Holiday Tea-son! Some time ago, I had sampled a Butterscotch White tea that I got in a holiday sampler pack from Art of Tea, which I reviewed here: https://steepster.com/mastressalita/posts/365383 . I really enjoyed it, but instead of restocking it from Art of Tea (since they are quite expensive), I found a close match for it from Tealyra at the time, called “Butterscotch Potion,” as it was on a big discount, so I bought a bag there instead. All the ingredients listed were the same. Tealyra no longer carries the blend, but I know Tealyra gets their flavored blends by wholesaling, so I was trying to dig into where they sourced the blend. I could find lots of other tea sites carrying the same blend, and all of them had the blend as a fall/winter seasonal… the same as Art of Tea. Hmmmmmmmm. This led me to believe that Tealyra, and all the other sites were all wholesaling it directly from Art of Tea (Art of Tea lists that the origin of their blend is an “Art of Tea original” and I’d hate to think they are saying that while wholesaling it too, and I know Art of Tea themselves have a wholesale option). So, I was going to review this under Tealyra, thinking they’d wholesaled some “duplicate” of the Art of Tea blend but… no, I think I really do have a (much cheaper!) bag of the original Art of Tea blend that I had originally enjoyed so much. I even checked all the major blend wholesalers and am feeling pretty confident here. If nothing else, the over-abundance of “wholesale/relabel culture” from teashops does mean you might find the exact same blend under a different name for a waaaaay better price per ounce somewhere else if you are willing to do a little searching around by ingredient list of your tea of choice…
So I don’t usually review the same tea more than once, but that review was from my baby days on Steepster, and I haven’t had this tea in ages. My tea-brewing game has likely changed quite a bit since then, so I wouldn’t be surprised if my brewed cup, palate, and thus rating has changed as well. So I may as well revisit this one.
I know a year ago, I expected very bold flavors, which I don’t expect so much now; in fact, I now actually prefer a bit more nuance, with the base notes coming through more, and the flavors in the cup to taste more natural than really strong or artificial. So I took care to not put too much leaf in my cup, and I am really enjoying this; it actually has a really nice butterscotch flavor, without tasting overwhelming. There is a silky, buttery mouthfeel to the tea that is very pleasant and satisfying; I feel like I pick up a slight coconut milk sort of flavor note, which may have a lot to do with the creamy texture? Before the tea reminded me of Werthers, but that was probably from overleafing or adding sugars, things I don’t do now; I’d say it’s a more subtle butterscotch flavor, present but not overbearing on the white tea, with lots of sweet buttery notes, and hints of caramel. Almost like a caramel popcorn sort of taste that pops toward the end of the sip. There seems to be some vegetal notes lingering in the cup, but the sweetness and buttery notes keep them very muted.
It’s a really nice dessert tea, and very relaxing. I think I like this a bit more than I remember, because I think I can appreciate some of the more nuanced flavors a bit more now than I could a year ago. Raising the rating slightly!
Flavors: Butter, Butterscotch, Caramel, Coconut, Creamy, Popcorn, Sweet, Vegetal
I LOVE Art of Tea’s Butterscotch. One of my all time favorite.
Your review is why I got it :) I LOVE butterscotch anything – and this is good but I am still freaking out over what the heck this reminds me of!
LOL
Good Luck! Post when/if you figure it out :)
Well I think I know … but Im not positive. There were these candies back in the day lol Im 43 so this was when I was a small kid … they were like cheap lifesavers. They were round, but instead of a hole they had a little dent in the center. I usually ate the cherry flavored ones. Now this does not taste like cherry tea – but the candy itself had this BASE flavor that all of the candies had regardless of if you were eating cherry, or lime, or butterscotch etc….so it is the flavor of the candy base itself I think I am getting here.