Good Morning Sunshine

Thank you Stacy for this sample!

Dry leaf smells very sweet, citrusy, and earthy.

Wet leaf smells like creamy citrus with a hint of earthiness.
This is similar to the apricot guayusa. I like this one much better though. The citrus flavours tone down the earthiness a little, which makes this tea sweet and delicious. The flavours meld really well together.

I am not getting as many creamy notes as some other Butiki teas, but it is still very smooth.

I might have to order this some time in the future.

Another selection from the Here’s Hoping TTB.
My daughter Ari showed up this morning, so of course we had some tea. This is one of the selections, which for me was kind just ok. Ari really enjoyed it & had another cup over ice, which she liked even more.

What a lovely wake-up tea, even if I messed it up a bit.

You see, I was in a rush yesterday to grab a rental vehicle to grab a desk and chair for my daughter from a friend whose moving. I’ve struggled with sleep the past few days, so I thought something called “Good Morning, Sunshine!” would do nicely. I steeped it exactly as per Stacy’s instructions, and then promptly left it on the counter, in my go-to cup, as I ran out the door. By the time I got home late last night, I knew it was too late for a guayusa. And so, I packed it up and left the tea until now.

Maybe it’s because I left it out overnight, however I taste more of the sharpness of the guayasa in this blend than in other Butiki guayasa’s. Still, it’s absolutely lovely, and tastes like meringue pie. This actually strongly reminds me of Lemon Meringue Rooibos by Tealish – sweet, creamy and tartly lemonlicious. Only difference between the two is the base, and I could love them equally depending on the time of day.

I can see how this would wake someone up. That lemon is lovely. All these Butiki teas are perfectly balanced! I’m amazed.

The lemon goes great with the guayusa. I think I’d take this one over the Cider Guayusa – not that that wasn’t good – just this one seems better placed. A nice wake-up call for rough mornings. This may be a reorder.

The second steep of this is pretty well just as flavourful as the first.

This is my first time trying guayusa and I’m both curious and a bit leery of the caffeine content. It smells like wet cut grass, which isn’t the most auspicious beginning, but what the heck. The flavour is also reminiscent of wet grass…at least at first. It then turns into something that manages to be slightly savory and slightly spicy and something I really can’t put a description to. There’s a nice hint of vanilla tucked in there and some bright citrus note. I finished about half the cup and put it down to do some laundry and promptly forgot about it. That half cup was still enough to give me a mega jolt of energy – luckily I had lots of stuff that needed doing, otherwise I would have been bouncing off the walls!

This is my first guayusa! :) Got this as a sample from Butiki.

(A little bit scared as I sip it though to be honest. I tend to be super caffeine sensitive, so I’ll find out if guayusa makes me crawl up the walls from this or not… haha … ha)

Moving along, the smell of the leaves were very dreamy. Like a lemon sucker! :) The good kind of lemon sucker, where it’s still kind of tart, not the ones where they taste kind of soapy. GOOD lemon candies tend to be my favorite of candies, and this is exactly what the leaves smell like.

The tea itself is not disappointing! :D It has that same ‘best lemon candy ever’ taste to it, with a slightly creamy mouthfeel. There’s something about it that feels really refreshing too, almost like you popped a mint.

The lemon taste in this is incredible; as of this writing — though I doubt this can be topped — this has the best lemon taste in any tea I’ve ever tried.

All in all, I love it! Assuming the caffeine levels don’t make me loopy, this will definitely be something to keep on hand. :)

EDIT Hooray! I’m fine! The caffeine levels didn’t bother me at all! This will now be a cupboard staple :D

As I drank this, I kept thinking, gee this really reminds me of something. what is it? And for some reason I didn’t realize that this was lemon flavored. I’m so used to orange in teas that I forgot about lemons! Well, now that I read the description, it seems obvious. duh. It tastes like those really big vegan cookies, the lemon flavor (the only flavor of those that I like). Despite how much I like that cookie, I’m not sure how I feel about it in a tea. It’s a bit weird. . . like soggy cookie.

I can say that I’m pretty new to guayusa….I tried The Killers Vanilla a month ago, and now this (which is a sample Stacy included in my most recent order, even though I had already picked my 2…I had mentioned curiosity in trying more guayusa, and she added it because she is awesome like that).

Anyhow, now having had the two, I can distinguish what the actual herb is like. I like the citrus notes with this one, though it’s hard to say if I like this better, the same, or not as much as the Killers Vanilla. I’d have to say that I like it as much? I dunno. It’s so cold for here, my head is throbbing, and I can’t think straight.

I think I was expecting a sharper and brighter citrus flavour than what I got. I’m on the fence with whether that is good or bad.

I think I might like to try more guayusa, but maybe just as samples with future orders.

Thank you Bonnie for this sample.

I needed more than my usual caffeine kick this morning and thought I would try this. I’m not familiar with guayusa at all, so this sample beckoned for that reason to.

The lemon smell was lovely and sweet when I opened the packet. The aroma of the brewing drink was the same. Nothing too intimidating there then. Then the taste of the brewed leaf is creamy and lemony, not bitter, just right. It’s novel for me is this guayusa but I reckon I might well get used to it! Let’s hope the caffeine kick helps me too. I have a lot of writing and editing to do today and I need all the help I can get! :)

I must have been a Parisian in another life. I wish desperately to have been born of French parents instead of Eastern European ones. As a chef, I am trained in classical French cuisine and it is still my favourite cuisine, although the Indian and Mexican are closing the gap.

I don’t think of tea being a French thing and it would take some tea to steal me away from coffee on Saturday morning. With my warm baguette (yes, I went to the bakery at 6 am and got that) and my triple-creme Brie, croissants and the truffled eggs I made this morning, you just have to have coffee. This morning was no exception. What does this have to do with tea you ask? Well, tea is all about the senses, as is food. I’m sure you didn’t need to know my breakfast habits but I’m also sure you’ll think of it when you’re having your cereal or toast.

But since this is a tea review, I’ll tell you that I did manage to squeeze in a cup of this before I went to the bakery. I like it, a lot. There’s no mistaking the lemon peel flavour, even the uninitiated one can attest to this. I grew up with lemon in tea — every cup of tea I ever had growing up had a slice of lemon in it — so this tastes very familiar. I was 2 for 2 with butiki teas and so I had to try this one, my third. It is not a breakfast tea for me but an afternoon patio drink. Kinda like this:
http://instagram.com/p/Y3VEarnqRb/

Thank you to dexter3657. Gawd, I think I need to buy some tea of my own! But now I am getting to know my likes and dislikes somewhat.