Butiki Teas

Well this is definitely an oolong, which I generally don’t like, but I treaterd this one very gently and it is not too bad, all things considered. I really don’t love it though and it is a bit of a mystery why it didn’t go out during the great tea purge of 2017.

Thank you to CrowKettle for the share!

This sample is getting up there in age and has lost most of the green tea flavour. I do get dried fruit (strawberry and fig), prune, and something I can’t quite place. I think it could be either honey or ginger, but I’m not entirely sure. The ginger/strawberry/dragonwell combo sounds amazing in its prime, however I did not have a chance to taste this while Butiki was in business.

I wasn’t really enjoying this and I wasn’t sure why but now that I see that it’s an oolong, it all makes sense. Oolongs are not something I’ve ever managed to develop a taste for. Also the cinnamon is kind of strong for me in this brew. Perhaps I should pass it along.

I am definitely tasting espresso when I drink this. It took a long while for me to pin down the flavour other than ‘dark but not chocolate’. Coffee, that’s what it was. I’m not a fan of coffee, generally, that is why I drink tea instead, but this is…decent. Definitely not my favourite and it’s old besides so probably it’s good that I can never get it again. Still have a couple of pots worth in my sample so I’ll get to try again.

Well, I picked this tea out of the cupboard using the tried and true method of ‘closing my eyes and flailing my arm around’. I wish I had picked a black tea as I’m dragging a bit this morning and I’ve picked up a nasty cold somewhere, but I shall survive.

This is a good tea, chocolatey and minty. I sweetened it a bit since I just drank some chocolate almond milk so I didn’t want to get the shock of going from sweetened beverage to unsweetened one. Still this is tasty and I’ll look forward to drinking the rest of it.

Backlogged note from last week. This was just okay. Possibly it’s the age but I wasn’t terribly impressed. Still good but just that.

Sipdown (594)!

Finishing off a Butiki tea is always a pretty sad thing – but it just felt like the right time to finish this one off. You can see my previous tasting note on this tea for details on the flavour; I made this cup the day after and didn’t switch up any of the brewing parameters so it tasted the same. Delicious though. So delicious…

Mmmmm, Butiki!

Thanks again Kittenna for the share of this one. I really enjoyed the cup of it that I had yesterday; definitely still really flavourful even if this is old, old tea. Aroma coming from the steeped cup was all honey, yams, and French Bread – intoxicatingly delicious smelling! The steeped tea was a bit different, but still great – less yam/baked bread and more honey and raisins, with this undertone that was challenging to place at first. Eventually I realized that was I was tasting was this weird, but delicious, note that reminded me of the “Basil Honey” that my favourite poutine place here in Montreal makes that you can add to your poutines instead of gravy. It’s only a hint of basil, and mostly a creamy honey flavour – but that tiny hint of basil in the undertones of this tea alongside the stronger honey notes in the body of the cup definitely were coming together in a way that made me think of that sauce.

Gong Fu!

Another new to me Butiki blend that I’m trying courtesy of the wonderful Starfevre!

I couldn’t remember what teas made up this ‘breakfast blend’ like mix when I was steeping it, so I wasn’t sure if they were necessarily black teas that are usually Gong Fu brewed or more Western inclined. It was interesting trying it blind though, because it was kind of like a test for me. You know, can I decipher the common flavour notes associated with each kind of black tea in the mix?

All in all I got roughly ten infusions out of this one before the leaf had tapered off to a point where I wasn’t interested in infusing more. The predominant note I experienced throughout the entire session was that of raisins/muscatel grapes. I thought that was actually really weird because it’s not often that you see a Darjeeling tea in a breakfast blend, and given the name of the blend is seemed especially strange to me. I was really feeling that sort of second flush Darjeeling kind of profile, though. And you know what? Sure enough it turns out that there is Darjeeling in the mix!

Apart from that very strong part of the overall profile, there were also notes of malt, rye bread, lemon pith, and lilacs. The rye bread notes were more prominent in the first infusions which were stronger/more intense overall and then more of that lemon pith and subtle floral/lilac quality because noticeable near the end of the session where the flavours were a bit more tapped out and mild/less powerful.

It was very pleasant, and really quite interesting.

Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/BiCksG9nyb-/?taken-by=ros_strange

Drinking this one now while I wait for the bus to head home; this was a rare evening where we actually finished everything we needed to for closing AND everything extra to prep for tomorrow’s opener early so I get to take the last few minutes of the night to pop up a tasting note.

It’s been a very long time since that happened.

Maybe it’s the age (it’s probably the age) but this is kind of… ‘bleh’ to me. I mean NOT bad tasting, but just almost entirely bland with no real defining notes of qualities. Basically, it tastes like the sort of SUPER generic black tea that’s used for low to mid quality flavoured blends as the base. Maybe a little citrus-y? But I feel like even describing that flavour is a stretch. I have a feeling, as I head out for the night into the cold, it’ll be the kind of thing I drink for warmth more than anything else.

No rating – I know I’m not trying this one in its prime.

Not sure I’m quite enjoying this as much as I would have had it been fresh. I’m not getting much pistachio, mostly just green tea with a hint of…something. It’s a decent green tea though, grassy but mild, the way I like it. I just need to power through all this old tea in order to actually buy some new stuff.

This is a fantastic tea, even as old as it is, and I love it and it makes me miss Butiki so much! I love the fact that it’s just eggy vanilla eggnog flavouring rather than all the spices because cinnamon is definitely not my favourite thing at all and it’s just lovely the way it is. I have maybe 1 or 2 more pots of this (small pots, like super big mug sized pots). The leaves really didn’t want to scoop though so I have no idea how much I actually put in because all of my spoonfuls were half to 1/3 full and I just put in until it looked like ‘enough’. Still. Delicious.

Can you tell I’m trying to drink down my old Butiki teas? I wanted something I know I like so out came the Raspberry Truffle. The raspberry scent in the dry leaf is still pretty strong. If nothing else, I store my old teas well, even if it takes me forever to drink them. I’d really like to get to a place where I feel comfortable buying new tea again.

Anyway, this tea was a reward for cleaning the shower drain. Tasty and nice. I enjoyed this pot.

This is actually the second time I ‘ve had this in the last 2 days but yesterday I oversteeped it by I don’t know how much since I was trying to vacuum at the same time and it came out bitter and bleh. Today, I was much better about timing and it came out okay. Just okay though, I think this one is suffering from age. The tea is sweet and there’s a bit of chocolate and I can kind of taste the raspberry. It tastes like Valentine’s Day, if that makes sense, but I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Sipdown (519)!

Thanks again to Kittenna for the sample of this one! It’s another that I missed during Butiki’s prime – straight teas generally weren’t often on my radar at that point in my ‘tea drinking career’ so I likely just skipped right over it.

I definitely enjoyed it a lot though, which just makes me all the more sad I missed this one in its prime. It was super bright and refreshing, though! Really, really strong and lively citrus notes and jammy red fruit undertones, with a sweet caramelized sugar and freshly baked bread sort of finish. I find citrus notes in black teas, Kenyan ones in particular, can be awfully brisk and often emulate more of a citrus peel or pithy citrus kind of flavour but this was sweet and juicy, more like the flesh of the lemon without any sourness – and I deeply appreciate that sort of lemon note in a good tea; black or otherwise.

It totally made the whole cup.

I think we can safely say this is a true sipdown tea for ashmanra’s sipdown challenge, but I sure did give it the send-off a Butiki deserves. I paired this with our very last pineapple cake from Taiwan for the first steep and my last Te Company lemon linzer cookie for the second steep. Both complemented the tea beautifully while I settled in and had a listening party for one for the new Janelle Monae album. It’s a pretty on-the-nose pairing – there’s a song on the album with champagne in the title – but ultimately I felt like the flirty-but-grounded mood of the tea actually paired well with the album’s style.

It’s actually shocking how well the tea has held up after all these years. I got three very good steeps out of it and only had to stop because it got to be too late for caffeine – I have a fourth steeping overnight to see if I can get anything else out of it. The rose is floral but not perfumey, robust without being overpowering in both aroma and flavor. It’s complemented by a beautiful creaminess that’s stronger when the brew is warm. The base tea has that savoriness that white teas sometimes do – Stacy called it maltiness and that’s as good a word here as any. As the tea cools, the creaminess and malt gives way a bit to a sparkling quality, complete with a tingling on the tongue. Truly an epic blend that I will miss! I’m so grateful that I was able to give it a proper sendoff.

Ok wow! I’ve been away from Steepster for a few years and things have… changed! Somehow I totally missed the news about the Adagio takeover? Would love to hear from folks who have been here throughout about how that has gone, if you are up for sharing.

Anyway, 2021 is finally over and hopefully this year will be just a smidge better for us all. In that spirit, I wanted to ring it in with a cheerful tea that I knew wouldn’t disappoint. This tea is really old now but it still delivers. I brewed exactly as directed, although I did add an extra teaspoon of leaf to compensate for the age. With a touch of brown sugar to bring out the flavor, it’s still perfection. The rose hits first, followed by cream mid-sip and ending on what I can only describe as somehow a bubbly note that really does evoke champagne. I even managed to get three good steeps out of it by steeping the third one for almost 20 minutes. All in all, a great tea to start the year with.

How is this still good after so many years? The cream flavor has faded but the delicate rose scent and taste is there, along with an undercurrent of bubbly champagne. I’m on my third solid steep of this beauty and glad I still have a little left. Photo: https://www.instagram.com/p/BfH4cjtlJoo/?taken-by=try.all.the.tea

How old is this tea Sarah? I can’t believe I’m even drinking it.
It might have been good 3 years ago, but bletch…
As a person who doesn’t usually care for flavored teas, I find this one to be bitter & kind of cloying.
And of course, it’s no longer available, unless someone wants this last tablespoon ?

A good tea with good-to-great taste profile.

Slightly grassy and floral flavour.

SIpdown (514)!

Big thanks to Kittenna for the sample! I don’t actually remember this one at all from the good ‘ol Butiki days – I think it was just something that at that time I just wasn’t that into. My tea world has since expanded and I just looked over the reviews for this one and it seems like something I’m gonna be quite into!

Steeped up and… wow! It’s really good!

I’m actually surprised how incredibly accurate it tastes to Stacy’s description of it – especially after so much time has passed. It has some really bright, sweet and juicy Bartlett Pear notes. So succulent, and smooth with floral undertones. The rest of the profile is very autumnal and malty; with a sweet and nutty finish that reminds me of hazelnut. It’s so put together and I LOVE the juxtaposition of the orchard fruit notes in the top of the sip against the nuttiness in the finish.

Wow.