Almond Indulgence (Formerly Almond Cookie)

I believe that the tea that I am drinking at the moment (courtesy of TeaEqualsBliss, thank you!) is the Almond Cookie rendition, rather than the Almond Indulgence.

Quite yummy! Sweet and nutty, tastes quite a bit like an almond cookie. Although it’s been quite a while since I’ve had it, this one reminds me of Almond Cookie from SpecialTeas. It has been quite a while though, so I can’t properly compare them, all I can say is that I taste almond and cinnamon and that sweet cookie like taste. It’s yummy!

Thanks again to my SororiTea Sister!

This is wonderful!!! The Almond is VERY intense and the Citrus is the secondary flavor here. There seems to be a nice pepper hint to it as well! With everything together this DOES smell like an almond cookie! It’s a FAB aroma! If this isn’t my first fave Almond Cookie Tea it would be my 2nd…either way…LOVE IT!

I got this as a sample with my Butiki order, thanks Butiki!
I can taste a nice base to this tea, but I’m not picking up on the almond. It tastes like the Butiki Plum Pudding to me. I’m guessing the same black tea is used for both, which is tasty, but the flavors other than that are lost on me right now.

I’ll have to revisit this and several other teas again after I have sinus surgery which will hopefully restore my sense of taste.

This wonderful sample came from TastyBrew!

Alright, so I could smell this one right through the ziplock, and boy what a smell! Cinnamon (sweet not spicy), sweet almond, buttery baked good notes…oh man, it’s all here. I’m trying to resist just eating it and all the almond bits in here. Why, Stacy? Why must you tempt me so?

Throwing it in the pot, pouring the boiling water, and now I’m just smelling it as it brews. The scent of this one is making me hungry.
This has much the same scent profile as it did dry, except that maybe the buttery baked notes are peeking in a bit more. The almond is sweet and strong (not too strong, though), and the cinnamon is also sweet and prominant. Drool.

Ok, now to the best (?) part of the tea experience – tasting it!!
Based on the smell, you’d think the almond and cinnamon would make for one cloyingly sweet tea. This is not at all the case. Though it is sweet, it’s a nice balanced sweetness. The nuttiness of the almond has emerged more in the brew, while the sweetness is a little more subtle. The cinnamon notes aren’t as strong as they were in the smell, but they are still around adding a sweet, warming aspect to the cup. The buttery cookie aspects seem to be mostly gone, but I do catch them here in there at the back of the sip. The black tea base has also decided to emerge after brewing, giving a off a mildly earthy/black tea element to the middle of the sip.

Overall, I really enjoyed this one. Almonds are probably my FAVORITE nut (almond M&M’s anybody?)and I love me some cinnamon in tea. I wish the buttery notes I had gotten in the smell had translated a bit more readily in the cuppa, but overall I was very pleased. I think for the next cups worth I have, I’m going to add just a smidge of sugar and see what happens. But as this one stands now, I could see myself ordering some.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I heard the mailman…

Thank you, TastyBrew for parting with a bit of this yummy blend!

Stacy was so smart to send free samples to everyone….the reviews on this one got me, and made me order. Her service on a regular order is very quick, in case you are curious! I love places that make it easy to order small amounts of tea as I have a cupboard full of it…..until one of those teas makes it necessary to order a whole bunch!

I really enjoyed this one. Light on the vanilla and lemon notes wich makes the cookie, and the almond is light, but maybe slightly more intense than the cookie part. I am so glad I ordered.

I drank this way too fast to even taste it this morning. I think that’s probably a good sign, because I don’t gulp shitty teas… but I want to hold off on rating it until I can give it another taste.

I got a very generous sample of this one from shakirah1984, and I am so grateful. I love almonds, and it’s so nice to have another Butiki tea in my cupboard. Yum!

This is another of my free samples from Butiki! Almond is one of my favorite flavors, so I of course had to try this one. I accidentally steeped it for a touch longer than the steeping time on the package, but it didn’t seem to hurt the tea. The color is a nice medium orangey-red. The first smell that hits me is sugar cookies, followed by cinnamon, the earthy aromas of the black tea base, and a bright hint of citrus. Taken all together, the smell once again really reminds me of the candy-encrusted roasted almonds you find at fairs (same as the almond cookie from Joy’s Teaspoon). I get very similar notes from the taste; this one does a pretty good job of actually tasting like those sugar-cinnamon coated almonds too. However, I’m more getting a feeling of almond than an actual taste; I’m sure the almond pieces and flavoring is contributing to the overall experience, but this tea just doesn’t have what I consider to be strong, pure almond notes. I get a slight bitterness from the tea, but it actually works well because it melds just right with the flavor. I think I lose some of the bakery-cookie notes in the taste, but that’s ok with me. I must have a somewhat different idea of what an almond cookie tastes like, because to an almond cookie basically just tastes like almond—no cinnamon, or spices, just plain, delicious almond. In any case in the “almond cookie” genre of teas, this one is quite good, if a bit less almondy than I’d like.

Dry leaf smells like an almond biscotti. Tried this plain the other day, and it was good. Tried it again this afternoon with a little almond milk, and it was VERY good.

The dry, natural almond taste blends well with the mild black tea base. Of course, being the cinnamon lover that I am, I wouldn’t have minded a stronger punch of it, but the mildness of it does let the almond stand out quite a bit.

I woke up determined to get through most of the Butiki tea samples I have before I make an order. You know, so I don’t miss anything I need. Almond Indulgence is one I’ve been saving. Sounds yummy, I love almond cookies, but sometimes nut teas are hit and miss for me.

STEEPED: Very pretty to steep with the pink flower bits! A nice brown tea that smells of nutty cinnamon!

TASTE: Very smooth! Light flavored earthy and nutty. Slightly cinnamony. No bitterness or astringency.

Sweetened, smells like almond cookies! The almond comes out a bit more – real almond not fake extract stuff. I think I like this tea sweetened since I have a sweet tooth, hehe!

WHO’D LIKE THIS TEA: Peeps who like cinnamon teas that aren’t overpowering. Lightly flavored black tea lovers. Someone wanting a nutty tea that isn’t fake tasting.

COMMENTS: Yum! I was hoping for a more flavor blast, since I do like strongly flavored black teas, but this is expertly done.

I got this as a sample with my Winter Sampler set. The loose leaf smelled promising, but not quite as strong as I thought it should be with a name like “Almond Indulgence.” I was more expecting to be smacked upside the head with an almond extract-like heaviness, but I didn’t get that. I actually didn’t get much almond flavor at all, and the same was true for the brew.

From the first few sips, I sort of got the “cookie” from its former name, but the almond was almost completely lost. It was an attempt at subtlety that came across as timidity. :(

The flavor wasn’t bad, though. It was a tasty black tea, although the leaves were a bit crumb-like. I don’t think I’ll order it, since I love Teavana’s Almond Biscotti and The English Tea Room’s Ciao Amaretto SO MUCH, but I’m glad I got to try it. :)

This is so GOOD! I opened up the package and it smells like a sweet lemonny sugar cookie to me… very mellow lemon cookie but it smells so yummy. I did the brew according to the directions only two and minutes for a black tea. It brewed up such a pretty reddish amber color, and then I took a sip…

Mmmm, this is so smooth and mellow and delightful. You can taste the almond and the citrus, it is such a nice blend. I can taste a bit of the tea in the background but really it is a sweet citrus taste, it is so good and smooth. It leaves my mouth feeling happy! I think that I am going to have to order some of this!

Yummy!

Despite the shorter steep time, this makes a very dark cup of tea! The smell of the dry leaf reminds me very much of SpecialTeas’ almond cookie (another one of my favorites). While the scent is beautiful and very yummy, the taste is not as strong on the almond/cookie flavor. My tongue detects more of the tea base than the additional flavors. The flavor does not have the same doughy/bakery flavor that SpecialTeas’ blend has. It is a good cup, but I prefer my teas to be heavier on the flavor and lighter on the base. Thank you, Stacy!

This tea smells delightful. While it steeped it smelled like freshly baked cookies. The flavor is good. It’s not as robust as I had imagined it to be from smelling the dry leaves. This is a great afternoon tea. It’s sweet, but not overpoweringly so. If the flavor was just a little bit stronger, this would be a home run to me.

Thank you butiki teas for this free sample. Backlogging this is a pretty good medium black tea with a medium almond with abit of savoryness to it. The only thing I am missing because I am not a huge fan of almond by itself would be cinnamon.

Let me preface this note by saying I’m not a big fan of heavily flavored teas. I decided to try this because I tend to be fond of almond and vanilla flavors, as long as they are not too strong or artificial. For a flavored tea, this is good, but it doesn’t really taste like almonds to me. It’s kind of fruity and mildly spicy, and reminds me of a cup of mulled wine or spiced cider. I can taste the tea, but the tea is definitely overshadowed by the flavors and spices. Again, this isn’t bad, but I don’t think I’ll buy it, because it’s just a little too much like a cup of hot cider for my tastes. If you like dessert-y flavored teas, this is worth a try, as long as you don’t expect it to taste purely like almonds. Thank you to Butiki Teas for the sample.

This was like eating my favourite almond cookie. Awesome

Almond Indulgence? I didn’t get much almond flavor at all. In fact I didn’t get much black tea flavor at all. I found this to be really weak, even when made with more leaves than suggested, and longer steep time.

I didn’t care for this one (Almond Indulgence, not Almond Cookie). The tea base is very weak, and I don’t taste a strong almond flavor either – this tea tastes a bit like I imagine hot water mixed with a bit of almond extract would. I’m not really tasting cinnamon either.

I tried using more leaf, since I like my tea pretty strong – this has made a big difference with some other Butiki blends, but no luck here. The tea was still weak, and there was this sweet flavor I couldn’t quite identify but really didn’t enjoy. Soy milk didn’t help either – it only enhanced the mystery sweet flavor.

This was my first almond-flavored tea, and I think almond teas are probably not for me – I generally go for fruit flavors or chais when I drink flavored teas, so this was a bit of a departure. That said, I have enjoyed Butiki’s Maple Pecan Oolong.

Another sample from my Butiki order. Unfortunately I think the cinnamon overpowers a lot of the almond taste for me, which is a shame because I think I prefer almond flavor to cinnamon. But that does not mean this is a bad tea. It’s actually quite good! I don’t know how Butiki does it, but so far the four teas I’ve tried have all been really pleasant. I know I overbrewed this one (which is maybe why the cinnamon is stronger?) but there was no bitterness and it was still a treat to drink. Even when it cooked down to lukewarm it was still yummy. Not something I would buy, but definitely something I’d recommend to a friend who enjoys cinnamon teas.

This was my morning cup of tea today.

When I opened the package, it smelled very strong of almonds. I thought it smelled wonderful, and was excited to try it.

I definitely get a light almond taste with a hint of cinnamon. After steeping, I think the tea smells more like cinnamon than almond. Seeing as I really enjoy almonds and cinnamon, I really enjoyed this tea.

Another excellent tea from Butiki!