Blueberry Purple Tea

Method: 3/4 tsp, 160 degrees, 8 oz, 5 minutes, Forlife brew in mug strainer, Dr. Who mug

Dry Aroma: Lovely scent of blueberries

Brewing Aroma: Same as above

Flavor: The blueberry is present, which I enjoy, but the tea has a bitterness that I don’t care for. This is my 2nd try today. The first time it was not brewed correctly, and the bitterness was overwhelming. Even using the correct parameters, the bitterness is still prevalent. A little rock sugar definitely helps.

Hint: DO NOT brew this at 208 degrees. My very sweet boyfriend made tea this AM, but did not read the instructions. This is definitely a low-temp tea. Maybe I will try this as a cold brew. I generally find those to be much less bitter!

Update 6/28: Brewed 1/2 tsp exactly, 8 oz, 160 degrees, for 3 minutes. The tea did not have the bitterness from the first attempts, but it also had less blueberry flavor. I definitely prefer it this way to the prior methods, but it’s not a favorite. I’ll try 4 minutes next time.

Blueberries you say?! Wow, no kidding! This was a sample I pulled from a traveling box. It was in a small ziplock and got tossed in with my samples to try pile, so it wasn’t treated that well at all. There was only enough for one cup, so I was nervous about messing it up. When I opened the bag and sniffed, there was the faintest scent of blueberries. I steeped it up and WHAM… blueberries! No yucky hibiscus tang to ruin it like most blueberry teas have. It starts to get a little bitter as the cup cools. Adding a bit of sugar really didn’t improve the tea and a touch of cream ruins it. It leaves my mouth a little dry after each sip. I bet this would also be really good cold steeped, but I’ll likely never know! This is definitely one of the best blueberry teas I have had! Now to resteep it for all it’s worth!

Big thanks to VariaTEA for the sample! This is a Butiki blend I was curious enough but defnitely would not have pursued on my own for a variety of reasons – the biggest being that I’m very fussy about blueberry flavours: they can’t have the texture of a real blueberry but they can’t taste remotely artificial at all.

I should be trusting of Stacy’s genius: after all, when does a Butiki blend ever taste artificial? It was just a mind thing that was hard to get over, though. Also, I’m pretty sure this happens to be my first purple tea – and not going to lie I find it very amusing that the tea page has the type of tea this is listed as just simply “tea”. I guess there’s no “Purple Tea” category on Steepster.

I stuck to Butiki’s steeping instructions pretty thoroughly although I was surprised the steep temperature was so low: visually this looks closest to a black tea so I was anticipating it to have a higher steep temp.

Taste wise – I think earthy is a good description because there is a very “raw” and natural feeling to this blend. The blueberry is definitely a really prominent flavour and is pretty juicy – but also really jammy like a Blueberry compote. I can’t imagine adding sweetener to this: I think that would push it to a cloying level of sweetness.

I like it and I would drink it again – but I don’t believe I’ll order it; I still have lots of Blueberry Jam from DT and I think I like what the black base lends to the blueberry flavour more so than the overall flavours of this one. Blueberry Jam is also maybe a little bit less sweet – and surprisingly I think I prefer that.

I am more curious about purple teas now though – I’ll probably go and more actively seek out other purple blends to try (like Purple Sunset Oolong from Butiki – which was already on my wishlist). And I still have one more cup of this left to enjoy as well!

My favourite colour is purple and I love ‘different’ ie unique teas, it seems only fitting that I have taken well to purple tea and it’s one of my rising favourites. On top of that Butiki created this blend with blueberry, a sheer brilliance on their part. Sitting here and smelling it steep I can feel myself salivating at it’s wonders.

The raw leaf is beautiful, finely chopped purple tea with bright blue cornflower and a sweet yet soft scent of pure blueberry.

After the five minutes steep the sweet blueberry fills the air beautifully but with an almost wood or malt scent behind it, not sure what to compare it to but earthy at an rate.

sip Wow! Blueberry! Sweet blueberry that lingers through the after taste and gives me a cuddle as it slides down my throat. The purple tea is rich and earthy but mild and matched very well against the blueberry. A little musky and almost smoky in terms of earthiness from the base.

If you’ve never had purple tea before it’s hard for me to explain what it tastes like, it’s like a green tea but also like a black tea yet not like an Oolong. That is to say that it’s light like a green yet has the rich and robust flavour of a black, albeit on the gentle side. On the whole it’s earthy and almost musky.

This blend is delicious, another Butiki triumph.

Sipdown!! (193)

Thank you Fjellrev for sharing an incredibly generous sample of this tea. However we have run our course and now it is time to say goodbye. The blueberry flavor is great but the tea, on the whole, is weak. Plus, is has quite a low steep temperature which makes this sort of a pain to brew when I am without my fancy temperature kettle (which has spoiled me a great deal) and a working thermometer.

In other news, my mother decided the day when she would be completely incapacitated was the day we should have turkey for dinner. I have never cooked turkey which was already daunting enough however the thermometer she gave me to use was broken! Unfortunately, all the working thermometers from my apartment are trapped with my whales mug in a box in the basement so now I am just hoping the food is edible.

Have had this tea a couple of times. I don’t think I’ll re-buy it again as there are so many other teas out there that I want to try, but I recommend you give this a sip if you’re curious.

I think the recommended amount, 1/2 tsp per 8oz is a bit weak, so I usually double that. Adding a sprinkle of rock sugar and dash of cream enhances the silky feel to me. Light taste of blueberry and to my mouth a slight bit of astringency.

I love this blueberry tea. It reminds me very much of a blueberry muffin. It’s a very light tea with no tartness. It also brewed to a really interesting purple color using the steeping parameters on the package.

I’ve wanted to try this one for a while before ordering a bunch of it from Stacy, and now is my opportunity. Having said that, boo me, because I grossly oversteeped this by 20 minutes. So much going on at my house? That’s all that I can really say as to why. :(

This smells like a few of the other teas I’ve had from Butiki, in a good way. It smells… familiar. Comforting. Unique. I can also smell blueberry something-or-other, and that’s about it. Brewed up, even messed up as I have, it’s still amazing, if more subtle than expected. It has a thick mouthfeel, a bit tangy in the berry department, and only slightly sweet. Luckily I have a tiny bit more to try out, and see how it differs with a more reasonable steeping time.

Several people have sent me samples of this, however this one most definitely came from JustJames. Thank you!