One more Butiki tea ticked off the seemingly endless list of blends to try!
This one didn’t make it into my first Butiki order because I was hesitant about the supposed “raisin” notes. I love caramel, but I also absolutely hate raisin and I wasn’t so sure it’d be worth it if the two were just going to cancel each other out. However, a lot of fellow Steepsterites assured me this was worth trying anyway and so during Black Friday I took advantage of the free tea and included this as one of my freebies.
As far as the dry smell goes, it’s exquisite! The caramel and vanilla smell super rich and indulgent and ooey-gooey! I love when things smell ooey-gooey! I kind of waited to try it over a few of the other teas I got, but tonight seemed perfect since I really just wanted a black tea and was already craving caramel sweets.
So, my preparation is 2 tsp. of leaf in about 10 oz. of boiling water (just shy of that) steeped for about 3 min. 45 seconds. I didn’t mean to steep it that long, but I got distracted by scalding hot pop tarts and left it in a little bit too long. Also, I wasn’t really thinking too well (I’m gonna blame the exhaustion for all the physical labour I did today – which I’m not super conditioned to doing) and I used my giraffe mug, which has a giraffe in the centre, and a really large tea ball so the teaball itself didn’t submerge too well. However, that said, the smell is very nice: it’s rich caramel and strong black tea with only a little but of vanilla coming through. Also, maybe a little touch of citrus?
I had to wait a while for this to cool before drinking it. My first taste was just stupidly hot and mostly I tasted “burning and assam”! No thanks. But once cooler, this is so fucking good! It’s uber creamy caramel with such smooth, flavourful vanilla highlights and a well balanced base that’s present without being too bold and overshadowing the caramel! I get the faintest of citrus notes, which are nice and add a bit more depth. The aftertaste is a lingering sweet caramel with touches of vanilla and a little more citrus.
What an amazing tea to relax to after an exhausting day of work!
And thank God I don’t get raisin notes!
And, all that amazingness is with a relatively crappy steeping method (hardly submerged tea leaves) and a bit of oversteeping. Just imagine how good this would be if I had done a more spot on job! Of course this is going to be a reorder for me; bring on the caramel!
Just throwing it out there that you need to ditch the tea ball and get a brew basket. So much easier:P
Seconding the tea basket suggestion, plus I also love love this tea!