Butter Brew

AJRimmer Advent Day 18

I haven’t tried this one before! It does smell very butterscotchy. I steeped it and then walked away until my cup had cooled. There is a slight tang and astringency at the start of the sip. That changes into an almost bread like flavor and then the finish is all buttery with hints of caramel. I kinda want to try this hot with a sweetener!

This tea was accompanied by a note that mentioned a very dedicated process of creating a homemade butterbeer beverage that made me smile. Now I kind of want to go looking for butter pecan ice cream and try it!

Adventaggedon Day 15 – Tea 4/6

I can’t actually remember if I’ve had this tea before; I’m thinking no? If I have, it wasn’t memorable. I was excited to see it this morning though because it was cool I was getting another Harry Potter inspired tea from my non-Harry Potter themed advent!

This was a polarizing tea in my advent group this morning – a lot of people were sad it wasn’t super strongly flavoured and said it reminded them of a majority black tea. I feel like I have kind of the opposite impression? To me, especially from the dry leaf aroma, is was very obviously flavoured but just in a way that exaggerated a lot of the natural flavours of the black tea. If I had to guess, I’d say that there was probably either a butter or a biscuit flavouring added to the tea – possibly both? Or, at least, something similar. There was a bit of almost butterscotch-y sweetness but it was definitely very tempered next to the lush creamy and bready flavours and thick malty top notes. I actually appreciate the blend a lot because it was so incredibly thick and buttery without being overly sweet/sugared.

I added in a splash of milk with my morning cuppa, and I was ultimately very impressed and pleased with this interpretation of a Butter Beer profile. It was like the Breakfast Blend version of a butter beer!

Advent Photos: https://www.instagram.com/p/CI1bJQzAPNj/

Bird & Blend Advent Day 15 (15-December 2020)

This one smells caramel-y dry and steeped. I wouldn’t say buttery, like the name, but caramel is still tasty, so here’s hoping.

This is just a half decent black base with some bitterness while it’s still quite hot. I think this is the Assam tea base against the 100°C water. I should’ve checked the ingredients before adding water instead of just the steeping parameters.

I’m going to let this cool some more to see if some caramel flavours come out. Yeah, nothing changed as it cooled, sadly. I still drank the cup, but the sachets I saved for a re-steep may just be tossed.

I’m happy to finally try this tea! It smelled just right in the bag, though in the cup, it smelled bitter – luckily it didn’t taste bitter! The flavor is lighter than I wanted it to be. Mostly black tea with a bit of butterscotch flavor. It tastes good with milk, but I really pictured something stronger. Really, I did quite enjoy it, but it should have been more decadent. The second steep was almost as flavorful as the first.

Iced Latte Sipdown (265)

This makes for a good iced latte but it requires a caramel drizzle to really coax out the butterscotch flavor. Consequently, it’s not something I need to keep around but I wouldn’t turn it down if someone offered me an iced latte of it.

I’ve been hoarding a 50g bag for awhile now. I really enjoy this tea. Very simple, but so delightful. I tend to gravitate towards simple black tea+vanilla or caramel.They’re my favorite to drink in the morning with honey and oat milk. Because this was limited edition, I’ve been savoring it. But, I was happy to see that it was being restocked in limited quantities. It was going to be released at 8am UK time (which equates to midnight my time), but I knew it would sell out quickly, so I was ready to buy it right at release time. I actually went to a KISS concert the night it was released, but still managed to remember to try to grab some when I got home. Lo and behold, it sold out in 10 minutes. I missed it. I was very sad. I woke up at 3:30am and couldn’t get back to sleep, so started browsing Instagram and B&B had posted that it was restocked. Glory be. I got 3 50g bags, the new Spring teas, and a couple miscellaneous teas I’d been wanting to try (I’m supposed to be on a tea ban).

Anyway, because I was able to score some more, I made a nice big cup of Butter Brew this morning. Glorious. The smell is absolutely divine. Rich caramel and brown sugar. I’ve made the recipe on the B&B website before (cream soda, oat milk, and Butter Brew) and it’s very good, I need to make it again. I will say, I’m a Universal pass holder and get Butterbeer from the park quite often, this doesn’t really taste anything like it, but it’s something special in itself.

This tea smells absolutely lovely – richly caramelly and decadent. The flavour doesn’t quite match, however – there’s a hint of caramel, but it’s mostly just a slightly astringent, malty black tea that I’m tasting. I’m thinking a hint of sweetener might help it out a bit, although I was hoping that that wouldn’t be the case. It tastes very much like some past 52teas, maybe Weeping Angel? So I like it despite the lack of sweetness – just wanted more from it!

Tried adding a bit of sugar – it actually doesn’t taste any better, which is kind of too bad. The astringency seems to come out more, and the caramelly flavour isn’t as noticeable. I guess I’ll just enjoy it as is.

365 Days of Tea Challenge – Day 27

Yep, it’s Bird & Blend again. What can I say, I’m a bit of a fangirl…

Unfortunately, this one is underwhelming me.

It smells nice, like a rich salted caramel sauce. But the caramel doesn’t come forward as strongly in the flavor. I think it’s partially because this has a rather strong black tea base – there’s definitely some Assam in there, and perhaps also Ceylon. To me, the caramel flavoring isn’t strong enough to compete with such a powerful black tea blend.

I even tried adding a touch of sugar to help coax the caramel out, but it didn’t seem to help much. Plus, I never add sugar to my tea, so it just tastes weird to me! XD

I do have a full 50g of this one (it was one of the teas that popped up randomly during their big Boxing Day sale). Next time I’ll definitely try to play with the steep time, to see if I can subdue the base a little and let the caramel shine a bit more. I’m sure this would make a delicious latte as well.

https://www.instagram.com/p/BtJPLQCFPDg/

So, as previously established, I’m a total sucker for a name.
If I had seen this tea listed with a more generically caramel-y name I might have thought “hmm, sounds good. I like caramel teas. Maybe I’ll get that,” but as it was named after a Harry Potter thing, I clicked add to cart immediately.
It smells fantastic in loose leaf form, rich and decadent. It brewed up a little plainer than that, at least in this steeping, but I wasn’t watching my steep times, so there is still hope for the flavor. I am looking forward to the next cup!

288/365

This one is part of Bird & Blend’s recent Fairytale collection, which I basically ignored until I was placing an order for the new Store Blends collection – who knows why? It wasn’t lack of interest, that’s for sure! Anyway, I got there eventually.

I made this one up as a latte, because butter beer. I don’t think there are any other options. I used 3 tsp of leaf, and gave it 4 minutes in 250ml boiling water. I topped it off with 150ml hot milk, frothed.

This one’s good. The last blend I tried that could be considered remotely similar was Adagio’s Beer Butter, and that one had it’s strengths, but this one is probably more in line with my own personal thoughts about Butter Beer. It’s deliciously caramelly, very smooth and creamy (the milk probably helps…), and the frothiness (again, the milk…) is just perfection. The base is a blend of Assam and Sri Lankan black teas, so pretty sweet and malty to begin with; the addition of the caramel flavouring just takes things to another level.

In terms of uniqueness, it’s probably doesn’t really have massive amounts to offer. There are some seriously great caramel black teas out there – some by Butiki and Mariage Freres spring to mind, for example. The thing about this one is the fandom connection – so basically the name – which give it a little something that help it to step beyond being just another caramel black. I mean, it is just another caramel black, when you really get down to it, but I guess that’s marketing for you! I’d have bought this one for its name regardless.

It’s good, though. Really good…and there’s always a place for a decent caramel tea in my cupboard. If it comes with a HP connection, then so much the better.