Tamarind Pop

Alphakitty! Thanks for this!!!!
It’s sweet and vanilla and caramelly and somewhat spicy but it’s the sweeter spices not really chai spices! It’s very aromatic and flavorful in every way! It kind of has a cream soda sort of a taste to it, too! VERY creative, VERY unique…LOVE the LOVE that went into this one! Very nice!

A few months back I started a thread about what unique blends people would like to see, inspired by a sudden craving for tamarind tea—which mysteriously does not seem to exist! The awesome Stacy at Butiki contacted me about a custom blend and I jumped on the chance—I mean, it’s every tea-lover’s dream to have their own custom tea just for them! I was amazed that she liked the finished creation enough to add it to their regular lineup since it means that everyone can try what started as an idle idea and ended up being one of the best teas I’ve ever tasted.

Of course my review is a bit biased since the flavors are pretty much tailored to my palate—the original idea was to replicate the taste of those tamarind-flavored Mexican sodas, and boy does this deliver! The Guranse base adds a nice woodsy/earthy smoothness and there’s that bright pop of malty/sour flavor from the tamarind, followed by delicious brown sugar. But they combine to form something better than the sum of their parts: there are notes of caramel, vanilla, and yes, an almost soda-like fizziness! With just a pinch of rock sugar it’s somehow even better, and it really brings all the flavors together. I’ve had this hot, iced, lukewarm from sitting in the AC too long, and it’s perfect every way. This is definitely my ideal tea, and it’s amazing to actually have it in front of me!

Thank you Stacy for this sample of the new Tamarind Pop Tea!

It’s going to be 102 in Fort Collins, Colorado today! Happy Summer!

I’m not even going to venture out to the pool…my air conditioner is staying on and after reviewing hot tea…I’m going to start brewing
some iced!

Tamarind
Pods of Tamarind are common in most markets in the S.F. Bay Area where I grew up, and tamarind drinks are also super common in restaurants.(You people in the Western State’s know what I’m talking about!)
Open up a lumpy tamarind pod and there are seeds and sticky dark fruit that is sour when unripened, and sweet enough for flavoring juices or using in pastries much like apricot or peach pulp when ripe. The fruit is good for the stomach and an antibacterial. The origin of the Tamarind Tree is in Africa. Today Mexico and Southeast Asia are the biggest users of this fruit in every day cooking and for beverages. It’s something I have used for sauces when I want a sweet but tangy ‘pop’ in my Thai main dishes but I’ve also had it tucked in a sweet pastry as filling, as a sweet iced drink and as candy!

Review!
The steep time was 3 minutes at 212F in a brew basket/mug which produced a maple syrup colored liquor.

Interestingly, the first sip tasted like a light vanilla maple pancake syrup! Not thick and not syrupy sweet but a little sweet…and delicious, warm and fragrant! The base is black tea but was not dark, malty or cocoa tasting. I did feel a splash of tannin at the finish which was just fine with me.

I took another bigger drink…and again there was the vanilla flavor
which was very smooth. The flavor puzzled me. I was expecting something sharper and more acidic instead of this smooth vanilla syrup tea with tannin.

(Stacy often says that some tea’s benefit from adding a little bit of raw brown sugar crystals…and I had purchased some from her…so…)

I added the sweetening at this point in my tasting.
The improvement was evident. The tannin receeded and the fruitiness began to wriggle free.
My tastebuds grabbed for the newly detected dry fruit flavors. A mix of membrillo (quince paste) with peach and apricot leather and one little tangy ping. This ping was the sour fruit that says TAMARIND and can be nothing else in the World. All of this fruit flavor was followed by the vanilla that lingered for some time afterward.
The cup made sense at this point. The fruit was ripe tamarind. The addition of just a bit of sweet was the unifier that was needed for the tea to be at it’s best.

I let my cup cool all the way down. Still Good! This tea will be great iced!

Another ‘Sabroso’(tasty) naturally flavored and unique tea from Butiki!

I’ve been so excited and eager to try this tea since I saw that Stacy from Butiki Teas was going to try to make a Tamarind blend for AlphaKitty. The only other “tea” that I’ve had with Tamarind was a sparkling yerba mate RTD, and somehow, I don’t think that really qualifies since it’s a RTD. And it’s yerba mate. Don’t get me wrong, I LOVED that yerba mate, but, I have been wanting a “real” tea with tamarind since tasting that sparkling yerba mate.

I LOVE the aroma of the dry leaf. It smells like candy: sweet with hints of chocolate and vanilla and brown sugar. The brewed liquor smells lovely as well.

The flavor is rich. I like that I taste that Guranse base first and foremost. It is earthy and rich and bold – even bolder than I remember my tasting of the pure Guranse. Maybe the tamarind brings out the stronger side of the tea? Anyway, the natural fruit tones of the tea seem to play very well with the flavor of the tamarind.

Even though I grew up in Southern California and I’ve had a lot of experience with Hispanic foods, tamarind is one that I never really became very familiar with, so I haven’t really tried a lot of tamarind (at least, not to my recollection or knowledge) But, I really like this. It tastes sweet, a little bit sour, and quite unlike anything I’ve really tried before.

I am tasting this straight today, but, Stacy told me that I should try it both ways – sweetened and unsweetened – as they are two totally different teas. Tomorrow, I shall brew a pot and sweeten it and see how it turns out. But for now, I’m really enjoying this cup unsweetened. It has a very unique flavor, not like anything else I’ve tried, and I’m loving it.

Thanks to Stacy of Butiki teas for sending me this free sample!

Hmm, my experience with tamarind has been somewhat limited but I’ve had it before with Indian food. It has a very fruity, slightly sour type of taste. This tea actually does have an almost fizzy quality on your tongue. I’m getting a bit of vanilla and not a lot of cacao, but that’s ok. The tamarind flavor here is so nice! A very unique and interesting tea, I’d like to try this iced someday too, I bet it would be really good that way! :)

I did try it with a little turbinado sugar and I think the extra sweetness helped to pull this together quite nicely. I say: YUM!

Thank you Stacy for this sample

Hmm, I have no idea what tamarind is. This tea was really good. I was eating some leftover cake with it, and the sweetness of the cake really made the flavour pop. It is nice and creamy, but I am really not sure how to describe it.

Good suggestion Alphakitty!

EDIT: Upon Stacy’s suggestion to add sugar, I added sugar to my resteep for 5 minutes. It turned out really good. Cuts the bitterness of the first steep without sugar. This does taste a little bit more familiar now, I have probably have had tamarind like Alphakitty suggested.

Nothing like pouring water into the kettle to make tea, only to hear the sound of dozens of glass bottles being dropped into the recycling truck…NOT the sound you want while pouring water if you don’t want it on the floor, let me tell you.

I made this hot but I really think I’m gonna go steep some more and make some iced. I don’t think I’ve had anything tamarind in a really long time, and the only thing has been tamarind chutney. I at least think I have a general idea of what it tastes like before drinking this: sweet, tart, something I’d clearly like.

I added a bit of agave because I’m in the mood for it a bit sweeter, but I did take a couple sips beforehand. I like it even better this way, definitely reminiscent of soda! Super fruity with a nice tang to it, and it’s got the nice richness of vanilla caramel.

Even better…that iced steep should be made super concentrated and diluted with carbonated water! Trying that later.

Ok, couldn’t wait any longer to try it out. I steeped a teaspoon of tea in 2 oz of water, then added agave and 4 oz of seltzer water. I LOVE it. Somehow the maltiness of the tea is popping even more too along with the tamarind. There’s less of the creaminess to it, it feels like, but bumping up these flavors in exchange is worth it.

My bad, I really should have sweetened this. As is, unsweetened, it’s a pretty tasty generically flavoured black, with an aftertaste that I can make out to be tamarind. Mostly, though, it tastes like a fairly smooth black tea with vanilla and other flavours mingling in every now and again. There’s a low level of astringency (but I did oversteep this one a little, oops), but it’s very tolerable.

I’d definitely drink this one again without sweetener, just as a black, but I’m kicking myself for forgetting to add sugar when I was brewing it earlier! So curious about the tamarind soda flavour everyone’s raving about!

ETA: WOW Stacy, are you ever right that rock sugar makes all the difference here! Put maybe 1.5 tsp into my second infusion, and I definitely taste tamarind now. However, of course, since this is a second infusion of a black, no less, it’s not bad, but not great either. That said, I’m super excited to try this again properly! It’s crazy what a difference some sugar makes. Not that I intend to make this a habit, but if nothing else, it’s interesting! Will have to try with the Watermelon Dragonwell & Watermelon Xylophone for sure.

I really took a chance with this one as I have no idea what a tamarind or tamarind pop tastes like!
It’s a good sturdy tea though, no fuss – pretty tasty! I just need to read the description again to see what it is I can look for!

I think when I ordered it I had the peach hoppitea/beer tea on my mind. I hope that one day I can get my hands on some of those because they just screeeeam summer to me. Fruity beer tea! YESPLS.

This is the first tea that I am trying from Butiki Teas and I’m excited. I didn’t really know what tamarind tasted like before this, but the dry leaves smell of caramel and vanilla. The tea is malty and kind of earthy tasting. There is a slight spiciness about this tea, but not a peppery spiciness, more of a sweet type of spicy. I can taste a little bit of a rich cocoa flavor in the aftertaste. This is definitely a uniquely flavored tea. I’ve never had a tamarind soda before, but I think I would like it after tasting this tea. Thanks Alphakitty for the sample!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs with small bright reddish orange petals.
-Dry leaves smell like caramel and vanilla. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea, cocoa and sweet caramel.
-Tea liquor is a clear light golden brown color.
-Malty and earthy caramel flavor with a sweet spicy finish. Small rich cocoa aftertaste.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Very good tea. A unique cup. Earthy, deep and sweet spicy flavor.

This tea comes to me from my swap with Rachel Sincere. Thanks!

I love tamarind, in pretty much any form. Sweet, sour, earthy… it’s one of my favorite flavors. I always wanted to try this tea when it became available because of that fact, so I jumped on the chance to get some in a swap. I’ve read through the tasting notes and see that most people recommend it with a little sugar, but I don’t have any so I won’t be using it. I’ve never had Guranse black tea before, so I am interested to try it as well.

From the dry leaf I get an aroma that reminds me of the spicy tamarind candies you can find in foreign grocers sometimes. Basically thick tamarind paste, covered in coarse sugar, often mixed with a bit of cayenne for spice. Those also tend to have an earthy smell to them, which I pick up here a lot. I get the sour fruitiness, and what reminds me of a little spice.

Steeped, the tea smells black and fruity in a tart way. I am really enjoying this tea. It is blended in such a way that it really accentuates the black tea, which happens to work very well with the sweet-sour tamarind flavor. There isn’t a true sourness here, but perhaps the idea of it? Whatever it is, it works. I definitely pick up the smoky tabacco notes in the base tea, and again they somehow really fit with the tamarind. Normally I wouldn’t be really into a tea with smoky notes, but this one is working for me. It’s definitely subtle flavoring, and I’m sure it is brought out by sugar, but I’m not sure that it needs it. I like it that way.

This just reminds me that I really need to put in an order to Butiki one of these days.

Yup this one is EXACTLY how it is described! I could not give a better review of this one so just read the notes in the listing for this tea!
It DOES have that carbonation soda like fizz to it too!
This is a keeper!
Thank you so much Stacy of Butiki Teas for always creating the most wonderful blends!

I am not familiar with tamarind – this is not something we find easily in France (except probably at La Réunion or in the French Antilles) – so have nothing to compare with and no special expectations with the tamarind flavour of the tea.

The brewed liquor has a beautiful amber colour and the scent is fantastic.

I find the tea a little bit bitter to my taste and just a hint of sourness but it is pleasant even if I won’t add this one in my shopping list.

Despite its quality I think it is just maybe not a tea for me or maybe I won’t be a fan of tamarind if I ever have the chance to taste it.

Thank you Azzrian for the sample I am very glad to have had the opportunity to taste it.

Rayn and I tried this last night and both gave it the verdict of YUM.

It tastes very much like a tamarind jarritos (mexican soda) with a little hint of vanilla. I’m pretty sensitive to sweetness and thought it was just enough sweet for me sans sugar. Rayn drained his cup in record time. Two thumbs up!

Oh, also it smells WONDERFUL.

Tamarind Tea? Ohhhh yeah! I got really excited when I saw this tea on Steepster! I needed to have it and try it!

Tamarind, if you never had it, has an interesting sour taste but also sweet. As a kid, I’ve eaten it as tamarind candies – that are sticky balls rolled in sugar (or salt) with the pod seeds in the middle. Also, I’ve had tamarind often as a soup base for Sinigang (a filipino soup or stew). When I starting cooking Sinigang myself, I would go crazy and make the soup base super strong for ultra sour soup!

DRY: Tangy sweet? This tea dry has an unusual smell that was hard to identify.

STEEPED: As I had my steeper pour the tea into my cup, there was huge wafts of tamarind and black tea smells – very awesome! Steeps up to a dark amber brown tea.

TASTE: Is addictive a taste? It’s earthy, sweet, creamy, non-sour tamarind pop (ha!) to it. Great black tea taste in there too. I’m picking up a teeny bit of astringency, however does not take away from the tea.
I didn’t add sugar because I was lazy.

WHO SHOULD TRY THIS TEA: Tamarind pop sounds adventurous (especially if you never had tamarind and just read I make sour soup with it) but has a lot of flavors going on and isn’t weird crazy. Black tea drinkers would like this tea for sure.

COMMENTS: Very addictive tea! I drank Tamarind Pop so fast as if it was a cold soda and now I’m craving more. Maybe iced or cold steeped, oh yeah!

Very expertly blended tea! All these teas I got from Butiki are amazing, I think I might have to break my “no buy” to get some more!

Thanks so much for the sample Azzrian!!!
What an interesting tea. The tamarind comes through loud n clear. Love it! Quite tasty. Only in the first steep though. I ended up with three and the second had a rather faint tamarind aftertaste and the third had at all.
I don’t mind, the base is great. Reminds me of Keemum, rich and deep with cocoa notes. Almost coffee like in a way, with a similar roasted roundness. Mmmm.
Rating: 84

To be fair I made this in a mug I had been drinking milk in earlier so I’m not sure how that worked with the tea… I steeped for about 3min and it was pretty tasty :D Thanks Stacy for the sample (I did not try this sugar as it was great without)

I’m not sure I’ve ever had Tamarind soda before or what tamarind tastes like. But I do know that this tea is really smooth and tasty with some honey and milk. I’m now curious to find a tamarind soda to compare it to!

So basically the city is shut down today due to weather, no busses, no mail, no school (college & university included), even Walmart is closing. Highways closed to & from the city.
So I’m doing a sample sipdown. Finished off pineapple upsidedown cake.
Then this.

I wasn’t getting much of this flavour wise, I was getting scents of spices & almost coffee like smells.
I’m still not sure how this actually tastes, I have a wee bit left to make a small mug. So we will see then.
No numerical rating for now.

This is interesting! I’ve never had tamarind fruit before so I don’t really know what this should taste like, but after seeing all the high reviews for it I asked for this as my sample!

It is pretty great. There are some vanilla-y notes, and some fruity notes and it almost makes me think of cream soda (like TeaEqualsBliss mentioned).

I’m not sure I’d go out of my way to order this in the future as there are other Butiki teas I enjoy more and I usually have to restrain myself, but I’m happy I was able to try it!

Thanks Stacy for being so generous with your samples!