Butiki Traveling Educational Box NUMBER TWO - On the move!
The box is packed and should go into the mail for Suziqzer tomorrow. I didn’t take much tea beyond about 35 samples. The exception was about 6 grams of Teasource Orchid Oolong and some Dong Ding #2 to taste later. My sampling finished off the Assam, Pu-erh #3 and Pu-erh #5.
I tried to use my additions to fill in some missing cracks in the current box. I’m a big fan of Chinese tea, especially Keemun, so added Upton Mao Feng and Yunnan Sourcing Yunnan Black, more or less doubling the amounts of those types. There isn’t a lot of Pu-erh left, but I don’t have any to add. Instead, I added an interesting Yunnan Sourcing white tea based upon wild pu-erh buds. There was a lot of Darjeeling in the box, but only one black tea from Nepal (which was running low) so I added a favorite Nepal black from Upton; very similar in style to a 2nd flush Darjeeling. I also added a Zen tea Mangalam 2nd Fl Assam, since I finished off the only other Assam.
WRT to the questions, I would consider myself intermediate in Chinese blacks and Darjeeling, intermediate to beginner in oolong and other black teas, and a beginner in green and pu-erh.
I think the box was worthwhile for me because of the pu-erh and African teas, which I enjoyed, and to a lesser extent the greens. I probably wouldn’t do this type of box again. One thing I use tea boxes for is making purchase decisions and that obviously wasn’t possible for this box, though it probably would be after it picks up some more branded teas. Also, I’m involved in too many tea boxes.
I enjoyed the opportunity to try some Pu-erh teas, and the Kenyan teas were a real eye-opener. I have a prejudice against many parts of the tea world, and was surprised at the quality of these teas (on the other hand the Nilgiri tea lived down to my expectations). Coincidentally, I attended a Kenyan wedding last Friday (in the Boston area, not Kenya).
I expect that beginners would get more out of this box than more experienced drinkers. I completely skipped the Darjeeling and most of the oolongs. Also, having more tea from a smaller number of samples might help the conversation on Steepster. I tried to only sample one of each type (e.g. there were 4 Dragonwell teas, I only tried one). It is difficult for someone trying #3 to make a meaningful comparison to my notes on #4, but if everyone tried all 4 we would run out. I’m fairly early on the distribution list and we’ve already run out of some teas.
Thanks again to Stacy for starting the box!
You saw that in some cases, the numbers meant there were multiple bags of the same tea?
I’ll be on the lookout for it :). I probably won’t have the time to try things like you did. I will likely pull out little samples like Marzipan did so that I can pass it along.
I’m curious too about the numbers. Are they different teas? or additional bags of the same tea?
When I had the box I laid them all out, and they appeared to be identical to me.
The numbers mean that it’s a different variation of the same tea. Like a different batch/flush/picking/what have you. At least that was my understanding from what Stacy explained to me.
Dr Jim-Thank you so much for your feedback. If we do another box again we will definitely be doing some things differently. In some ways, I see how a large box like this can be good, especially for beginners but in other ways it certainly can be overwhelming and running out of teas can be problematic, especially if someone late in the list was particularly interested in one type of tea. I am so glad that this box was able to pique your interest in Kenya teas. I think they tend to be underrated. I do tend to agree with you on Nilgiri teas; however, I have found a few good ones. Our Nilgiri Frost Oolong, for instance is fantastic but it has been challenging finding high quality Nilgiri teas.
The numbers mean that those teas are from different estates/farms. They look similar because they are the same style of tea. There were NO repeated teas in this box (in box #1, there was one repeated but it has the same number, this was to get rid of the sample completely). The reason why we chose to add a number of the same type of tea is for people who were interested in comparing the same type of tea from different estates to try and determine similar notes for them, how they can differ (flavor & quality wise). For instance, someone trying the different Dragon Wells might notice that overall they tend to be nutty and sweeter and may be able to tell difference in quality. We tried to add teas of varying qualities. Sorry this wasn’t clear. I think I mentioned this in the first box but maybe didn’t mention it for the second box.
Also, I would like to caution about adding ‘brand’ teas. I think it is best to leave the brand off. The reason for this is to focus on and evaluate the tea without prejudice. Brand names can automatically leave a perception of quality level. We had a few samples from our company in the box but left off our brand name intentionally. Just my suggestion but feel free to run the box however you like. Also, I highly recommend taking notes down before looking at what others thought of the tea. When I run tastings, I always have people write down their notes before everyone shares.
It has arrived safely! So many teas… where to start? :)
I would suggest that you try an experiment: take one type of tea that has several bags available and see if they taste identical. I don’t think this is the case for the Pu-Erh, but Marzipan thinks it is for at least some of the other teas.
This may not be definitive, since we would expect similar teas to taste similar.
I will have to try and do that. I’ve thought I might sit down w/Hubby if we can find time together and try a few things that way. Then we can each get a feel for the differences and not use up any more samples than I might if I tried them by myself… plus it may save me the caffeine overload! As far as plain teas go, I tend to like blacks and he tends to like oolongs, but we both need to broaden our horizons a bit. I haven’t had enough plain blacks to know which variety of them I prefer, so this is a great opportunity. Plus, I hope to find that I can like other things too :)
The note from Stacy above answers the question of whether they are all different. They are. That said, you might still enjoy trying similar teas side-by side (Stephanie did that). I tried doing that with some teas, but had more fun switching styles.
The thing I like best about the TTBs is that you can go out of your comfort zone without a big investment. I also prefer blacks, but I tried a bunch of green teas that I would not ordinarily buy.
I did see Stacy’s note.
Being pretty new to loose leaf there is so much I could spend $ on! I could do enough damage just stocking the cabinet with things I know we’ll like w/o even looking at other things. I’m loving this as a chance to try things w/o spending the money to find out we don’t like something.
I’m hoping to sit down with several samples side by side to see if we can discover the differences and I’m curious to see how we describe them differently.
Hope you are having greaat fun with the box.
give me a call sometime
I have had little time to sample much. Hubby and I did sit down on Monday and we had a few sample cups side by side to try. I will likely just pull out a few sample baggies for when we have more time.
I will let you know when I’m ready to pass it along to you… Then we can figure out where to meet. :) I guess I’m assuming your ok with that verses me mailing it to you.
Meeting up with CelebriTEA today to pass along the box. It’s been busy and I didn’t get much time to try things. Hubby and I did sample a couple of oolongs and blacks. I took some small samples of things to try so I could get the box moving along. There are several things that there are just a few cups of and I decided right away to leave those for more discerning palates after me and not bother with sampling any of those right now. :)
One more feedback item. It would have been useful to label the Pu-Erh teas as being Sheng or Shu. Some people could tell the difference, but I’m too much a beginner. It would have increased the educational value.
I did get the box from Suziqzer and so far enjoyed an Autumn darjeeling.
I have just had a couple of darjeelings that I have enjoyed. This is a nice experience.
Oh gosh…it has been slow due to I was helping with
Vacation Bible School all week!
Yesterday and today I tried Dong Ding ~ a Taiwan oolong
which I loved!!!
I will try to put myself heavily into it the next couple of days
so soon it will be ready to ship on.
One of these days I’m going to notice the posting of an unflavored TTB before it’s closed out LOL
Login or sign up to leave a comment.