Raspberry Truffle

I requested a sample of this with my recent Butiki order because I wanted to compare it to Adiago’s Ripe for Romance.

You see, I really, really wanted to love Ripe for Romance. When I saw it pop-up around Valentine’s Day, my brain was like: “Chocolate. Raspberry. Truffle. Tea. What’s not to love?!” But my taste buds didn’t seem to agree. It wasn’t a bad tea; I’d even say that it was technically good. But I just didn’t like it nearly as much as I liked the description.

So when I saw this one from Butiki, I thought it would be a great way to put the Adiago blend to the test. Was it that I didn’t like that raspberry truffle tea, or is it just the general flavor I’m not crazy about?

So my order came in and I was so excited by the smell of this one. Rich, sweet and chocolatey. I happily steeped a cup. Turns out, I just don’t go crazy for raspberry & chocolate together in a tea. (Which is odd, because chocolate strawberry teas are usually a hit for me.)

This was a very good blend. I could taste the tea base through the flavoring, which is always a big plus for me, and each element complimented the others. However, raspberry truffle teas just aren’t for me. Leaving off a rating for that reason.

This is not the most chocolately flavor but at least it tastes of tea, good tea at that. I think the flavor I imagined of this could only be managed with artificial means so I am content with this one. Rarely do steeped natural additives taste as they would fresh just as you wouldn’t actually taste tobacco in wines purported to have hints of such. Probably won’t replenish after I finish the 2oz. but mostly because there are so many other Butiki teas to sample.

Yum! Tried it per the “add a little sugar” suggestion from Butiki Teas. You can just barely taste the chocolate, and it’s a beautiful amber color. I don’t think I got it quite hot enough when I steeped it, though.

This was a sample thrown in (thanks, Stacy!) with an another order. It’s on the shopping list for real now.

Can you tell I’m trying to drink down my old Butiki teas? I wanted something I know I like so out came the Raspberry Truffle. The raspberry scent in the dry leaf is still pretty strong. If nothing else, I store my old teas well, even if it takes me forever to drink them. I’d really like to get to a place where I feel comfortable buying new tea again.

Anyway, this tea was a reward for cleaning the shower drain. Tasty and nice. I enjoyed this pot.

200th TASTING NOTE ALERT!!!

Sipdown 61/375. Thanks to Janelle for sending me this sample!

Holy wowza. I have never come across a tea so authentically chocolatey before! If all chocolate teas were like this, it definitely wouldn’t be listed in my dislikes. I took great pains to follow Stacy’s steeping instructions, even calculating the volume of water to use based on the amount of leaf I had (not quite as much as Stacy recommends) and trying to find something to measure out the water in for so long that I had to reboil the kettle… twice. Oops. As soon as I poured the water over the leaf, I was shocked by how chocolatey and rich the scent became. I hadn’t been too kind to my poor little sample, and it was smushed into a box in a thin plastic bag with some other samples, so I’d been worried that the flavour would be lost or contaminated. As soon as I smelled the steeping tea, I stopped worrying. It’s very clearly dark chocolate, with a sharp raspberry note behind it, that really reminds me of a cocoa dusted raspberry chocolate truffle. The scent was so incredible that I couldn’t resist trying it part-way through steeping, at about the 2 minute mark. Amazing!! The chocolate and tea made themselves present first, matching very well and creating a dead-on chocolate truffle flavour. The raspberry was bright and fresh in the aftertaste, and the chocolate flavour lingered too, making the overall effect so perfect that I was so tempted to remove the steeper there and then and just drink it as it was. But (and here’s where I’m kicking myself) since it was my last of this tea I really wanted to drink it as recommended to give it a fair review, and so I left it for the remaining time. At the 4 minute mark I sniffed the liquor and my heart sank. The chocolate covered raspberry scent had all but disappeared, and sadly that was the case in the flavour, too. The chocolate and raspberry notes are still there, but masked by the incredibly strong base tea. The kundaly is a force of nature – it’s thick and malty with a hint of a citrus note, but a slight astringency too which would tempt me to add milk if the raspberry flavour didn’t seem too opposed to that idea. It’s actually a good black tea, and I would happily drink it with milk for a breakfast tea, it’s just a little too much after the full four minute steep. My dry leaf actually had a lot more smaller pieces than I’m used to with Butiki blends, and I’ve read a few reviews mentioning the base being weaker, so I would hazard a guess and say that I got some of the smaller pieces from the bottom of the batch which would explain the strong, astringent tea. I added a couple of pieces of brown rock sugar as per Stacy’s recommendation, and this really brought out the raspberry flavour. The chocolate is still present at the end of the sip, and the kundaly has chocolate-like notes of its own, so overall I would say that it’s still a very enjoyable tea. I just wish I’d gone with my instincts and stopped brewing when it was perfect! Still that’s my error, not the tea’s, so I won’t mark it down.

Nice tea! Really notice the dark chocolate flavour and the raspberry sweet! I think I like some of the other Butiki chocolate teas better – love 3 friends and red queen cupcake – but this is nice too.

So cold! I have the heat up so high but still feel chilled. It feels so dry in here-hate to admit it, but I am looking forward to things warming up, even if it means a return to rain. Lots of things I should do, but don’t feel much like moving around in the cold.
Kind of watching a kitty cat live stream – a lady in the area has done a great job with cat rescue and is live streaming the birth of some new kittens she is fostering this weekend. They were featured on our local news – hoping all goes well with the new baby kittens !

http://new.livestream.com/tinykittens/oz

Butiki’s dessert teas are delicious and this one is no exception! There are whole dried raspberries and mini chocolate chips mixed in with the tea leaves and in the bag it really does smell like a dark chocolate raspberry truffle. Steeped, there is a nice balance of fruit and cocoa flavor with a slightly bitter note at the end. The base of this one is slightly astringent, so I may try it with a splash of milk next time.

You know those Godiva dark chocolate bars with the raspberry filling? The ones they sell in the check-out line at Kohl’s, which is kind of mean of them, because you went there to buy socks and a sweater and you don’t need chocolate, but now they’re calling out to you like tiny foil-wrapped sirens of deliciousness? (Maybe I’m projecting.)

Well, this tea smells like that when it’s steeped. (Exactly what I was hoping it would smell like! YAY.) The raspberry note here is very refined, not too sweet, with a note of smooth dark chocolate behind it. And it tastes like one of those chocolate bars too! I have to sip slowly to get the full effect—this is not an in-your-face kind of dessert flavor—but that just makes me appreciate it more. I also added sugar, as recommended, and I thought it tasted excellent both ways. I like that the base tea has a hint of something floral; it makes this tea feel elegant, and fits the name. I’m already craving another cup.

There were strong cocoa and raspberry notes to this tea with the raspberry being in the forefront. I enjoyed this tea despite the left over flavor from the last tea I brewed in the same pot, a heavily roasted oolong. It was a glazed pot and I must not have rinsed it completely out. I got a slight burnt taste in this tea that I blame on the oolong. I will know for sure the next time I make this tea. In any case it was good.

I brewed this once in a 12 oz teapot with boiling water and 2.5 tsp leaf for 4 min.

The snozzberries smell like snozzberries! Er, I mean raspberries. Which is pretty good, and a little bit of cocoa. There is more of the berry in the flavour, but I do get the chocolate notes as well. Towards the end of the cup, more of the base tea comes out. Which is very good, as that is the Kundaly I’ve gotten to like so much. Thanks Mandy for this.