Custom (Butiki)
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Finally got around to having this one. I wanted to like it.The whole time I am sipping it I am thinking, something tastes strange…is there hibiscus in this? Why yes, yes there is. Even though Buiki’s use of hibiscus has always been on the conservative side (good move), I can’t help but feel like it covered up the mango flavour and white tea flavours. I am still happy I got to try this rare custom blend tea.
Also finished this one off yesterday. It was another good cup – I think by the end of the bag I get pretty good at brewing each Butiki just how I like it. There were strong notes of both chocolate and orange here, with the underlying maltiness of the assam. This is a truly great tea, and it’ll be sadly missed from my cupboard.
Preparation
I keep meaning to tell you that I stop short every time I see your name and smile. My daughter and I have been reading One Thousand and One Nights (or Arabian Nights as it is called in the UK) for school. We are nearly finished! I think we have forty pages to go.
This came to work with me today in a timolino. I was pleased to find that it still tasted as strongly of chocolate and orange as it did in my cup at home – sometimes I find things taste different from a flask, but not this one! I overleafed a little to compensate for the bigger size of the flask compared to a cup, but it worked really well and I’m pleased I took it along. I’m going to miss this one when it’s gone from my cupboard, and that day is closer than I’d like it to be,
Preparation
I drank this one just before bed yesterday evening. Under normal circumstances, it would have been a stupid thing to do, but I was so tired anyway that the extra caffeine didn’t keep me awake. I think I’m pretty immune anyway, but still. I used 2 tsp of leaf for my cup, and was reminded all over again how difficult it is to measure PTA. The leaves are so HUGE! My measuring spoon was never really in the game, so I just kind of guessed. It worked out fine, thankfully. I left it for four minutes, returned to a kitchen that smelled like melted Terry’s Chocolate Orange, and added a splash of milk just because.
To taste, it’s simply gorgeous. The way this week’s shaping up, I needed a treat and this turned out to be exactly the thing. The orange flavour is the strongest, and while there are the juicy, slightly sharp edges I’d expect from an orange, the overall effect is pretty candy-like. I think the chocolate helps with this, because it adds a smooth, creamy sweetness to the whole thing so that it’s basically like drinking a Terry’s Chocolate Orange. One word: yum!
I’ve tried Three Friends in the past, with the alternate base and additional marshmallow, but I think in all honesty I prefer this version. It seems a little more straightforward (there’s less going on, I guess, so that’s an obvious thing to say), and the chocolate/orange pairing really gets a chance to shine. PTA is delicious whichever way you look at it, so I’ve no complaints there either.
I love this one, and I’ll be sad when it’s finally gone from my cupboard. I know this Butiki sipdown thing is for the best, but it feels pretty grim all the same.
Preparation
Sipdown, sipdown, sipdown. I’m almost out of paper tea filters here so my mom let us bust out her Nordic mugs that I bought for her last year and they were still sitting in the boxes. She also wanted some of this tea so we christened both mugs with it. I topped both of ours off with Cointreau and mine with some half and half. Now I could taste the orange. Now now, I’m no alcoholic, but the liqueur truly elevated this blend.
Now I’m out of Butiki teas in this household so I’m going to have to wait until I get back to my other home to enjoy the rest.
You know I never actually got to try this one. Somehow orange in a black tea never appealed to me except on an occasional whim (lemon on the other hand…)
Ah, see, I’m forever searching for that perfect chocolate orange tea. But creamy/marshmallowy lemon teas? Sign me up for that too.
Sounds like an amazing combination…wish I still had some Three Friends left over to try some bartending experiments with it!
Come to think of it, an orange-flavoured tea isn’t even necessary to do this. I’m sure an unflavoured assam with a shot of Cointreau would be just as awesome. Will have to try that too. :)
Finally getting to this. Too bad I didn’t have any Three Friends to directly compare. To note, I did enjoy that one, but found that it benefited from a longer steep than recommended, and I picked up on the orange quite a bit, with a hint of chocolate in the background.
As for Two Friends, I’m still going to have to experiment with this more. Both times I’ve had it, both the chocolate and orange were weak. I even got my mom to smell and taste it without telling her the notes, and she had no idea what the flavouring was supposed to be. Even after I told her, she could not smell/taste chocolate or orange. With light cream, it tasted like a light malty Assam with a smidgen of orange. Perhaps I should add more leaf.
As much as I love Assam, I think the Zhen Qu base in the original Three Friends blended more harmoniously with the astringent orange.
Tired, sore head, not feeling great. But I feel much, much better after this cup. Chocolate and orange is one of those classic pairings that works so well. When I heard of it being used in a tea, I was very sceptical. Not any more, at least with what Butiki teas has to offer! The dried leaves are long black and wiry. The smell is, for anyone familiar with British confectionery items, is just like a jaffa cake. It’s the first thing I thought when I stuck my nose in the bag. The infused tea smells exactly the same. The taste is the same too. Jaffa cakes! I can see how this tea would be a bit divisive, a lot of folks dislike citrus in their tea, but not me. This is wonderful.
Flavors: Chocolate, Orange, Orange Zest
Preparation
Oooh. I’m soo naughty. I bought this as part of my order from Stacy’s bday sale and am only just now getting around to it.
Does anyone remember those orange flavored chocolate oranges that used to pop up around the holidays? You would just take the ball and smash it against something and it would pop open into slices. I absolutely loved those as a kid. This is what that reminds me off- especially as it cools down. I was expecting milk chocolate, because for some reason all my chocolatey teas lately have been more on the milk chocolate side, but this tea is totally dark chocolate orange slices. Absolutely divine.
(Edit) Ahem. Star date 20150130, from the USS Enterprise NCC-1701… (Should have had an Earl Grey!!)
Oh, I really really like this and I’m sad it’s pretty much gone. Just one more steep when I get home from work.
The flavours are super delicate and I mostly taste the base tea in my travel mug today. But there are hints of dark chocolate and orange and sweetness and malt.
Preparation
I love this tea.
I should have ordered more, but I didn’t. I almost like it more than Caramel Vanilla, which is WEIRD as generally I think chocolate and orange are a terrible combination.
Anyways, this evening is going to be a few resteeps of this (how many licks does it… no, that’s not right) to warm my hands, belly, and soul. :)
Preparation
Still hoarding mine and have yet to try it! When I started reading this, I was wondering whether I was hallucinating because I remember you mentioned in the past that you don’t care for chocolate orange haha.
YES. So good. So amazingly delicious. I think the tea takes it away from the horrible Chocolate Oranges flavour, and brings it into luscious chocolate orange dessert of richness territory.
Yum yum yum. I’m so glad I managed to get some of this over the summer. And I’m glad it resteeps so well.
Flavors: Chocolate, Honey, Malt, Orange
Preparation
Ooo, yay! :) I’m planning another order once your new teas come out, so I hope I can snag some of this one!
This tea. THIS TEA.
Another one I bought for my BFF (hee! Two friends!) and stole a sample of. (I have another week to try all these teas!)
I mostly taste the PTA, with hints of chocolate and orange. Not too much for me, which is good, because I do NOT like Terry’s Chocolate Oranges.
So. Delicious sweet assam tea. Hints of dark chocolate and orange. A touch of sugar to sweeten it even more. Could be good with milk but I’m sitting now and it’s too much work to go back into the kitchen. Highly recommend trying this one if you get a chance. :)
(And because it’s PTA, it’ll resteep! Yay!)
Flavors: Dark Chocolate, Fruity, Orange Zest, Sweet
Preparation
One of the first teas I ordered from Butiki was Three Friends, and I love PTA, so I was excited to see Two Friends as part of the Butiki birthday sale!
Orange is the primary flavoring here, with a smooth chocolatey undertone, of course enhanced by the scrumptious Assam.
I dig it! Good idea Sil! :D
Sipdown! The second time around, this cup was even more delicious. A little less sugar, and I really felt the subtle chocolate orange taste. And omg the base tea is so malty and present and mmmm. Sorry, not feeling very articulate at the moment. But I may just want to get in when a reorder is put in on this one!
I slept really well last night, but woke up with a resounding headache. Now that I’ve had my first cup of tea though, it isn’t nearly as bad. For some reason, I’d been craving the concept of this tea for the last few days, so dug this out of the suitcase of tea sil very generously sent me.
This tea is delicious. I don’t even know that I’d necessarily identify it as a chocolate orange tea, although that might be because I put in a bit too much sugar for the orange to really taste orangey, but it was still a creamy, slightly citrusy and lightly chocolate cup. I typically don’t like chocolate in tea because I find it to taste obnoxious, but that isn’t the case here. As usual, the flavouring was subtle but also creamy and delicious, and I love the thickness of the assam base. Way to go!
I have enough left for another small cup, and will be happy to polish that off. Thanks again, sil!
Sipdown!! (202)
Thank you Sil for sharing some of your custom blend. It definitely nails chocolate orange, capturing the essense of the fruit as opposed to the bitterness of the peel. However, at the end of the day, I am just not a chocolate orange person, nor am I a lover of orange teas. I will certainly get through this cup but this will be the last cup of this I would want.
Maybe she needs to make you one called “two other friends” that is just chocolate and marshmallow :)
Hahaha that sounds like I am in a fight with these two friends so I am trying to make them jealous by going to hang our with me two other friends :P
1 tbsp for 248 ml
Creamy melon flavour. Very well balanced with the vegetal spinach-y flavour of the dragonwell.
Thank you to Kittenna for sharing this with me!
Preparation
Sipdown #6 of the day!
Once upon a time Sil sent me a sample of this, & I liked it so I bought some for my very own. This is the last of it!
This tea combines the richness of premium Taiwanese Assam with a bold thick dose of chocolate & the brightness juiciness of oranges!
Well done!
I’m taking a cup of this, & a cup of the Naughty Vicar (The London Tearoom) to the bubble bath. I’ve been taking short showers lately, I miss my bubbles. Nothing like a sweet cup of tea to soak with, & 2 cups are even better than one.
I already took a sip, & this is the best cup of this yet, just right. Maybe it’s because I actually followed the steeping parameters? LOL.
The was sent to me from IndigoBloom via Sil, thanks girls!
This is also a sipdown, uh….298 I think.
A rather unusual blend of Cilantro, White tea, & Mango with a pinch of Hibiscus, the vision of Indigo. And a lovely vision it is!
This is a sample sent to me by IndigoBloom in Sil’s Super Awesome Sample Box. Thanks girls!!
Admittedly, I was having trouble visualizing cilantro in any tea blend. I do enjoy cilantro, & I grow it in my garden. During the winter I grow it in my Aerogarden too. It’s great in salads, sprinkled on chili, eggs, etc., but I’ve never considered it in tea. I haven’t tried the pineapple cilantro yet either, but maybe I should, cuz this is good!
It’s unusually tasty, with the sweetness of mango, the creaminess of the white tea, a pinch of tart hibiscus, & very refreshing from the cilantro. Indigo, you’re a visionary! It’s so awesome that Stacy has the amazing talent of making dreams come true!