Butiki Teas

Sipdown! 271/365!

Er, whoops. Didn’t realize I’d only tried this once before. But I decided to try latte-ing it tonight, but I used coconut milk and the flavours are stronger than I intended, so while it’s delicious, it’s probably because it’s basically coconut milk + cow’s milk + maple syrup with just a hint of tea. I’m picking up virtually zero blueberry (I couldn’t smell it either) – ok, actually if I taste really hard, I can sense some – but there’s not a ton of flavour despite brewing it pretty strongly. Oh well, wasn’t a favourite anyhow.

Also: current tea count is at 932 (some duplicates, yes, but fewer than 100 I believe). This is still missing a large chunk of my teas (notably Butiki and Anne’s 52teas) plus the vast majority of swap samples I have. On the plus side, I’m sipping down a lot of stuff?

Another unrated one…. .

Didn’t have high hopes here, as although Butiki’s flavoured pu’erhs are pretty good for flavoured pu’erhs… they are still pu’erh, and I’m just not a big fan. But, blueberry could have some redeeming qualities. I didn’t bother with a rinse because I really think it just zaps the flavour out of these teas, and I kept the infusion time quite low today, as it happened. Turns out I may have hit the sweet spot by doing that. The aroma is light but definitively blueberry, and the flavour is gentle blueberry with a minimally earthy base, quite smooth. This is actually much more pleasant than I was anticipating. No champagne that I can pick up, not that I care for alcoholic flavours in tea anyhow.

ETA: Read someone else’s note about not steeping this in boiling water, and I do see that the baggie says 200 degrees. Interestingly, I think the kettle said 188 degrees today, and I just used that instead of waiting for it to reheat, so maybe lowering the water temp is a good strategy for these pu’erh blends?

2022 Sipdown 51/365!

This was a good, but not great straight oolong. A bit raisiny; reminds me a bit of PTA bit with an oolong twist.

Annoyed about yet another unrated Butiki. For shame. Anyhow this is a tea I would have better left to a day where I hadn’t contaminated my palate with garlic and spice. Oh well. It’s tasting more like a darjeeling to me than any oolong I’ve come across; it’s sweet, with a slight drying astringency, malty. I’d have identified this as black before oolong, any day. Maybe that’s just how Indian oolongs are? Or maybe that’s just what I’m picking up today. Will have to write something better later.

I wanted to make a coconut milk latte, but needed to pick a tea with lots of flavour that wouldn’t be obliterated by the coconut. A smoky tea seemed perfect! Voila, coconut maple lapsang souchong latte. It’s delicious, and undoubtedly twice the calories of my other latte due to the coconut milk, and the fact that I obviously (deliciously) overdid it on the maple syrup. Probably should start adding smaller amounts, tasting, and topping up if needed.

Anyhow, I’ve always adored smoky teas as lattes, and this is no exception. The coconut adds a deliciously different dimension, but there is still plenty of smoke. So good.

The only downside is that I’ve just dosed myself heavily with two cups of caffeine/sweetness right before going to bed… oops.

Still sick. More of this today, + cream + maple syrup. It’s strong enough to cut through this cold, at least sometimes. I’m finding it very annoying that I can’t taste things properly.

I realize I should be using this opportunity to sneakily sip down things I don’t like, but I’m being stubborn. That said, it occurred to me that my fluid intake is probably down because I’m not drinking so much tea, sooo maybe I should go make up some honeybush things to correct that…

This packet looked suspiciously like it had never been opened. The lack of review/rating agrees. Anyhow, thought this would be a great option for a waning sense of smell/taste, so I brewed up a nice big cup with milk and maple syrup. It was smoky and delicious, but that’s about all I could tell you. Thankfully I have plenty of this to try when I can actually taste it properly.

Sipdown 2020! 28/365

Sad sipdown, because this is absolutely my favourite type of green oolong (alongside pouchong). Just so creamy and perfectly balanced. The good news is that since this is a straight tea, I should be able to get it elsewhere once the world sorts itself out. Until then, I will drink other things…

Utterly delicious. My favourite kind of green oolong (aside from pouchong). A tad lighter on the flavour than I remember, but it’s creamy, smooth, and sweet, and evokes thoughts of drinking something fluffy. Idk, it’s good.

Lime doesn’t hold up as well as other flavours, but this is still tasty enough.

How on earth have I not rated this?? Anyways, a pleasant surprise to find my baggie of this tea in the Butiki box. The lime was a tad more pungent than I remember, and there was less cream, but it was still delicious. However – it was very much not delicious the next day. I don’t know if anyone else has ever left an infuser with spent fruit tea out, in a way that it can’t dry (e.g. stack another infuser on top), but this tea smelled like that the next day. Decomposing fruit, or something. YUCK. It was really strange, because I can’t even think of the last time where a tea tasted so off the next morning (I frequently finish off cold tea in the morning.) Anyhow, I’ll probably try and drink the remaining cups a little more quickly.

Up sometime in the future: a comparison of this and AQ2T’s Lime Pear Fluff!

I know I like it, but cant remember how to describe it. Hmm.

Oh hey, another unrated Butiki…

Anyhow, this was yummy. I have no clue what it is. Darjeeling? It was light and flavourful. No astringency. Need to pay more attention next time.

In other news, the baby has been asleep for four hours straight. This hasn’t happened in a month. Not expecting this (he usually wakes up three times in that span), I have been awake this whole time. Unsure if I should be sad or pleased. Also unsure if I should go to bed now, only to be awoken rudely in 15 minutes… or wait, and have him sleep the night through or something. Ugh, unpredictable babies!

Not actually sure I had even tried this tea before. I believe it was a freebie in one of the final orders. Anyhow, I don’t think I’m a big fan – it didn’t taste off or anything, but it was a little on the side of mariney/fishy. I should have written this note while I was drinking it, so I could write a bit more, but it was definitely a different type of green, and also definitely not my preference. Will drink again, but may try and send this one elsewhere.

Obviously this tealogging thing is near-impossible being back to work. Sigh. There’s just literally no time in the day to spare for it.

Anyhow, this is diminishing in flavour but still thoroughly enjoyable.

And here I thought I was drinking another dupe of one I’d had a week ago – nope! That was Pistachio Horizon, this is Praline Horizon. Surprisingly, Pistachio was better (I thought I loved the praline flavouring more). Not that this was bad, but there was more flavour from the latter. I’d never be able to guess which was which if you brewed them side by side, though. I also screwed up and both oversteeped AND overleafed this one, so that might have caused some fixable problems. Anyways, nice to know I have 4 crimson horizon-based teas (well, 3 – the grapefruit one will go to a better home). Also nice to know this was not lost to the mice. I had a significant moment of sad a couple days ago when I was perusing a couple of my 52teas orders from years past, and saw a couple teas that I recall were heartbreakingly lost to the work mice. In addition to Butiki’s Pistachio Ice Cream, 52teas Calico & Black Cat tea (OMG I didn’t ever even rate it! I may have to retroactively do so. I enjoyed it.) and the reblend of Cashew Turtle. Ugh, my heart. I shouldn’t lie; it was no moment of sad, I’ve actually been mourning those teas full-time ever since I remembered. On the plus side, at least the blender is still active, so if I was sad/desperate enough, I could at least try begging/pleading!

Drat. Another unrated Butiki. Which is odd, because it says it makes 7 cups, and it’s nearly gone… but I don’t remember drinking it much. Anyways. It was a pleasant enough darker oolong. Kind of sweet, not a classic dark oolong for flavour (i.e. not particularly toasty/roasty). Not astringent, either, though I was anticipating that because of the other Butiki purple tea I had lately, which IIRC is very touchy.

I’ll try and write something better on this next time.

Unrelated, I believe it’s the base to… one of the plum teas I enjoy, as well. It does seem like it would make a nice base for a flavoured tea.

This was… just okay. I expected more sweetness. There was certainly some, but it wasn’t quite what I wanted. Will have to give this another shot to see if maybe my brewing parameters were off. Or, you know, perhaps it’s just too old.

Couldn’t recall why I hadn’t liked this tea (espresso flavouring + smoky tea, which is what I thought it was, sounds ok). Then I saw it was pu’erh, and remembered. Haha. The tea tastes like a blend of earthy pu’erh and smoky tea. No coffee flavouring at all.

Going to pop some maple syrup and cream into the last of it to see if I can improve it.

Not a fan, but this probably wasn’t intended for me. I do wish there was some espresso flavouring present, though. Now that I’m revisiting it, I recall missing that the first time around too.

Sipdown! This tea was amazing. Literally tasted like a fruity caramel candy, but with enough delicate white tea base to still feel like tea. Loved every cup of it, even though the tea is probably getting close to 10 years old now.

Non-sipdown cupboard removal: 13 [I sent the last of Lupicia’s Watermelon Barley off to Roswell Strange, although it’s been two weeks and has yet to arrive… :( ]

It annoys me when I find teas that are almost gone, but I haven’t written a note. Although who knows – I have probably hundreds of unposted reviews sitting in email drafts, and maybe it’s in there somewhere.

Either way, this is much better than I could have expected. Not only strawberry, but there’s a delicious sweet nuttiness here – it’s actually quite incredibly delicious. I also feel like I’m both smelling and tasting coconut, but it would have to be a flavouring, as there are no coconut pieces visible, nor is there any sign of rancidity. I knew I had enjoyed this one, but I didn’t remember it being this amazing. It’s really boggling my mind how well the majority of these teas are holding up. I genuinely expected to be quite disappointed in myself, but I’d say 90% are good enough that I want to still drink them – because they’re good, not just for nostalgia. This one may be a sipdown soon though, there’s one, maaaybe two cups left in the package.

Well, I like this one better than Watermelon Lime Slushie, for sure. The flavouring is great – creamy strawberry with a hint of tartness. I’m sure it was once stronger, but it’s still pretty distinct. Not keen on the base, again, but either it’s different pu’erh (I have no idea), or the flavours meld a little bit better. Not a go-to tea for me, but it’s not bad. May still try and pawn this off, though.

faded mildly plummy glory

Had some of this a couple nights ago – still so delicious!