82
drank Pistachio Ice Cream by Butiki Teas
6105 tasting notes

So, my memory tells me that I wasn’t particularly enamoured with this tea the first couple times, which were from a sample from Azzrian. However, I received some as part of a Butiki sampler quite a while back, and hadn’t actually tried it from my own batch. So here we are!

I opened the baggie to a… delicious aroma of creamy pistachios?! What? I don’t remember this aroma! How exciting!

For whatever reason, this tea is definitely working far better for me today! I admit that I probably overleafed my cup (maybe 2 tsp to 8oz. water or so?), but I’m getting a nutty pistachio flavour, creaminess, cardamom??, and a lightly seaweedy sort of green tea. This is certainly not what I remember from my previous attempts! The creaminess and green tea leave a lovely aftertaste in the mouth, as well. The only negative is that I feel like I’m tasting a hint of licorice/anise in there that I’m not liking. I’ll have to try this with sweetener someday to see if I can really bring out the “ice cream” flavour, because as it stands, this is more of a creamy nut tea with seaweedy undertones.

I don’t think I’ll ever be quite the fan of this tea that some people appear to be, but it’s much better than I originally gave it credit for. I suspect it perhaps was a tea that suffered for whatever reason by being packaged up as a sample (too much exposure to air, cross-contamination, etc.) Rating bump!

ETA: A re-steep with less water and the same parameters yields a pretty tasty cup as well, although with reduced seaweedy green tea flavours. (Bonus, it withstands sitting cold for 24h too!)

Preparation
180 °F / 82 °C 2 min, 30 sec
Invader Zim

I got a sample of this from someone and couldn’t get it to work in my favor. I’m glad you at least got it to work for you even if you don’t love it as much as others seem to.

Kittenna

I am wondering if it doesn’t hold flavour well when packaged up for swaps…

Invader Zim

That’s quite possible.

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Comments

Invader Zim

I got a sample of this from someone and couldn’t get it to work in my favor. I’m glad you at least got it to work for you even if you don’t love it as much as others seem to.

Kittenna

I am wondering if it doesn’t hold flavour well when packaged up for swaps…

Invader Zim

That’s quite possible.

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Bio

I have always been a tea fan (primarily herbals and Japanese greens/oolongs) but in the last year or so, tea has become increasingly more appealing as not only a delicious, calming drink, but as a relatively cheap, healthy reward or treat to give myself when I deserve something. I should clarify that, however; the reward is expanding my tea cupboard, not drinking tea – I place no restrictions on myself in terms of drinking anything from my cupboard as that would defeat my many goals!

My DavidsTea addiction was born in late 2011, despite having spent nearly a year intentionally avoiding their local mall location (but apparently it was just avoiding the inevitable!). I seem to have some desire to try every tea they’ve ever had, so much of my stash is from there, although I’ve recently branched out and ordered from numerous other companies.

I like to try and drink all my teas unaltered, as one of the main reasons I’m drinking tea other than for the flavour is to be healthy and increase my water intake without adding too many calories! I’ve found that the trick in this regard is to be very careful about steeping time, as most teas are quite pleasant to drink straight as long as they haven’t been oversteeped. However, I tend to be forgetful (particularly at work) when I don’t set a timer, resulting in a few horrors (The Earl’s Garden is not so pleasant after, say, 7+ minutes of steeping).

I’m currently trying to figure out which types of teas are my favourites. Herbals are no longer at the top; oolongs have thoroughly taken over that spot, with greens a reasonably close second. My preference is for straight versions of both, but I do love a good flavoured oolong (flavoured greens are really hit or miss for me). Herbals I do love iced/cold-brewed, but I drink few routinely (Mulberry Magic from DavidsTea being a notable exception). I’m learning to like straight black teas thanks to the chocolatey, malty, delicious Laoshan Black from Verdant Tea, and malty, caramelly flavoured blacks work for me, but I’m pretty picky about anything with astringency. Lately I’ve found red rooibos to be rather medicinal, which I dislike, but green rooibos and honeybush blends are tolerable. I haven’t explored pu’erh, mate, or guayasa a great deal (although I have a few options in my cupboard).

I’ve decided to institute a rating system so my ratings will be more consistent. Following the smiley/frowny faces Steepster gives us:

100: This tea is amazing and I will go out of my way to keep it in stock.

85-99: My core collection (or a tea that would be, if I was allowing myself to restock everything!) Teas I get cravings for, and drink often.

75-84: Good but not amazing; I might keep these in stock sparingly depending on current preferences.

67-74: Not bad, I’ll happily finish what I have but probably won’t ever buy it again as there’s likely something rated more highly that I prefer.

51-66: Drinkable and maybe has some aspect that I like, but not really worth picking up again.

34-50: Not for me, but I can see why others might like it. I’ll make it through the cup and maybe experiment with the rest to get rid of it.

0-33: It’s a struggle to get through the cup, if I do at all. I will not willingly consume this one again, and will attempt to get rid of the rest of the tea if I have any left.

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