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Seems like a few people had this one today.

I made up some in a timolino. Actually, I made up two teas in my timolinos because I wanted something I could stretch out over the evening and enjoy slowly instead of pounding back several smaller mugs and having to get up over and over to make more tea. I was feeling lazy and sleepy.

This was very good, especially since I used boiling water (I blame sleep brain). It was light and buttery with just enough apple in it. I wanted to drink it while watching Hitchhiker’s Guide to The Galaxy – but I ended up just watching Archer instead. So, it was a TV night – not a Movie Night, but this still seemed fitting enough.

Sipdown (210/213)!

I have to admit, this cup was alright too. It even was vanilla flavoured enough to sort of remind me of vanilla pudding after I had added a little bit of milk to it. It made me wonder if there’s “Tapioca” tea – because to me vanilla pudding and tapioca pudding have completely different tastes.

This still isn’t my favourite, though – and I still wouldn’t get it. But maybe I’d ask for another satchet or two in a swap because it is a decent enough decaf black option for at night.

Thank you again, Keychange.

This had a longer steep than usual, but I actually don’t think it suffered at all. More so, it may have actually benefited the taste/feel of the Oreo cookie (minus the cream filling). Basically, this tasted fudgey like usual but it also had a larger pastry/cookie kind of feeling than normal.

That could perhaps be attributed to the fact there were several large pieces of dates in this measured out left for this cup – more than I’ve had in any cup prior.

This was Tre’s evening tea while there was company over. He also wanted fruit, and since I was making a low temp. tea for Kristina, I pulled this one out for him (half because it was in the kitchen already and half so I could steal the resteep).

I did the same thing with the shotglass for the first cup full (and then loaded it with sugar for him) and mostly I tasted a very clear/crisp mango with some other citrus notes/aspects. Later in the evening I resteeped the leaves and found that there was practically no flavour deterioration. The main difference was that this was a little more vegetal – but in a good, refreshing and “airy” kind of way that definitely strengthened the feel of the cucumber in the tea. The mango/citrus stayed strong as well.

I think I may like this better hot than I liked it cold brewed.

When my friend was briefly over tonight (she had supper with us and we started a game of CAH but she was feeling very ill, so we’ve rescheduled for Sunday) I had a fun time matching the perfect tea to her. She wanted fruit, but not really berries – and something “light”, so this is what we settled on.

Unfortunately because of the illness she wasn’t able to eat or drink much, but she did say she really enjoyed it. I managed to have a tiny bit of it before serving it to her (basically I poured myself a shot glass full from her cup) and can confirm it was super fresh and juicy with delightful kiwi notes.

This is absolutely more enjoyable hot than cold/iced. Well, that or the DT employees who made my iced version of it used water which was too hot.

In addition to drinking this hot today, I also prepared a cold brew of it which I strained out after a seven and a half hour steep. I made sure to enjoy every last fucking drop, and really draw out the full 25 oz. of it, because I feel this is going to be a sipdown dangerously soon.

It doesn’t really need to be said, but this was amazing. I shared my crazy passion fruit obsession with my tasting note earlier today, as well as thoughts on the hot version of this. The same notes and flavour hold perfectly true for the cold brew.

Delicious.

Sipdown (210/213)!

Thank you VariaTEA for the sample of this. Since I first noticed Butiki as a company, I’ve been flipping back and forth between trying this one out and I almost added to my order, twice. I think eventually I would have requested it as one of the two samples, but it was really nice not having to – this way I can get one of the many other interesting blends as a sample instead.

The whole sample was used for a mug of this, which I made sure to carefully steep since I was only going to get “one shot” at doing it right. Dry, the leaf smelled almost completely of the base, and steeped up this was much the same but with hints of banana.

I had to let this cool awhile before I was picking up anything significant in the taste – but what I got was a very realistic and natural tasting banana tea with a black base (would you really expect anything else from Butiki, though?). Unfortunately, what I didn’t get throughout the whole mug was any walnut. Because of that, I felt the flavour of this tea was incomplete – and judging it just as a banana tea, I think I prefer the way that Frank does his banana flavourings.

This was still really quite good though, and I was very happy to try it and cross it off the vast list of Butiki blends I “need to try”.

Sipdown (211/214)!

Time for the daily backlog of teas now that Tre’s gone to bed and left me with his computer. Not much eventful today, no new listing for me to apply for which was sad though I did fill out a survey for the local University for an ongoing research study on the “transition to adulthood” so that was something.

Also, grocery shopping (which was painful financially but necessary) and I briefly had a friend over but she was ill and left a little early. So, I’m gonna call in a semi-successful day. At least I did something.

This blend was good. It steeped up nicely today, and had a happy departure from my cupboard. It was odd though, I really tasted the orange in this cup and the caramel/hazelnut was doing this odd thing where it sort of tasted like licorice? If I didn’t have the blend’s description and my first cup to go on I don’t think I’d have had any idea this was an Earl.

EDIT: Also, I guess this was tasting note 650. And also, I should really thank the lovely MissB for the sample.

Still yummy, though.

I think I’m the first tasting note on this one too. I’ll try to do it proud.

Out of the fruit teas I purchased, this is the one that I was the most excited for. I love pears and pear tea – and I just could not pass up the opportunity to try out yet another pear blend, especially since this is chocolate pear which is a flavour combo I don’t have in my cupboard right now.

Dry, this smell strongly of fresh, maybe even a little overripe, pears with just a hint of chocolate. It’s a very, very powerful and flavourful smelling blend.

Like the other RiverTea fruit blend I tried, this too has a long steep time – though not nearly as long as Chocolate Kisses Chili. I ended up doing a 6 minute steep for this cup, which was the lowest end of the suggested spectrum. The smell is just a little bit perfume, and still pretty much like an overripe “bruise it by holding it” pear.

Taste wise, it’s pretty good. The pear flavour is pretty strong, and maybe even a touch sour. Again, what comes to mind is an overripe pear. The chocolate here is surprisingly light/mild – but then again I’m not sure if I recall actually seeing any pieces of chocolate in the leaf I used. I thought it’d be more like a chocolate dipped pear, but that’s not the feeling I get.

So ultimately, I’m a little conflicted/on the fence about this one because I did enjoy it but it wasn’t anything like I was expecting or anticipating it to be. I’ll need to try a few more cups/methods before I make up my mind.

Ok, I thought that I wouldn’t be doing new teas today and would just stick to some familiar favourites, but I started feeling more alive and awake so I picked out some fruit teas to try out for the first time.

this one comes thanks of Aimee Popovacki who sent me a full 25g packet, completely sealed. I decided to open it up today to cold brew as a comparison to Kusmi’s Passion Fruit and it just smelled so damn good that I wanted to test a hot cup too. The dry leaf/bits smell almost overpoweringly of fresh, pulpy Passion Fruit. So much more intense and robust than Kusmi’s.

My first encounter with a passion fruit was in the 11th grade. I had made an art piece for out school’s guidance counselor that featured Ganesh, who is the God of new beginnings. He was a spiritual symbol she had introduced to me, and was very relevant to us both at the time. She was eating Passion Fruit, and the smell was so strong and powerful that I inquired into it – and she shared one with me. The next couple of weeks I went on a major passion fruit binge and in less than seven days purchased and consumed a total of over seventy of them. I literally bought out the grocery store within a block from our highschool. That was probably really unhealthy/obsessive in its own right, but at the time I just kind of wrote it off “as an artist thing”.

So anyway, five minute steep and oh my! This is just the right amount of tart and totally rich and juicy with an honest to Ganesh amazing Passion Fruit flavour. While Kusmi’s version was consumable, this is just mouth watering “chug it all down and burn your throat” delicious. I am so super excited for my cold brew, now! If that’s not great, then hell yes I’ll be finishing this up hot – no complaints.

I’m sad I didn’t try this sooner, now. I want more. Lots more. I really hope this makes a return.