Pistachio Ice Cream

Oh wow, pistachio icecream!!! YUMMY!!!!!
Thank you to Bonnie for sharing some with me!
Now this is a white tea I can enjoy. It tastes just like pistachio icecream, it’s spot on! I even get the creaminess. and nuts, I definitely get alot of nutty cream. Mmmmm.
Now, I am not the biggest fan of pistachio icecream, but I wanted so badly to try this one because all the reviews are so enticing. And you know what… this is actually perfect. Since I don’t really like the real dairy version, and I’m not supposed to have it anyhow… well, this is just as good! so no calories or dairy, and all the flavour! ha!
My only wish is that more of the white tea came through. It’s all but hidden.
So off I go to make my third infusion!
EDIT: third steep is amaaaaaaazing. So delicate and nutty!! boosting the rating a few points.
Thanks again Bonnie, you rock!!!

Pistachio is my favourite nut; I think I’ve cooked and served and eaten it in every way possible, but this is the first pistachio tea I try. Random fact: the Swedish word for ‘pistachio’ is one of the most commonly misspelled words in the Swedish language.

In the bag, this smells like fairly generic nut tea; it could be a walnut, or a hazelnut – either way, it’s definitely pleasantly nutty. Steeped, it retains much of the same scent, but it turns rounder and smoother.

Flavour wise, this tastes a little too roasty, or smoky, to be a plain pistachio to me. Roasted pistachio, maybe? I miss the ‘green’, fat flavour of the nuts in questions – pistachios are so characteristic. In terms of the ice cream, well, I should admit I dip into the pistachio gelato pretty frequently when I’m here in Rome, so my assessment might not be fair; either way, I don’t really get a creamy feel.

The tea definitely has a pleasant, mellow smoothness to it, and the base tea is as lovely as ever with Butiki – it’s just not quite what I’m looking for.

[From my Butiki order to Santa Clara, October 2013.]

I bought a new cute sakura print tea pot from Dasio for $4 – holds about 12oz of tea, which is perfect for me. I really wanted a nice green to test the pot out.

The tea pot did good, but the infuser insert was meh, so I got chunks in my tea. But they were delicious chunks! Pistachio Ice Cream is soo creamy and nutty and lots of yum! I drank this while eating a late breakfast. I immediately resteeped the leaves for something to sip on while I modpodge some tea tins. The resteeping wasn’t as creamy but still amazing. I didn’t sweeten this tea again as its pretty good as is!

I feel awake enough to write a proper note this time, although I did almost fall asleep on the bus for the second day running this morning. It’s so warm and cosy, and so cold outside. Not fair! Anyway, I started the day with a cup of Mariage Freres Earl Grey French Blue, which I’m never going to drink with milk again now. I’ve moved on to this for my second cup of the morning – it’s enough to make me glad I didn’t buy milk this week. I don’t need it with teas as delicious as these!

Dry, this smells soooo nutty. There are a generous amount of actual pistachio nuts among the green tea leaves, too. I gave this about 2.5 minutes in water I’d left to cool for a while, and the liquor is now a pale yellow-gold. It smells of pistachio nuts – as if you’d just opened a packet – with a faint vegetal undertone.

The real treat is in the taste, though. It’s creamy, nutty, sweet, grassy awesomeness. I keep forgetting to replenish my crystal sugar supply at work, but I’d love to try this with a piece at some point. I have a feeling it would just augment the creaminess that little bit more. It does taste remarkably like ice cream even without, though. I think it’s the way the creaminess and the nuttiness work in combination. Even though I’m drinking this hot, it’s somehow still living up to its name! If I can manage to save some of this until the summer, I’d love to try it iced. If not, I guess I’ll just have to buy another bag! My stash is short of really great greens, so I can’t see myself being without this one for long. Another great (not to mention unique) Butiki experience!

0.5 tablespoons for 188 ml

Oceanic green tea flavour most prominent on the sip. Pistachio flavour and sweetness present in the background in the middle of the sip and blooms until the finish. There is a definite hint of ice cream-like creaminess associated with the pistachio flavour in this blend. The flavours of the green tea and pistachio ice cream come together near the end of the sip but are tasted separately near the start.

Second infusion at 3.5 minutes. Green tea flavour is still predominant. Very light pistachio flavour in the background.

First Review. My Butiki Shipment came in today! Cool! This is my first experience buying from this company and I am impressed! When I ordered online I heard back from the owner, Stacy, and she asked which 2 samples of tea I would like? Really?! OK then, I picked 2 samples that looked interesting and told her that if those 2 were not ok here are 2 alternates that she could subsitute. She sent me all 4 samples and a nice thank you note. She also let me know when the items shipped and when they would arrive. Pretty great service! Both Butiki and Verdant get my vote for A+ customer service!!!

Now to the new tea!
When I saw the Pistachio Ice Cream tea on special…I could not resist. I bought one for me and one for the grandkids. My biggest glass pot is 22 oz. with a stainless mesh infuser which I filled with 1TB. tea and heated my water to 160. The steep went to 2.5 minutes. The smell is….um….so good! I took a sip and was blown away by how naturally sweet this tea is straight up! Creamy, nutty in a pistachio, vanilla, milky and almost almondy way…so interesting and good that it’s hard to pin down all the complex flavors. I think this is wonderful tea! I know that I like to say that when I find tea that I like and you’ve heard it before so this may not be the best tea I’ve ever had but it is pretty unique! Not bitter or too sweet, not overly nutty or sour, really well thought out and delicious.

This is fun tea! Good as Dessert…please add sweetening and WOW! My grandkids are going to love this tea! (no milk…it looks wierd and makes no taste difference whatsoever)

Hm. I see what Stacy is trying to do here, and she pulls it off remarkably. I, however, have just learned that pistachios are my least favorite nut, and while I had zero issue finishing this, I doubt I’ll drink the rest of it.

Yum! Creamy, definitely pistachio. Such interesting leaves – thin and long. Looks almost like rosemary rather than tea. More body than I’m used to finding in green tea. This could well make it into my regular rotation. Delicious.

This was another one of the samples that Bonnie kindly sent me. I was very excited to try this as I love pistachio ice cream (well, pistachio anything really). It had a more delicate flavor than I expected, but often times with green teas I’m finding it’s all about appreciating subtlety. The green tea base tastes fantastic, it’s very light and there are delicate flavors of cream and then stronger flavors of pistachio. Very good, it reminds me of Joy’s Teaspoon’s Enchanted Forest (probably because it’s the only other tea I’ve had that used nuts as flavoring). Butiki is definitely going on my list of places to buy from when I get more cash (along with Joy’s Teaspoon, PuerhShop, Den’s Tea, Fusion Tea Room and a slew of other places…).

My husband has two weeks off work to use up some of his holiday time. This is day one and so far I have been subjected to an entire day or watching him play Worms Revolution. Rather fitting for Remembrance Day.

This tea smells sweet and dry with hints of flowers, caramel and nuts.

It tastes creamy and sweet with strong pistachio elements but also a quite strong astringency. I followed the instructions though honestly I have never liked pistachios so perhaps it’s too strongly pistachio for my liking and that’s the problem. The pistachios do taste roasted and become more noticeable in the dry after taste.

I just don’t think this blend is for me and it’s stronger than I thought it would be, for that reason I shall not rate this blend.