider mulling spices like clove and cinnamon, which aren’t too spicy but definitely present and making this seem all the more wintery and cidery. This is something I could drink all the time, and when I do get around to making an order from Butiki I will likely restock.

I tried this one again thanks to Stacy :)
Please check out my blog post on it, pretty much same review as last time but this time I picked up on another flavor/taste note in this one, Last time my nose was messed up which could have very much changed my taste perception.
http://toadsteablog.blogspot.com/2013/02/dragon-feelers-by-butiki-teas.html

1st steep in the Gawain was 3 minutes as per directions, it brews up a nice clear yellow color with a slight green touch (according to Lance*), the taste was very delicate but quite pleasant slightly vegetal flavor that i just can’t place, tho the taste was delicate the flavor of the tea was above the line. No bitter or astringency just wonderful tea flavor.
2nd steep I added 25 seconds,it yielded the exact same pale color and that same wonderfully delicate tea flavor as before but of course slightly stronger and this time unknown pleasant vegetal flavor became kinda like sweet peas?? not sure, it was very delicious tho :)
~I’ll have a little blog post of this one soon with photos and a better review :)~

Seems I’m running through all my samples from alphakitty today.

This is such a pretty tea.
I of course didn’t read the recommendations for this as, I always brew my tea how I want. Yea I’m a little stubborn, and I could probably learn a few things if only I listened. Alas I did not.

This was so light & refreshing… hot. So yummy I couldn’t even let it cool. I definitely get a melon taste but almost more of a cantaloupe taste. I can see the little ‘hairs’ in my tea hehe

Either way this is delicious. Very beautiful. I’m sure this would be fantastic iced as well.

This is a nice cup of oolong. Not too sweet but does take care of the craving :) Love the balance of maple and pecans – yummy just right!

sad sipdown. Picked out this one to finish up this weekend because the idiots working on the balconies in our complex decided to start stupidly early on a saturday morning. So i needed something delicious and wonderful. Had multiple steeps of this one while trying to get up and ready for the day. stupid people.

i needed this one today. 4 days work weeks are always a little long for me if the holiday is on monday. if it’s on the friday, no big deal lol. Best part about today? Starbucks petit vanilla bean scones are back. BOOYAH baby! for the longest time i’ve only been able to get them in the US…but they’re back. yay!

Farewell my delicious tea. I will miss you, but you’ll always have a fond place in my tea memories. Thanks again for all the fantastic teas you brought to us Stacy! Last cup(s) of this while i organise things tonight.. what fun!

Since Stacy is going to be leaving the tea scene, i thought it might be nice to pull out the last little bit of this. I have enough for maybe another cup after this one and I’ll be enjoying it as i celebrate having been fortunate enough to begin my tea journey when Butiki was still around. Thanks for so many awesome teas Stacy!

SIPDOWN! sad day in the Sil household…i love this tea from stacy and it was a great one to have today while the rain was falling this morning. Tasty delicious notes of honey…similar and yet different from TTC teas. This one still has a higher spot in my affections :) Will restock for sure at a later date!

backlog from a couple days ago because folks…we’re back to grueling hell at work. will i be working this weekend? of course! even though we had a holdiday this week have i worked a full 40 hours already? YES! will the overtime make it worth it…..we’ll see lol

thank god i have my tea to keep me sane…mostly.