Pistachio Ice Cream

Oh…YUM! I’ve been dying to taste nsome of Butiki Teas, mostly because they seem to have great reviews and they are NJ based, which makes me happy. Thanks to Bonnie, I was able to sample Pistaschio Ice Cream. I love pistachios and ice cream, but wasn’t sure how I would like either of these transferred to a tea. I have fallen in love with black teas as of late, and I thought that I despised green teas. I was wrong! This is absolutely delicious, and there’s hardly any vegetal hint which is what I don’t enjoy too much in green teas.

I think Bonnie just swung me over to ordering from Butiki teas once I’m a little less poor.

additional notes: Thanks so much for including this in your cupboard clearout, StarFevre! I loved this one when I first tried it…. I can’t believe I tried it eight years ago. And somehow this pouch is still very very delicious! It’s in a pouch I don’t remember Butiki using though… it’s more of a resealable pouch than one of those fold top bags they always had. So maybe this was from a subscription type thing. The flavor is still so good. It looks a little crumbled now though… but I’ll still enjoy it!

I’m not really much of a fan of flavored green teas. I made a travel mug of this to drink on the way to the wedding I was playing. It was an hour’s drive away from St. Louis, so it was nice to have a hot cup to sip. This is a nicely crafted tea, with a nutty & creamy flavor, & I still have enough to drink it a couple more times, but admittedly it’s not among my favorites. But I don’t hate it either!

No time for a proper note, but I made this yesterday for Cara (23 y.o. daughter)and me, managed to add a bit too little tea, and served it with a smidge of coconut palm sugar. Cara took one sniff, then one sip, and said’ and I quote: Aw, YUM. She then asked rather desperately if it was just a sample size or if I’d got a lot, and said it was her new favourite tea. I agree! However, wasn’t sample size, but I think I’ll need to order again x a bunch to consider that we have “a lot”.

This was a free sample with my Butiki order – thanks Stacy!

The dry leaf smells very caramel/cream like. Vague nutty scent. Once steeped everything smells roasted. I get a slight vegetal quality that I think is the Mao Jian. I know I’ve had Mao Jian before from Tea Vivre, so let me pull up my notes on that and see..

Yep, spinachy and sweet was how I described that tea, which is true of the base here as well. There is an additional cream undertone with some caramel in the taste. The nutty flavor is blended perfectly with the Mao Jian – so much so that really I just feel like maybe Mao Jian always had pistachio in the flavor profile – it works together that seamlessly. The mouthfeel on this is creamy and I could see how sugar would make this a true ice cream tea, but I like this fine plain.

Not bad! I am glad I got the sample size, though, since usually I just can’t do flavored greens for more than a cup or two. I’ve liked almost everything I’ve tried from Butiki, though, and this is no exception!

I got a little of this in a swap with Kaylee today. Thanks Kaylee!

I am drinking it unsweetened this afternoon, and it has cooled almost to room temperature. It has a wonderful creamy/nuttiness :) Pistachios are in my top 3 favorite nuts!

I love the smell of this tea though oddly enough it reminds me more of almond pastry than of pistachios. The tea itself is light and sweet with a great toasted nuts flavour. The creamy notes are more subtle but I could taste them better as the tea cooled. Very yummy!

Steepster was down the other day when I tried to log this. Thank you Stacy for including this sample order in my order! I’ll be honest, this wasn’t really my cup of tea, but the husband loved it and wanted me to order some for him, further more he now feels he can’t trust anything I recommend as our taste in tea is clearly different eye roll I dunno, this was by no means bad, I love pistachios and pistachio ice cream though it’s been awhile since I’ve had the latter. This just didn’t do it for me. It tasted more like buttery, slightly burnt popcorn. I added a pinch of brown sugar to the second infusion, but it came off thin. Still husband loved and so do a lot of folks on here, so I leave off a rating. Husband and I are both looking forward to the Traditional Plum Pudding though he refuses to try the Potato Pancakes, Eggnog or any of the fall blends (he hates pumpkin and cinnamon). I have a feeling we’ll be ordering lots of Butiki fruit blends come summer.

Really loving this one – it’s got a permanent tin in my cupboard!

Brewed 2 1/2 tsp (though might have been closer to 3 tsp as they weren’t really level) in about 12 oz of water. Added a tsp of rock sugar to enhance the creaminess. So good!

Also nice with hummus & salty pita chips – balancing the sweet and salty!

I’m pretty low on this and am dreading the day that my tin becomes empty. Hoping to not let that happen! It’ll take discipline, but this is worth it! :)

So I brewed up this tea and I was SO excited to get to try it …..

And then I got a call from my credit card company that a bunch of fraudulent charges were made on my credit card. So I had to cancel it and deal with all of that. So… this tea never was consumed. I put it in the fridge and am hoping to try it tomorrow and give it a proper review. I’m kinda bummed since I only had a small sample. But, here’s hoping it all works out.