Three Friends (Orange, Marshmallow, Chocolate)

I was talking to myself recently “Hey self, why don’t you ever drink flavored tea’s anymore? you’re getting to be out of touch and boring!”
(I’d probably be boring anyway, but to the point…)

It was true! I had slipped down the slope of tea mental-pause and was boring even to myself!
I love my Black Tea’s, Oolongs and Pu-er…but now and then I want DESSERT! (No umpteen steeps and no Gaiwan!)

So who do you call when the sweet tooth needs to be satisfied…
STACY at BUTIKI that’s who! (I know there are others you can call but honestly, if I have a choice on interesting (sometimes funny) flavors that are natural and ones I can count on, it’s Stacy!)…besides…she’s a hoot and nice!

If I melted down an Orange Creamsicle, and added a little chocolate it would taste like this. PLAIN AND SIMPLE!
(Hope ya’ll got that!)

I HATE tea that is so artificially flavored that it makes your tongue feel furry and the aftertaste goes sour…yuck! Gives me a migraine! Not Stacy’s tea’s and not this one!

It’s dreamy creamy…(not sour), orangy and fabulously good.
The chocolate is there but not the star. Creamsicle is the star!

Great Dessert Tea

I can’t believe I didn’t try this sooner, whether by ordering some or asking for a sample.
It’s really good. Doesn’t taste fake at all (and I’m the opposite of vegan so I’m always wary of the weird chemical and soy crap that goes into trying to duplicate something natural like meat or dairy, (though arguably neither of those is particularly natural these days) but Butiki’s teas never taste weird or fake!) and the flavoring is really delicate, not punch you in your face cloying or overwhelming.

Believe it or not, I can actually taste all the flavors, chocolate, orange and marshmallow, sure enough!! Imagine! Regretting not buying this sooner.

Reminds me a bit of Kusmi’s Euphoria, also chocolate orange, but mate rather than black tea.

I really like that one but i might like this one even more :)
It’s a flavored tea done right!

You know what sucks about this tea? The fact I had only a sample of it. Augggg NEED MORE!

How could I resist Chocolate, Orange, and VEGAN MarshMallowy goodness!?

Thanks Stacy!

This is a real gem!

The Black Tea base is wonderful in itself but the creamy-smooth chocolate gives a sugar but velvety goodness to it. That bit of marshmallow comparison is a neat touch, too!

It’s fun because I can taste both milk chocolate as well as dark chocolate flavors within this one! The orange is perfect here along side the other ingredients, too!

I want to say this is candy in a cup but then I think – NO – Not Candy…CAKE…NO…dessert…NO…just Awesomeville…squared!

It’s creative, it meshes very well, it’s different that other orange chocolate flavored tea, and different than just an average flavored black – it’s WAY above average, folks! It’s Excellent!!!!

YUMMERS.

Delightful! I could drink this everyday!

Soooo I got my Butiki Teas order (THANKYOUSTACYILOVEYOU!) and everything I’ve tried is SO good that I am thinking of selling all the teas I don’t care for in one big package. Just to make room for more Butiki.

No time to say more at the moment, but I’ll be back after work!

All I’ll throw in for now is that the base of this tea is amazing and the flavours perfectly blended. THANK YOU for a creamy chocolate orange tea that doesn’t taste like fish (sorry DavidsTea, your puerh leaves a lot to be desired). It’s just.. so.. perfect. Ahhhh

SOOOOO GOOOOOOOD!

Really nice chocolate, orange and marshmallow taste in this tea! With a fab black tea base to boot! Totally reminds me of Terry’s Chocolate Oranges and chilling out with my Dad.

I had some interesting steeping observations, I noted on my blog:
I had a few steeping times that were off due to impatience or not paying attention. I accidentally oversteeped it by 30 seconds and the marshmallows really popped out. The marshmallow was interesting, but I preferred a weaker marshmallow flavor. I found at the 3 minute steeping mark you get a good balance of the chocolate/orange/marshmallow. The 2:45 minute mark there is very little marshmallow flavor in the first steeping.

Full review with pics at my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/03/19/three-friends-from-butiki-teas-tea-review/

EDIT: this is my 500th tasting note! WOWZZAAaAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!

This is a fantastic tea : I can detect the 3 flavours without problem and distinctively, lovely.
Just love the way the orange works with chocolate.
I love the tea base, so mellow, so comfortable for the palate.
Even if I am not a fan of marshmallows (in France we call them Chamallows) at all-I remember being very sick with some when I was a child – I had several marshmallow teas and this one is from far the best one.

I love it but I agree with Azz, it sucks to have only one sample of it :)

This tea reminds me so much of Christmas! I used to always find a chocolate orange in my stocking from Santa. I’m surprised at how close this tea tastes to a real chocolate orange!

The first part of the sip starts out with the light and tangy flavor of orange, tightly hugged by the dark chocolate. The tea base seems to support the chocolate orange flavor beautifully — lending itself well by adding bitterness to the orange notes and richness to the chocolate. The marshmallow makes for a very soft and smooth finish. It’s fluffy and silky. Delicious! I wish I could detect a bit more marshmallow (I LOVE marshmallow teas) but overall, I’m very happy with how yummy this blend is! A permanent spot in my tea collection!

Sipdown! Another one bites the dust (haha, also I only had one cup’s worth! Booya!) Well, this one certainly smells divine! Like a delicious Terry’s chocolate orange. Tastewise, I’m getting the chocolate and orange, and presumably the marshmallow is coming off as a bit of creaminess. I think I’m getting a strange note at the end of the sip from the black tea, though, and it’s not quite fitting in for me, because although it’s malty, it’s just a bit bitter in contrast to the flavours, and I’m not a huge fan of that. I’m also finding it odd that the orange/chocolate flavours seem to fade quite quickly instead of lingering, so all I’m left with is lingering black tea flavour (well, mostly, there’s a bit of the others but they fade very quickly into the background).

I think I can understand why you’re having a bit of trouble with this one, Sil. The flavours just aren’t blending quite as nicely as I would want them to. Thanks for sharing a sample with me, though!

ETA: Made two re-steeps of this today, and had the same problem with both, although I did still drink them. Just finding that black tea note coming up a bit strangely. I wonder how this would taste with something like the Premium Taiwanese Assam as a base (although of course, that would be crazy expensive).

So let me begin by saying that I have a tendency to stalk Stacy, the owner of Butiki Teas when she lets upcoming teas out of the bag. I did it for her Grapefruit Dragon and this was another one that I was all too willing to harass her about. You see as much as I LOVE grapefruit, I am even more in love with chocolate orange…but specifically the kind that comes in the form of those squishy “pot of gold” chocolates that are all creamy orange inside the chocolate. I am not a fan of chocolate oranges, but those soft orange chocolates – YES please!

The dry aroma of these leaves is EXACTLY like orange chocolates. The leaves are a beautiful golden colour with chunks of orange and wonderful chocolate chips. I could not get enough of the dry smell of this tea. It is phenomenal!
Upon brewing this tea, the tea continues to smell like chocolate orange! At first sip, there is a distinct orange flavour that blends into a beautiful chocolatey taste. There’s an undertone in the tea that I’m not sure I can place yet, but that might have been because i didn’t put enough leaf in this time. I’ll be brewing this again to see how adding a bit of sugar changes this taste.

This really hit the spot this morning! Thanks Stacy for the sample, I’ve had this on my wishlist for some time now and it did not disappoint. The orange, chocolate and marshmallow all come through perfectly. What a delicious blend! This will be on my next order for sure. What a nice cup to start my day.

I got this as a sample from the awesome Stacy. This is one I wish I had grabbed! The flavors of orange, marshmallow and chocolate are a perfect medley, without being too sweet. I can taste each flavor individually and in harmony in each sip. Yum!

I feel like as a rule I have very definite tastes that very rarely deviate. Tea-wise I’ve mostly learned what those are, but occasionally something sounds SO GOOD that I’ll just go for it anyway. That was the case with this tea: orange isn’t my thing, so much, but marshmallow and chocolate really, really are. So, into the cart it went. :)

The dry leaf reminds me of Earl Grey Creme, just with chocolate. This is starting out pretty awesome, I must say. I gave it to my boyfriend to smell and he couldn’t tell what it was, just that it smelled sweet and kind of citrusy. I like when he volunteers to smell things without knowing what they are because it’s like a single blind study for me. :)

Anyway, following Butiki’s parameters I did 1 tbsp. leaf to the 500 ml. in my Breville. It brewed up a light brownish orange, and smelled the same as it was when dry – creamy orange dark chocolate. And it tastes just the same! Dark chocolate and orange are equally present throughout the sip, with that creamy undertone rounding out and supporting those two flavors rather than standing out in its own right. Yeah – this doesn’t need anything added to it.

This was blended SO WELL, you guys. I mean, I’m relatively late on the Butiki bandwagon but I cannot stress enough how if there’s ever a blend that Stacy makes in the future that sounds good, I’m going to have to get it because it WILL taste just like it’s supposed to. Man I’m so excited to tear into the rest of my order from her!

So this is actually ‘Two Friends’, but I’m ‘Too Lazy/Busy’ to create a listing for it. It is Sil’s custom blend from Butiki, & as always, Stacy is the awesome Mistress of the Arts of blending! Here’s what I like about it:
1 It’s bold! The chocolate isn’t some wimpy milk chocolate flavor, it’s dark chocolate, all the way. Very satisfying!
2 The orange is very juicy, very mouth watering, & it’s not ‘life savers’ kind of orange flavor, it’s more like a grown up orange, like an orange liquor.
3 They are blended together perfectly, & remind me of candied orange slices dipped in dark chocolate.
4 It’s decadent!!! I’m kind of grumpy. I need decadent! It’s tasty plain, it’s delicious sweetened, add french vanilla coconut milk creamer & it’s chocolate & orange pots of cream. I love them all. Its probably also delicious cold, but I haven’t tried it that way yet.

I am not typically a fan of chocolate orange blends. Usually artificial orange flavor tastes like perfume to me and, so, any orange blend just rings yuck to me. The perfume taste combined with Exlax tasting chocolate is just not good. But I figured that if anyone could give me a chocolate orange tea that would be delicious, it would be Stacy. So I bought it. And I really really like it.

The chocolate taste is magnificent. It reminds me of the chocolate in Laoshan Black Chocolate Genmaicha. It’s that perfect. It’s the perfect dark chocolate. Not too bitter and not too milky. The orange taste is PERFECT. It’s refreshing and it’s just enough orange that you know it’s there but it’s not overpowering at all. It’s like someone zested an orange in ganache. I didn’t really get much marshmallow but I assume that the creaminess and slight vanilla taste is the marshmallow. The Zhen Qu base is the perfect platform for all these strong flavors because it lets them shine and shows up in the taste when it feels like it.

I really like this one a lot. Perhaps not enough to buy more than an ounce at a time but definitely enough that I’ll reorder…along with an ounce or 4 of that licorice blend.

I received this sample with my Butiki order today, and as usual, Stacy doesn’t disappoint with her flavored blends. Sweetened, this makes a delicious dessert tea. The aroma wafting out of the cup is like a juicy orange and the most predominant flavor is orange-it reminds me of the classic Creamsicles from my childhood, but you still know you’re drinking tea. There is a hint of chocolate and the marshmallow is probably in there somewhere, adding to the yumminess, but orange is at the forefront. Some flavored teas leave an unpleasant aftertaste, but not this one. The second steep still packs plenty of flavor too. I give this the thumbs up, especially when sweetened as a dessert tea in the evening.

And yet another masterpiece by Stacy! This reminds me of those chocolate oranges you buy at the grocery store. It tastes so good! No artificial taste and the dry leaf is just beautiful!!! And if its like any of her other teas it probably resteeps very well too! Thanks for another flawlessly delicious tea!

I’ve finally over my cold and I can try all the Butiki tea samples I received! Thanks for those! This is the one I’ve been most anxious to try, as I keep seeing wonderful reviews.

I steeped this one up, I accidentally forgot to set the timer. I think only about a minute passed before I realized but there may have been some oversteeping. I took a sip and…didn’t really taste much. I tried again, and got some vague black tea flavor. What did I do wrong?? Maybe my tongue is broken. I’m really sad that I couldn’t get all these amazing flavors.

After running to the store with one of the roommates, I came back and had some tea still left in the mug that had gone cold. I decided to try it and actually got some of the flavor I was expecting! There’s definitely orange and dark chocolate. So what’s going on with me and this tea?

I’m cheating with this one again. I made 14 oz of tea, added 2 oz of milk and a decent clump of brown sugar. It’s AMAZING. It mellows the marsh, and brings out the orange and makes the chocolate OH SO GOOD. Maybe I’ll always break my no additives rule for this tea. I mean… it is good on it’s own. It’s just better with friends. :)

Mmmm orange and chocolate (and marshmallow). I can’t really pick out the marshmallow flavour…but that’s ok I was more interested in the chocolate orange flavour anyways. I have tried this with and without added almond milk and I like it both ways. Really nice flavoured black tea :)