Raspberry Truffle

I’m amazed at the dry leaf! The aroma is strongly raspberry, and there are a TON of freeze-dried raspberry pieces and chocolate chips in the blend. I’ve never seen a tea so chock full of ingredients!! It’s almost a ridiculous amount of generosity. Almost. ;)

I usually try a new tea straight before trying it with additions, but I’m really impatient right now. So, I’m just going to add skim milk and Truvia from the get go. I usually enjoy black tea better that way, and I’m ready for this dessert tea treat!

The brewed aroma is mostly black tea and raspberry. First sip…mmm this is good! I probably should have tried it without additions first, but it’s too late now! It’s very sweet and cocoa-y with the raspberry adding a nice complement to the cup. All the flavors are very balanced in my opinion. It’s equally dark chocolate, raspberry, and black tea.

I’m not a huge raspberry truffle fan though. I’d have preferred coconut truffle or caramel truffle or milk chocolate truffle. Maybe even cherry truffle. But the tea can hardly be blamed for that. As a raspberry truffle tea, this one is hard to beat. As others have mentioned, it does possess a nice creamy quality.

It’s also very strongly flavored! There’s nothing subtle about this tea. Granted, I used an extra ½ teaspoon than recommended. I can’t help myself; I’m a rebel. ;) This truly is yet another stellar tea from Butiki Teas!

This was a sample with a previous Butiki order. It’s been sitting on top of my sample box, waiting for the right moment. Today I finally gave in. I followed the recommended brew time and temparature, and was rewarded with a medium brown liquor that smells sweetly of chocolate and raspberry. It tastes almost exactly as it smells, which is definitely something to love in a dessert tea. It’s quite rich, and the taste lasts a long time in the mouth. Very much like a raspberry truffle, in that respect. The chocolate is the first flavour to develop, then fresh, slightly tart raspberry, finishing in combination. There’s a little bit of black tea peeking out in the middle of the sip, but I think that actually helps to create the “truffle” aspect, giving the chocolate an almost cocoa-like edge.

I’m glad I saved this for a time when I knew I’d be able to sit and enjoy it, because it truly is delectable. Definitely one I’ll be repurchasing with my next order!

A generous sample Stacy sent my way with one of my recent orders, so nice! (:

As usual, very pretty blend with big bright whole raspberries. This brews up surprisingly bright. I was also surprised that the raspberry is a zingier, fresher, tart (but not too tart) one, not so much the jellied goo inside some chocolates. As usual the smell is relatively subtle but lovely. The chocolate is not as creamy as in some teas, and Stacy’s right that it’s rather a woody cocoa sort of thing (like the powdered cocoa you dust truffles with!). All around, each main component here is not what I assumed it’d be—but then, I should stop being surprised at Butiki teas as they’re just about always unique and innovative in execution! This isn’t a super sweet creamy candy bomb, more for lovers of fresh raspberry flavor and dark cocoa. Citrus and cinnamon notes you say? Yeah, I get that (the cinnamon especially in the scent as you drink), helps to set it apart from the type of profile I was assuming and adds to the feeling of fresh fruit and wood.

This is another sample from Sandy. Thanks!

I love the level of chocolate in here. The raspberry seems to come in right behind it and feels quite natural. I’d swear there is some sort of nut in here as well. The nutty flavor is faint enough I am having a hard time identifying it. I’m also getting a cream flavor as well. This is spot on for a raspberry truffle. The base is smooth and well behaved.

This is one of the many tea samples sent by Bonnie! Thank you, Bonnie! This is my first Butiki tea ever.

First, the aroma of the tea seemed primarily raspberry but we were eating Pinwheels and Pepperidge Farm cookies at the time! As i lifted my cup, i could have sworn I smelled roses! More than once as I sipped I was just sure of it. The base is smooth, very good, not astringent. The raspberry flavor seemed more subdued than the scent, but that may have been the cookies. As the cup cooled a little, the chocolate flavor came out more.

This was delicious, and I will be serving it again in half an hour to my new Moroccan friend! She did say she wanted to try more teas!

Thank you so much, Bonnie! This was delicious!

Sample from my Butiki Order.
I am hitting the black teas pretty hard this morning.
Another lousy night of sleep and woke up with a pounding headache.
Thankfully, the Earl Grey took care of most of that, but I am feeling like I want some dessert.
So, this tea appealed to me.
Once I smelt the dry leaves, I had to run over to the Butiki website and see what was in this tea, because I kept getting a violet flower scent.
There is no violets in this tea, so I don’t know why smell it, but I also smell the raspberry.
It smells like sitting in the garden after a rain, its lovely!
Light red in color.
I do not get chocolate when I taste this, but more of a creaminess.
This tea is very yummy.
Might just have to add this to my list I am preparing for my next order!

I should have followed the brewing instructions to a tee on this one (4 min, as opposed to the two minutes I chose) however I find I enjoy most of my teas at the two minute mark… a mistake in this case, sadly, and a sipdown to boot. It’s definitely got raspberry in it, and there’s a hint of chocolate, however the base is thin and there’s something off in the flavoring that sits poorly with me. Something metallic and bitter that I’m finding offputting. I wonder if I’d brewed it longer if I’d still find the same result?

Thank you to… whomever shared this with me. Shadowfall, perhaps? I bought it in someone’s sale a few months back.

This is one I ended up with because a friend ordered it and didn’t like it. It cemented her belief that she doesn’t like chocolate in tea. I am not a huge fan of chocolate tea either but I have found some that break that rule so I am always trying them out. This one doesn’t really have the raspberry or chocolate POW I expect but instead has a light syrupy sweetness at the end of the sip that tickles the throat after the tea is all done. It is not offensive but neither is it powerful.

I have spoken with Stacy at Butiki to find out their preferred leaf to water to time to temp ratio and find that it is way out of whack with the way I do my tea. They use far less leaf than I do, and even I am on the conservative side. That is okay, but it means I get less than half the cups out of an ounce of tea as the guidelines suggest. Accordingly, I am always careful in my proportions to try to get a cup of tea that works for me – I learned to toss the company’s instructions a while ago.

To my usual specifications this is still a bit light but not bad at all. I’ll stick to my Ruby Pie but this is another I can drink down easily enough.

Unfortunately my morning is not going very well, nothing serious but it’s my husbands birthday party tonight and now the food, alcohol and party supplies will not be delivered. Now with a lot of house cleaning and set up I need to find the time to go out and buy everything I need and get home before my husband to set it all up. Urgh…..busy day.

The only thing that can calm me down for the time being is to try a naughty sounding tea and how naughtier can you get then this raspberry truffle?

Whilst raw the tea looks delicious with a good sprinkling of chocolate chips and bright red raspberries which compliment the dark twisted brown leaves.

Smell once brewed is sweet and fruity with smoky chocolate tones. The colour is dark brown. I am not including any sugar for the first sips.

The fragrance is stronger than the taste at this point, the raspberry is subtle and slightly tart but sweet at the same time which balances nicely. The chocolate chips are not very noticeable but I believe I can pick them up in the after taste. I might try a longer steep next time and see the difference.

Adding in sugar now. Much sweeter now (of course) but in a nice way, the raspberries are not tart at all now but still remain fruity and raspberry tasting (slightly sour) and the chocolate is now more like chocolate in a weak way. Taste wise now with all of the ingredients together it does taste very similar to a raspberry truffle.

I’m being alerted now that even more things have gone wrong….it truly will be one of those days today for me. Good to know that I have around 10 cups of this left ….looks like I’m going to need it.

Great job again Butiki.

1 tablespoon for 247 ml

Very smooth. Raspberry taste and slight tartness near the end. Chocolate pudding like notes throughout. Black tea makes a nice base. Savoury-like taste.

Thanks to Kittenna for passing some along to me!