6106 Tasting Notes
Sipdown! 91/365
Cheater sipdown. Turns out I have at least 3 packages of this? This was the remainder of one of them. It’s fairly tasty, but as I might have commented on my last review of it, some of the magic has definitely been lost. This tea is extra-old, though, as 2oz of it was one of my earlier Butiki purchases.
Sipdown! 90/365
A fun tea sample sent to me by Roswell Strange – thank you!
So the story of how I came to try this tea today is slightly amusing; my 5-month-old son was exploring on the floor and managed to get himself over to the box of teas Roswell Strange had sent me (it’s not too far away; he can’t crawl yet). Next thing I know, he’s reached his grabby little hands into the box and is clutching one of the individually-wrapped teabags she sent! And shoving it in his mouth, as babies do. I checked, and since it was a herbal tea, I let him munch on it for a bit, until I noticed that the package had opened up and the teabag, slightly damp on one side, was falling out. Since it was no longer sealed, and bonus – contaminated by baby spit, I of course had to brew it up today. I am hoping this is a sign that he is going to like tea, unlike his father :D (Side note: he was not pleased when I took it away, so I gave him back the wrapper and he happily munched on it for another 5 minutes or so.)
So this tea. It was one I was actually pretty interested to try – a chai with “vanilla cardamom taste”, basically, my favourite type of chai. Except with a rooibos base, which can really make or break the tea. Luckily, the rooibos here was just fine, doing its job of being a solid base without tasting gross or medicinal. The flavouring was pretty good, too. I wasn’t paying enough attention to notice cardamom specifically, but I enjoyed the chai spicing, which typically means it is cardamom-heavy, and there was an interesting spiciness from the inclusion of peppercorns. For a bagged rooibos chai, this was actually quite tasty. I do prefer my chais to be caffeinated, so wouldn’t likely pick this up again myself, but would definitely drink it again.
Thanks again, Roswell!
This is the tea I should have had on St. Patrick’s Day. Oh well. Having it now, and it’s absolutely delicious. No idea if it’s irish cream flavoured, but it’s fantastic. Unlike any tea I’ve had previously, the flavouring is along the lines of nutty, but… not quite. It’s hard to describe. Base might be a CTC with lots of flavour/not too tannic. I’d really like to purchase more of this, though. I have one cup left and the temptation to hoard it is quite strong. Upping rating from 84 to 88. I’d keep this one stocked for special occasions.
On that note – not sure if it’s just me, or my tea selections, but I have been having a string of great tea days, where most if not all of the teas I drink taste absolutely fantastic. Maybe it’s from having a cold for a while? I’m not sure, but this is definitely why I drink tea, for these utterly delicious moments. (Or maybe it’s because I’ve been subjecting myself to teas where the coconut is borderline? Haha.)
ETA: Looks like it’s still available! This temptation may be too hard to resist.
ETA2: And they’re in Canada. And I can get 25g. And they have other delicious-sounding teas. It’s over. Ha.
Sipdown! 89/365
Free tea sample from International Women’s Day! An unexpected and happy surprise, since I missed the previous day’s matcha.
The directions were to infuse the whole packet in 8oz water, then fill with ice. Presumably, a 16oz cup? Anyways, that is more or less what I did, even though I don’t usually ice my teas in that manner (I brew at normal strength and pop them in the fridge). Although the tea smelled amazing in the sachet, brewed up it is fine but nothing special. A lemonadey hibiscus fruit tea. Another “white” tea where you pay dearly for heavy fruits and can’t taste the white tea at all. Don’t get me wrong – it’s perfectly tasty, but probably would have been better done as an herbal, at likely a reduced cost.
Sipdown! 88/365
This is actually quite a sad sipdown, as this tea was absolutely delicious, especially this final cup. Tastes as if it hasn’t aged a day, I’m serious. The base is fantastic and still green (!) and umami and rich, and there’s raspberry, and sweetness, and nuttiness. I have no idea how it managed to fare so well all these years, but this was a most glorious cup of tea tonight, and I’m going to go resteep the crap out of those leaves even though it’s 3am.
Bumping the rating from 82 to 90. It’s so good.
ETA: Resteeped 3 times. It was still producing a tasty cup. I could have cried when I finally tossed the leaves.
This is either from MissB or Sil – so thank you!
I’d put off having this one for far too long as I’m not fond of many herbals, but it looks like this has nothing I dislike in it, which is nice! My initial impression was that this was straight up lemongrass, until I realized that the lemony flavour wasn’t quite right for that. I can’t really taste any vanilla, but I also may not have had any vanilla bean pieces in this cup – the smaller pieces in my baggie remain there. This was all large chunks. Despite the lack of vanilla, this is actually fairly tasty. It’s nicely lemony without being bitter, and quite refreshing. I’m drinking it room temp, which puts it more in the “iced” realm, and I think that’s how I’d prefer this, though I feel like it would be pretty tasty hot with honey, too. Pretty pleased with this one.
Hmm. So this is a review for an individually-wrapped teabag, which may have been fairly old… the coconut was definitely off in it. Brewed it up anyhow, and the taste is incredibly strange. The coconut off-flavours aren’t overly apparent (it’s a little soapy), but the tea is really strongly, darkly flavoured. But not astringent. Maybe I just haven’t had a fresh Lupicia black in a while? Maybe I should have used more water? This is really odd, it’s just really strong in a direction I wasn’t expecting. I can’t tell if I like it or hate it. There’s also strawberry here, which tastes like it would be good if not for the off-coconut. The brew does smell of delicious strawberries.
This is so strange; I feel like I have more of this tea elsewhere (if not just in another single-serve teabag format) that I’d like to try before passing judgment. Maybe it’s a tea that should have milk?
Annoyed about yet another unrated Butiki. For shame. Anyhow this is a tea I would have better left to a day where I hadn’t contaminated my palate with garlic and spice. Oh well. It’s tasting more like a darjeeling to me than any oolong I’ve come across; it’s sweet, with a slight drying astringency, malty. I’d have identified this as black before oolong, any day. Maybe that’s just how Indian oolongs are? Or maybe that’s just what I’m picking up today. Will have to write something better later.
