Potato Pancakes & Applesauce (Holiday Series: Hanukkah)

One of the main reasons I LUV Stacy at Butiki is she ISN’T afraid to try stuff! And you know what…I’ve enjoy everything she’s tried!!!

This was a MAJOR Creative Marvel, folks! It was suggested in the forums and I was so very grabbed by it I begged Stacy to be one of the Guinea Pigs/Taste Testers!

This really DOES smell like Potato Pancakes and Applesauce! It’s awesome!

But then again…you really have to SEE to believe what she put in this flavored tea! She actually put POTATO in it! Freeze Dried, I believe! Woot! And Apple! Ahhhh!

It really doesn’t have much of a color to it after infusing but the aroma still barrels thru nicely!

It’s a meal in a cup! And this is even before my first sip!

As I took my first sip…I can taste the juicy sweet tea base first with a lovely semi-punch applesauce flavor paired in! Following sips – it’s sweet but creamy in places…I really like it! I chalk the creaminess up to the potato. Then in other sips I can actually taste potato in the middle of the sip separate from the rest of the flavors!

WOW!

It’s brothy and buttery and comforting like mashed potatoes but that applesauce is very nice. It’s not over the top by any means.

Everything about this tea makes me smile!

It’s just so out there but it makes SO MUCH SENSE at the same time! I’m so happy Stacy took on this challenge! Gosh! Wow! I can’t compare this to anything else. Ever. If I can’t compare this to anything else…I better give it a 100, right?

I mean…no one…has ever done anything like this that I know of.
I seriously can’t stop drinking this.

Yup! I have to do it…100!

1oz sipdown! This tea is a creative novelty, which is another way for me to say that I don’t quite grasp the full concept of this cup. It’s probably the potatoes. I understand the spiced apple (which is delicious), and the pairing with the very smooth green base that I have yet to try on its own (next order). Then there are potatoes, whose presence in the blend is much akin to rainbow unicorns dancing a waltz in your kitchen (with potatoes).

I like how you can tinker with this cup to get different notes out of it. Add salt for delicious potato pancakes (that was yummy), drink right away or with sugar to get apples, eat potatoes and forget about rest of tea, etc. I think my best cup of this was when I forgot about it for an hour- I could taste all of the ingredients in that session. This blend is a lot of fun and I enjoyed scooping my big servings out. I’ll miss its funky presence and comforting applesauce flavours.

I originally suggested this flavor to Stacy when her “create your own flavor” contest was going on. I was thinking of unique flavors to replicate in tea. Chanukah was coming up, and there seemed to be an endless amount of Christmas teas coming out, but no Chanukah ones. So, I suggested this flavor based on one of my favorite Chanukah foods. I thought Stacy would laugh and say, “What a terrible idea!” but I think she was actually intrigued by the challenge.. and so this flavor is born.

(Thanks to Stacy for sending a sample of this my way, btw.)

The smell of the tea is definitely a nice applesauce base. When it’s brewed, without sweetener, you get this nice soft apple flavor with some very faint cream and potato notes. It’s a perfectly nice flavor all on its own and it doesn’t really NEED anything, but… just for kicks I’m going to add salt because I want to bring out those potato notes.

And adding salt definitely changes the taste of the tea. Those apple notes are pretty much gone and it turns into more of a broth soup type taste. How crazy! It’s a transforming tea.

The best part of the tea is that after it’s steeped, you have these real chunks of potato and apple in your steeper basket that you can eat, which I did. 

All in all this is a very interesting tea that is unlike anything I’ve ever tried. The flavors can be subtle, but make for really interesting combination. So glad I suggested it!

Oh man. I really thought i’d broken my steepster when this tasting note didn’t want to open for like 3 mins. Good thing i’m incredibly distracted at the moment haha. This is technically my second time drinking this, though when the girls were over all i had time to do was add that i’d had it with no actual rating or tasting note.

kittenna was nice enough to leave me back a small sample so that i could have some more at my leisure and that time is NOW! mostly so that I can get to 298 teas so when my two teas show up tomorrow i stay under 300 (and yes Dinosara, i’m totally going to drink all of those tea bags tomorrow so they won’t be hanging over my head….all 100 of them! heh)

Anyway..i digress. So this tea. i am IN.LOVE. with the applesauce going on here…as in the apple, and cinnamon. SOOOOOOOO good. It’s like someone took the applesauce from the fridge and liquified it even more. The apple is in a great balance with the cinnamon.

That being said…potato? uh…well there are chunks of potato…but the flavour isn’t really there. not that i want it to be because i am loving this apple cinnamon.

Yay, new tea!

I have to agree with everyone that the chunks of potato in here are just so cool! I threw an extra couple in my infuser, and after I give this a second infusion sometime later, I plan to eat them. Haha.

Anyhow, the tea! Steeped, it smells lightly cinnamony, and a bit like cider. Given the name and ingredients, this is pretty expected. (Ok hiccups, you can go away anytime now…) It reminds me most of DavidsTea’s Hot Toboggan and/or Mom’s Apple Pie, so that’s kind of the flavour I’m expecting, although hopefully it will be better as I wasn’t overly fond of either of those. And….. WOOOAAAH! Total apple cinnamon potato pancake, here! I’m definitely tasting raw potato, which is likely because I put extra potato chunks in my infuser :D, and light cinnamon. Very pancakey! The texture is definitely also changed by the potato, which I’m finding interesting – it’s very full-bodied and smooth. The only thing I’m missing here is being able to taste the green tea, which is odd as there was a good amount in there as well.

Overall, this is an intriguing blend that is quite true to the name, in my opinion, but not quuuiiitte my cup of tea. That said, I don’t actually think I’m a big fan of apple-cinnamon, which is funny because I have at least 5 apple-cinnamon teas, if not more. So not a re-purchase, but I will still drink this all up! And hey, with potato chunks it has a huge novelty factor!

ETA: Re-steep for an accidental 6 minutes was pancakey and a bit cinnamony… and the green tea came out! Yay! Tasty :)

Full Review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 18th but here are the snippits:
(GET THIS TEA!)

Potato Pancakes and Applesauce form Butiki Teas brings back memories of my childhood. My grandmother would make us kids potato cakes often and I loved them. I have since tried to recreate them myself but I can never get that really yummy dark fried coating on them the way my grandmother could. Perhaps it is because she cooked in a very well aged cast iron skillet. Or maybe it was that she used lard or something I do not use myself. Whatever the case, this tea brings back those fond memories of days gone by and leaves me with a happy and content feeling.

I will confess, I ate all the bits and pieces – more like chunks – right out of the steeping basket after my second steep and they were still bursting with flavors!

I love the use of Organic Huangshan Mao Feng, I feel that it really compliments this blend with its sweet and buttery nature and its already obvious potato note.

The taste of this tea is so real to its namesake that you can taste the starch coming off of the potatoes! The apple chunks are so yummy with the right amount of sweet cinnamon upon them. This is not a highly concentrated cinnamon tea however, the cinnamon is quite subtle in the background. The apple pieces taste more like bits from a caramel apple.

So Maple Pecan was my breakfast tea (quite literally), Pumpkin Creme Brûlée was my hello you need to eat lunch now you silly girl tea and this was my before, during and after dinner tea (apple chicken sausages, perogies, veggie pancakes- like potato pancakes and peas).

When I opened the bag it smelled very familiar and it tastes very familiar as well. My first thought was sweet white wine, then upon tasting, sparkling cider, then hard cider, sparkling white grape juice, champagne and back to wine! It’s not apple juice nor apple cider it’s not as strong and full and autumnal, it’s light and very refined and conjures up holiday memories of drinking non-alcoholic bubbly.

There are potato and buttery notes for sure, strongest in the first steep but in the second it was competing with the food which brought out its sweetness, it really was acting as the applesauce to my potato pancakes, but right now I’m lost in this effervescent mystery drink on the third, no the fourth steep! The flavor keeps on going and I’m loving it! Thanks Stacy!

I had a sample of this from a swap and it is freaking delicious. I love the taste of the potato, because it tastes buttery and savory but not weird like I expected. Then towards the end of the sip I taste the apple, then the cinnamon. It’s like a meal in a cup, you get every layer of the flavor at its best, no compromising any part of it.

On the Butiki website it says add salt to bring out the potato or sugar to bring out the applesauce. I’m going to have to try it both ways and report back. This time I drank it straight because I drink 99% of my tea straight.

Oh my! Where has this tea been all my life! First I have to say that I love potatoes. I actually love them so much that when people ask me what I want for my birthday or for Christmas, I inevitably say “a sack of potatoes”. I am always delighted when I actually do get them. So when my Butiki order came in today, I decided to try this first. It especially sounded comforting because I have a cold. I’m so glad I tried this first. Sipping it is just one scrumptious mouthfull after another of potato, appley, cinnamony, and buttery goodness! I have a feeling I’m going to be working my way through the ounce I got of this VERY quickly! :-)

This is a fun tea. In the description she suggests adding salt to bring out the potato flavor or sugar to bring out the apple. So I made a pot and poured it into 3 smaller cups. Added a slight bit of rock sugar to one, slight bit of fleur de sel to one, and left one alone. I tasted the plain one and was really intrigued, but wanted it either saltier or sweeter. So I tried the salted one, loved the potato flavor but wanted to still taste the apple, which kind of went away. Tried the sweetened one. Good, but was missing the potato. So… I took all 3 cups mixed them all together. Both sugar and salt in the mix. I like it the best. I’m not sure how often I’ll have this, but I can see craving this every so often.

Potato tea whut?

I was curious about this so I requested this as a free sample with my last order. I’m so happy I did. It really smells of applesauce, and each sip is fantastic. I’m getting potato (but not starchy terrible potato), and apple and butter and it feels full-bodied. I was going to drink this with lunch but it almost feels like I just had lunch.

This wouldn’t be an everyday tea, but I’d love to keep an ounce of it around when I’m craving something savory and sweet. Idek what a potato pancake is, but I’d like to try that too!

#sipdown!

Big thanks to Stacy from Butiki Teas for providing this sample with my latest order. Yay! I love trying new teas! :D

The aroma of the brewed tea is recognizably potato and apple. Wow. How did she do that? First sip! Hmm, the taste is so interesting. The first part of the sip is buttery green tea. The end of the sip is potato: warm, buttery potato pancake. Mmm! The apple is very quiet in this, but it complements the other flavors well.

This tea is very well blended indeed. I’m really enjoying this! My cup is almost empty, oh no! Time for a second infusion for 6 minutes. Wow! The aroma of this second cup seems better than the first! It smells positively AMAZING! I added a teensy tiny bit of sweetener to this cup in hopes of bringing out more apple.

Mmm, it worked! The aroma is weighted towards potato pancake, but the taste is weighted towards cinnamon apples. This is the first time I’ve identified cinnamon in the tea. The sweetener was just the right amount to bring out the apple flavor without actually making the tea taste sugary sweet. And there’s still plenty of potato pancake flavor! This is perfect!

I’m loving this! It’s so unique and delicious. And I’m sooo impressed that it re-steeps this well! I just can’t believe it. Sooooo good!!!! I never want to run out of this! This is MAGIC!!! Thanks, Stacy!

I had to get this tea, it sounds so crazy to me that I needed to try it. potato bits?

DRY: lots of fun potato cubes in this tea – I want to eat! Smells like appley. Bit annoying to measure the tea, the leaves are resisting my teaspoon. No, you must be steeped into tasty tea!

STEEPED: Warm, light spice, apple smell. THOSE WHITE CUBES ARE MINE! OOMMNOMNOMNOMM potato! The apple bits are nice and sweet. Very pale yellow colour. This tea had no chance for being a resteep since I ate all the fun bits.

TASTE: Mmmm, applesauce tea? I’ve had this tea’s base, Huangshan Mao Feng, and it’s very good, juicy buttery corn and refreshing – works very well with the apple and potato.
The slightly spiced apple flavor is all natural. The potato is interesting, it kinda adds a flavor of texture – does that make sense? It doesn’t physically add chunkyness, but adds an interesting depth of savory light potato flavor. Overall, the flavoring is light, but juicy.

COMMENTS: POTATO CHUNKS SO CUTE! I wanna draw little faces ^ _ ^ on them, lol! This tea is really fun, unique and interesting to me. Though, you gotta be into light flavoring.

One of my favorite memories was eating potato pancakes during the special winter celebrations day in elementary school. I remember loving the balance of potato and apple. Plus, it being something I didn’t eat on a regular basis made it even more special. I thought that this was a brilliant idea for a tea. I’m a little nervous to see just what it will taste like, but it smells promising: sweet cinnamon, apple and the strong note of potato.

Sipping… I taste apple with cinnamon first. It’s almost like a very, very light cider.. as if the apple went for a quick dip in the water. The sip quickly changes to a potato finish. It’s not so much a mashed potato kind of flavor, but more like very raw potato slices. As I sip, I realize that this tea is a bit more savory and salty than sweet. The aftertaste is almost a little bit like an apple pastry — dough, butter, cinnamon, apples — only without the sweetness.

I think that could make for a very nice and light apple tea if there were no potatoes… but removing them would take away all of the fun that this tea has. Although I am not sure I would love to drink this each day, I cannot think of a more perfect potato pancake & applesauce tea. It’s so creative, interesting and actually quite tasty!

This is amazing!

I received this in a swap.
this cup was so clear it was quite spectacular.
this is so delicious. I don’t know what potato pancakes are suppose to taste like, but this is so good. you get the buttery vegetal notes & the hint of cinnamon & apples. mmmmmm I could drink this all the time.

I won’t lie, half the reason I bought this is that there’s not a lot of really unique Hanukkah stuff out there. The other half is that I love potato pancakes and this seemed like a really interesting, experimental tea.

This brews up very very light. The color might be best described as ivory. The tea smells like spiced applesauce. Or maybe apple chips. The point is, cinnamon and apple.

The flavor profile in the description is dead on. Buttery, mashed potato taste up front, apple cinnamon throughout, and potato again on the back end. A touch of Manuka honey really brings out the apple. Basically tastes like a sweet apple. With butter. Probably a terrible combination of solids, but a very good combination in tea.

The blend looks so nice in my infuser that I want to eat it. Not the best idea unless you’re at least six minutes into a second steep – but at that point it becomes an excellent idea. Also, this does hold up nicely for a second steep, you just have to steep it for a long time. I think I ended up going for eight minutes. I added salt to the second steep to see what would happen, but I don’t think I added enough because it didn’t seem to make much difference… and last time I added too much and ended up with salty tea… maybe I’ll get it right next time around.

Overall, yum! Yummy yum yum! More of a winter drink, I think, but definitely a good example of a savory tea (pay attention, Numi!).

Thanks so much for the sample Stacy~ Wow, what a great experience ordering from this company was.

As for this tea, I have no problems with it. This tea is amazing, the potato rounds off the apples perfectly, the base is great, and eating the bits out of the infuser is delicious. This is defiantly going on the shopping list. I need more. MOAR.

Whoa. This is one crazy tea. And I love it! I ordered this one on a total whim, because it sounded so off-the-wall that I had to try it. I think the best way to describe this tea is “savory.” You can definitely taste the potato, which is exactly what I was hoping for. Delicious.

I drank half the cup without any additions, and then added a tiny bit of sea salt for the second half. It felt strange adding salt to a cup of tea, but it was tasty. I’m going to try my next cup with a little bit of sugar, to see if I can bring out the applesauce flavor.

Thank you for this tea Shelley_Lorrane!

I didn’t know what to make of this flavor combination, but was intrigued enough to want to try it. I’m not aware of any dish where apples and potatoes cross paths, so it strikes me as a curious marriage. It’s like an odd couple that don’t seem right for each other and you wonder what on earth they are doing together until you spend some time with them and then it dawns on you how strangely perfect of a match they are. I get this tea now. I don’t think it is something I will want to keep stocked in my cupboard, but I get it now.

I can easily pick out the applesauce. It isn’t a fresh apple taste, it’s a cooked apple taste. I think I can taste a touch of cinnamon. I have never had potato pancakes, but I can definitely taste the creamy starchiness of the potatoes. I’m not tasting the green tea base at all and that’s okay. It’s pretty good without sugar, but it’s nice with it too. I could really go either way on the sugar part. Overall I’d rate it as interesting.