Pistachio Ice Cream

So, my memory tells me that I wasn’t particularly enamoured with this tea the first couple times, which were from a sample from Azzrian. However, I received some as part of a Butiki sampler quite a while back, and hadn’t actually tried it from my own batch. So here we are!

I opened the baggie to a… delicious aroma of creamy pistachios?! What? I don’t remember this aroma! How exciting!

For whatever reason, this tea is definitely working far better for me today! I admit that I probably overleafed my cup (maybe 2 tsp to 8oz. water or so?), but I’m getting a nutty pistachio flavour, creaminess, cardamom??, and a lightly seaweedy sort of green tea. This is certainly not what I remember from my previous attempts! The creaminess and green tea leave a lovely aftertaste in the mouth, as well. The only negative is that I feel like I’m tasting a hint of licorice/anise in there that I’m not liking. I’ll have to try this with sweetener someday to see if I can really bring out the “ice cream” flavour, because as it stands, this is more of a creamy nut tea with seaweedy undertones.

I don’t think I’ll ever be quite the fan of this tea that some people appear to be, but it’s much better than I originally gave it credit for. I suspect it perhaps was a tea that suffered for whatever reason by being packaged up as a sample (too much exposure to air, cross-contamination, etc.) Rating bump!

ETA: A re-steep with less water and the same parameters yields a pretty tasty cup as well, although with reduced seaweedy green tea flavours. (Bonus, it withstands sitting cold for 24h too!)

Just enjoying a fine cup of Pistachio Ice Cream here! LOL if I told my family or a friend that they would say Huhhhhhh?
So very yummy! I think that having let it sit a bit has made the flavors meld more as this is better than the first two times I had it!
There is something to say for revisiting teas that have sit a while!
I am raising the rating on this one due to it being even more delicious than before!

Well I don’t have to be anywhere for a few days (school starts on the 6th) so I have lots of time to enjoy tea :D

Made some of this last night with milk to sip at whilst chain breeding on Pokemon. Initially I didn’t think this would be something I’d want to keep around because I wasn’t super impressed with my first few cups, but it’s really grown on me (especially now that I know to slightly overleaf). I may change my mind and add it to my list of things to reorder…

I’m increasing my rating.

FAKE SIPDOWN! YAAAAY! I relaly should call this ode to Raritea or something lol Inspired by her love for this tea, I pulled out my package of this tea again. I’ve only had one previous cup of this and didn’t love it to death back then but figured i’d check it again in case something had changed.

So officially? This tastes like pistachio and cream….in that it might as well be ice cream. Secondly? I don’t like pistachio ice cream lol but i don’t mind this tea. Why did i buy this from Stacy? because i’m a fan boi and that’s what we do…try everything! No, in all seriousness i wanted to see how i enjoyed this and while i had tried the sample, it wasn’t enough for me to really tell. So i picked up a small package.

Overall? This is still a really tasty tea…but i don’t love this in the way that Raritea does, so this one has her name on it now. You just have to come pick it up! :)

I brought this to the lab in my Timolino, and topped it off with some half-and-half cream and honey. I find that you have to be really careful with the base lest it leans towards the bitter side. It’s a little vegetal too.

But I really like it with the additives, especially with the honey, which creates baklava-in-a-cup before my very eyes.

By the way, anyone watch MasterChef? I know it’s rigged, but last night’s elimination was utterly despicable.

This is a sipdown for me – I’ve probably had this tea for too long so it’s lost some of the freshness but it still tastes pretty good to me, and is good with a bit of almond milk. I don’t think it will be part of my permanent rotation but I’ve enjoyed it. Finishing it off gave me some motivation to place another order with Butiki- hee hee.

I’m giving this tea another shot! Pistachio is an interesting thing to add to a tea…I don’t think I’d have come up with that on my own. Very creative, Stacy!

Well, here goes nothing! The green tea base is very grassy, which I was afraid of at first. That’s not my favorite flavor. But you know what? Pistachio and grassy green tea go well together! Of course, Stacy already knew this, but I’m a recent convert. ;)

This is a wonderful flavored sencha, just not my favorite. The flavoring is subtle and light and not very complex. Don’t get me wrong, it’s still delicious! This is a much better experience than the first time I tried it. Freshness makes all the difference with this tea.

Still though, I’m getting nothing in the way of ice cream here. There’s no milkiness, creaminess, or sweetness to speak of. It’s pretty much a nutty, grassy tea. So it’s not bad, it’s just false advertising. Raising the rating from 50 to 72. I used 2.5 teaspoons in 8 ounces of water and drank it straight with no additions. Second steep for 4 minutes is virtually flavorless. This tea seems to have only one good infusion in it.

No real tea review here.

I overleafed this one just a little bit because I was at the end of my sample and there wasn’t enough for two cups but a bit too much for one cup. There was also quite a bit of leaf dust, being the end of the package. I shoulder have steeped for less time due to this but forgot so it is a bit bitter. Still drinkable but not as enjoyable as it could be.

So I had plans today, tea plans. And nothing gets in between me and my tea plans. Except a water main break which will have my water shut off for 5-6 hours. cries.

I can’t even be too upset about it. I was at home and saw all the city trucks driving down my street, then a man came to my door and told me I have 15-20 minutes before my water gets shut off for minimum of 5-6 hours. So I got all flustered. I filled up the bathtub and sinks, and all my pots and pitchers and cups with water (just in case). I was in the middle of laundry but the washer was on the last rinse so that had time to finish.

In my flusteredness I filled my kettle up to the top with sink water, instead of the filtered water I normally use. So I went to make a cup of tea and had to boil the entire 1.7L kettle of tap water. My tap water is not even bad, but I usually use filtered water for the kettle, so it tastes different.

And how do you clean your tea implements? Well you can’t really. I wasn’t planning on doing the teas with multiple steeps today, but I guess that is what my plans are now :(

And don’t even get me started on the toilet situation.

I shouldn’t complain though. At least I was home and had a chance to prepare. My neighbours with kids aged 4 and 1 are not even home, so they are going to get a surprise when they get home for supper.

#teaproblems.

I’m bumping this rating way up as I’ve had it a few times lately and realized I’m in love.

That’s why my reviews have been sparse, I’ve been drinking things I already reviewed, no sense adding something unless there’s something to add!

….so there’s something to add. This is really good. I might even like it more than the Maple Pecan Oolong and mayyyybe more than the Creamy Eggnog but saying that is almost blasphemous for me.

It’s buttery and nutty and creamy and sweet but not fake and not sickening and just delicious.

I found Butiki’s teas a bit too subtle when I first began this journey but I’ve come full circle because they’re really the perfect balance between good quality tea leaves that you can actually taste (therefore they actually contribute to the overall deliciousness of the tea), and subtle, complimentary flavoring that never feels synthetic or out of place.

Team Butiki all the way… Stacy is the (wo) man!!

(on an unrelated note, while writing numerous reviews on my iPhone on my breaks at work I have somehow managed to accidentally unfollow a few people, one misguided tap on the screen is all it takes, apparently. Come on with the mobile version, Steepster! You’re killin me! Sorry guys. It was not intentional. But you probably didn’t even notice :))