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So before walking home from my 30 min. work shift today, I stopped at Shoppers and picked up some ginger ale (because of the whole being sick thing) and downed that on the walk home. I absolutely hate ginger, but I think it’s actually working pretty well, so I thought I’d “reward” myself with another new Butiki tea.

Out of what’s left from my Black Friday order to try, this seemed like maybe the gentlest thing to try out – so I made this one next. Dry, this smells like very creamy pistachio, but in a super gentle and mild way. Kind of like the smell of pistachio pudding powder before you’ve done any of the mixing yet: gentle and kind of airy. Even the green tea in the smell doesn’t seem so bad.

I steeped up 1 tsp. (level) of leaf in about 80 degree water for two minutes, thirty seconds. The colour was a super pale green, and the smell was distinctly pistachio with a vegetal green tea undertone. Pretty nice smelling, but the vegetal green tea scent was a little bit of a deterrent.

Taste wise, this is pretty smooth with a thicker mouthfeel and fairly rich pistachio flavour. There’s a nice balance between creaminess like promised in the name (‘ice cream’) and a kind of roasted pistachio flavour. Unfortunately, the green tea has a pretty strong presence too and it’s just a bit too vegetal for my liking. Also, I found the cooler my mug got the more bitter this ended up tasting.

Ultimately, a decent enough cup which is definitely better if drank at a hotter temperature. I don’t think I’ll have problems finishing off what I have, but this is not something I see myself ordering again (only in part because of the green tea base). That’s ok – I’ve found many other Butiki teas I’m happy with (including another green tea, which did work for me): you can’t love them all.

Anyway, if I can keep this down I might move on to Christmas teas in a while. You know, ‘tis the season and all. A Gingerbread Latte sounds like a good idea. And yes, I know that I just complained about ginger being something I dislike; there’s always exceptions to the rule though, right?

EDIT: Mail just showed up! I got a swap package from Aimee Popovacki! Everything smells lovely, but I think I need to wait until I’m definitely feeling better before I go trying things out… Thank you!

Sipdown (141)!

I made this to take in my water bottle for work today. Normally I take two full water bottles/thermoses in for my shifts, but since today was just a measly half hour shift I just took the one cup worth. Really – it’s Christmas Eve and I had to go out of my way (while sick, mind you) to go in for a mere half hour of work. I shouldn’t complain, though. A lot of people, especially those is crappy minimum wage customer service jobs like myself, are not fortunate enough to have most of the day off. And, I’m lucky enough to have tomorrow off too.

I received a bag of this as an extra sample from one of the ladies doing the 12 Days exchange with me! I’m really, terribly sorry but I can’t remember who it came from – I didn’t write it down and now I’ve gone and forgotten! If it came from you, let me know so I can properly thank you!

I picked it out today because I thought straight tea might be less upsetting than flavoured tea, since my tummy is significantly calmer but not quite feeling perfectly better. I meant to just steep it for 3 minutes in boiling water as per package instructions, but I lost track of time (I blame ‘sick brain’) and wound up letting it sit for closer to 10 minutes. Fuck.

I drank the first bit while it was still fairly hot, and mostly it was just a run of the mill white tea, though quite bitter from the oversteeping. However, it was much better after I’d let it cool down. I got some sweet hay notes in addition to the bitterness.

Not gonna rate because I screwed up steeping it, but I think this could have been a lot worse considering how much I oversteeped it. Even though I wouldn’t even know where to start to go about looking for it, I don’t really have much of an interest in it. I’m just gonna be content with the fact it was nice enough regardless of my screwing up. Thank you to whoever it was who sent this to me…

Sipdown (142)!

I’m feeling a lot better today – though still a little uneasy so I’m taking it easy on food (sticking to straight oatmeal) and tea for the moment. Again, this seemed like something I could play safe with and made for an easy sipdown as well. Ideally I’d like to be able to get home from my stupid work shift (30 min. shift… ugh) and feel well enough to get back to trying out my Butiki teas.

So, this is the last of this one – same amount of leaf, same steep temperature and time. Bleck; this doesn’t taste nice at all – but I guess it’s doing it’s job? So, that’s a good thing. I’m not gonna rate it because, honestly, not really sure whether to rate based on taste or the fact it might be making me feel better? Or both? So, yeah…

Thanks VariaTEA for sending me this! I appreciate the chance to try it out, but I don’t think I’ll be drinking it again…

Well, this isn’t exactly how I thought I’d be spending the evening. I had anticipated sipping away at my new Butiki blends, but instead I’m hunched over a bowl throwing up scrambled eggs. I don’t know what happened – I was perfectly fine and then not half an hour after finishing my eggs I felt violently ill. I really hope I feel better tomorrow so I can enjoy my time off for Christmas!

Anyway, I received this as part of a “herbal sampler” from VariaTEA and it seems like an appropriate tea to be drinking now. I’m hoping it might help tame or at least temper my illness.

For preparation, I’m using 2 tsp. of leaf (a little strong) for 8 oz. of boiling water, steeped for seven minutes. The smell is partially minty, partially orange, a bit ginger like, and a whole lot of catnip and fennel.

Taste wise – this is all fennel, catnip, and ugh… ginger! Bleck. It tastes pretty gross, but then again I’m not exactly drinking it right now for the taste, am I? If it does it’s job, I’ll be keeping it around for that reason – and that reason alone. It’s a shame though, I really do like fennel. But catnip? It tastes really grassy and sorta sour? And it’s a known fact that I’m not a fan of ginger.

I’ll edit in if this helped settled my stomach a little later, after I’ve given this a chance to “work its magic”.

EDIT: Nope, that didn’t sit well either. Ended up throwing up the whole mug. Yuck. I think I’m done with tea for the night…

First of the new teas from my Black Friday order that I’m trying! They all smell amazing and I look forward to trying each one of them, but this seems like a good starting point. I have to briefly go into work tomorrow to cover someone for a break (nothing like having to make time in your day, on Christmas Eve, for a 30 minute shift), but otherwise I have all of tomorrow and Christmas off.

It’s just going to be me here for the holidays, so I figured I’d give myself something to do and try and get through at least a cup of all six of my new Butiki teas – and then, the 12 Days of Christmas exchange starts on Christmas too (I’ve got day one, but am missing a lot of the other early on days so I hope they show up soon!).

Dry, this smell much better than I thought it would. It’s not that I thought it’d smell bad but this is just one of the teas that didn’t initially jump out at me, mostly because strawberry black with chocolate isn’t a combo that’s especially unique. The aroma of the leaf is very strong and piercing though: there’s very pronounced notes of strawberry to match the large chunks of strawberry in the blend with a nice little kick of tartness from the hibiscus. It just smells so good.

So while I was scrambling some eggs for supper, I steeped up 1 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water – for four minutes. The leaf I portioned out happened to have a full bunny graham, and I thought maybe that was worth mentioning?

The colour of the liquor is a little bit more pale than I thought it’d be – though I’m not sure why I was assuming this would be very dark in colour. The smell is still highly strawberry/rhubarb but with maybe a bit of cinnamon to it, and something else. I don’t get any “pie crust” from the smell.

First few sips, and… Mmm! This is good. There’s a very weighty strawberry taste and some rhubarb notes that gently accompany in. The hibiscus is present but not dominating; it plays well with the other flavour notes. I get little wisps of the cinnamon, especially in the aftertaste and tail end of the sip. Honestly, I don’t get a ton of “pie crust” and I don’t think, on taste alone, I’d call this a “pie” tea – and mind you that’s with a whole bunny graham in the leaf I used.

I’m half done the mug now – and as per a tip I received earlier today from Keychange I’m gonna try the second half with some milk added in (gotta use up those perishables, and all)!

So milk added in now, and taste wise I feel this mellows out the flavours a fair bit, though I am finally picking up the pie crust! It’s sorta like eating an actual pie: fruit filling first, and then the taste of the crust at the bottom. In this case I mean that I taste the crust in the aftertaste, though. And, it’s a nice light flakey, buttery kind of pastry crust.

I really like this, both with milk and without! I’d definitely order it again!

EDIT (Warning, TMI): Oh, ew… I just threw up into my tea mug, though I don’t think it had anything to do with the tea and more so had to do with my eggs. Though, this didn’t taste as nice coming up :(

Took this as a work tea today, in my timolino!

2 1/2 tsp. of leaf in 8 oz. of boiling water, 2 min. and 30 seconds.

It’s just a touch astringent but I’m still heavily impressed by how exact all the flavours are! Though, I could loose the butter notes and still be happy. It’s a good tea, regardless.

So, this is from the same cold brewed batch I wrote about yesterday, though today I took a water bottle full with to work so I could make sure I had time to properly taste and review it.

Taste wise, it’s a lot more mellow and light on the blueberry taste than when it’s steeped regularly and I’m not totally sure if I appreciate that? I like that it’s usually very heavily flavored. Also, I very occasionally and unpredictably get a soapy taste with this blend and I’m sort of getting that with this cup.

Overall, not too bad but not too great either. I definitely prefer this either hot or brewed normally and then allowed to cool down normally.

Also, my Adagio tea came in today! 3 oz. of The Woman (Cara McGee’s Irene Adler blend), and sample amounts of the two TARDIS blends and Reichenbach Recovery! Yes! Thank you MissB! You’re wonderful!

Last tea of the night! I didn’t find many more places to apply tonight, so I’ve retired to the couch and am watching Doctor Who! Right now I’m watching part 2 of the first appearance (other rather, first appearance in the revitalised series – I have no idea whether he was a character in Classic Who) of The Master! Mostly I’m just enjoying the fact that Captain Jack Harkness has returned! God I love Captain Jack Harkness!

I’m drinking this as an eggnog latte – mostly because the dry leaf kind of reminds me of eggnog so I thought it’d be a good fit and I have half a 2L carton of eggnog to drink up. I typically don’t make lattes at home because I lack the equiptment to do so properly and I’ve struggled greatly with microwaving milk or heating it on the stovetop, but this seemed worth a go.

So first I microwaved an 8 oz. cup of eggnog on high for four minutes, and then I steeped 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf in that piping hot eggnog for fives minutes. Interestingly, when I pull the teaball out of the ‘nog I dropped it, but instead of sinking to the bottom it just kind of floated on the surface? Huh. I’m not really a sciency kind of person – but that seemed fairly fucked up to me.

As far as the smell goes, it’s highly eggy with a minty bite. It’s appealing, but in a very weird way. I began with cautiously small sips, and the taste was a super, super rich eggnog with a very mild mintiness to the body of the sip. Just the faintest taste of white chocolate. The mouthfeel is that of a very heavy cream; a thicker viscosity than eggnog usually has.

It’s an incredibly rich, thick treat! I love it – but at the same time it’s so rich, I’m having a hard time drinking it all in one go. It’s almost too much…

MOAR CAKE TEA!

Picked this one out because I wanted more cake tea, and I know from experience this tastes good with milk (gotta use of those perishables). 1 1/2 tsp. of leaf for 8 oz. – boiling water, steeped five minutes with Large splash of milk.

I just finished updating my resume to reflect my manager position at the calendar kiosk since I’ll officially be unemployed in a week’s time. Now that it’s updated, time to start browsing through work websites and look for places to apply. I’ve already applied for three spots (one of which was for a store which specializes in selling bongs and other smoking paraphernalia – you can tell I’m already feeling a bit desperate), and I’m still searching. Problem is, most places hired a few months ago to satisfy the seasonal demand and now most places aren’t hiring anymore.

I’d love to stay at the mall I’m in now – it’d be super convenient and I’d be well located but I don’t think any of the stores are hiring – and certainly not for the amount of weekly hours I’d be hoping to secure.

Oh well. Cake teas are comforting and making my sort of shitty night of filling out applications feel just a bit less shitty. Plus, this one is super duper creamy. I think in half an hour or so I’m gonna take a break and watch some Doctor Who.

Sipdown (140!)

This is only a temporary sipdown; I have 1 oz. more on the way from Black Friday, and honestly I didn’t pick this out tonight because it’s a sipdown. More so I picked it out because I thought it would be good with milk and I’m trying to use up the perishables in the house. Normally Tre helps with that and we usually don’t have anything left by their expiry dates, but he’s out of town at the moment so that leaves me to use some stuff up.

The milk we have ‘goes bad’ in three days, and the 2L jug is almost full. I also have a 2L jug of eggnog half full to get through in the next five days. Other things I need to eat up are half a loaf of bread (I noticed a few mold spots forming today, so trying to pick out what still looks good to eat), a couple eggs, half a tub of strawberry cream cheese, and half a tub of Spinach dip. Bleck.

I might have to take a break from tea for a while to use up the milk/eggnog or just drink a lot of lattes…

Anyway, I was right that this would be good with milk! It tastes like super creamy, rich yellow sponge cake and brown sugar! Mmmm! Super yummy cake tea is super yummy! Honestly, now that I’ve put my expectations for pineapple flavour aside, I think I’m enjoying this tea much more now than I did the first time around – and I kinda regret only getting 1 oz. of this. I could see this becoming a dessert tea staple.

If I had more leaf left, I’m brew up another cup :(

Also, my Butiki order from Black Friday arrived today! I took a quick sniff inside each packet and everything smells amazing! I have no idea what to try first. Something that goes well with milk, ideally ;)