Pistachio Ice Cream

oh snap i’m probably speaking too soon but think i found my butiki green.
the dry leaves smell super duper. and the taste is cozy nutty and a little vanilla smoothness. it’s like it’s IN the tea leaves though. ya know? just a whole new creature.
i did two steepings of course.

thanks so much Shelley_Lorraine! i have enough for a second cup and very pro packaging too!

I broke my favorite 25 oz teapot yesterday, and its replacement isn’t coming until next week. :-( I have not been wanting to brew small quantities of tea in my bigger teapot, so I chose this one tonight because I love it and don’t mind drinking lots of it at a time. :-)

Just as I was starting to feel sad about the lack of new Butiki blends to try BoxerMama’s parcel arrived to save the day. Thank you!

Initially, I was worried about over steeping and over leafing this flavoured green. As it turns out, however, the flavour is a mild and smooth one that I prefer being generous with. The milky and sweet body gives a strong impression of melted ice cream, while the green pistachio, backed by a perfectly matched green base, provides a gentle nuttiness. This buttery, creamy, and sweet ice cream tea is enjoyable lukewarm or iced. Butiki teas may potentially be inflating my expectations for flavoured teas.

I emptied my ziplock sample today and this will be the last tea I finish before heading back to school after my extended holiday.. I was supposed to start on the third but I stuck around for a friend’s 21st birthday. Indian Curry smorgasbord trumped syllabus collecting, unfortunately. I’m a bad student.

Goodbye Pistachio! (103)

I’m not really that sad that you’re gone. I can see why others adore everything you do, but I just don’t think you’re my type.

It’s not you; it’s me.

I’ve had this one for a while, so it might be losing flavor at this point, but I feel like no matter what I do I can’t get the flavor out of this that everyone else gets! Oh well, I guess it just isn’t meant to be.

I had all these plans for what I would do with my July tea budget but I think by July I am going to be scrapping most of the plans.

This afternoon I really wished I had ordered the Grapefruit Dragon like I originally intended to. It is beautifully sunny out and I’m making snapper with dill beurre blanc (fancy way of saying white butter dill sauce). I need a tea to go with it as there’s no white wine in the house. So thought to myself “self, you should have bought the grapefruit dragon!”

Oh well, next time.

Onto this tea. I wanted a green tea and I wanted the pistachio ice cream. Oh looky here, the pistachio icecream is a green tea! And to top it off, i had just I bought almond milk. Now I’m sure I’m zapping all the green tea healthy properties by adding sugar and almond milk but hey, it’s my tea.

I did try it without milk at first. I’m not really eloquent with this stuff so I’ll just tell you I get mostly pistachio, which is fine because that’s exactly why I bought this. Vegetal? Forget it. And here I thought green teas were mostly barely flavoured warm water. Nay!

I steeped using butiki parameters because I trust them more than I trust me at his point and I got a almost clear but not quite liquor which tasted and smelled like roasted pistachio. I should really drink this cold so that I am actually reminded of icecream but my ice cubes smell of freezer … wha?!? … so I can’t put any in.

Hurray for green teas, there’s hope!

PS. I also had “with open eyes” earlier, but that’s a whole different note.

See my previous note. I haven’t had this in awhile, so while my son is home from school for the holidays, I made us both a cup and was reminded that this is a really well done blend. Though it is a flavored tea, the tea flavor does come through. It is not strongly vegetal like some green teas, and is not bitter. My son does not sweeten tea and thought it was great. I add just a little stevia, but it doesn’t require much. Really nice in the evening. I’m going to do the re-steep as a cold brew like someone else suggested.

Very tasty! The first thing I noticed was the full rich creaminess and then the vanilla. There’s also something spicy like cinnamon? Not sure. Can say I’m gettIng much pistachio but it may be the cold brewing. And I used too little leaf. I have some os this left so I can try again later! It definitely reminds me of ice cream, which Is just amazing to me. It some how has that rich yolky custard flavor. I also love that this is not a cheap sencha base like so many flavored greens are. It’s all about the quality here!

Thank you Kittenna for sending a sample of this!

This is Round 2 of this tea. I think I overleafed/oversteeped the first time, so I took more caution not to do either.

This is more like it. There’s still that green tea astringency behind the sweetly salty pistachio flavoring, but when you don’t half-scorch the water it’s much easier to ignore. When the tea cools a bit, it’s an even more enjoyable cup.

Glad I revisited this. It’s nice to have another green tea I enjoy drinking late at night before I go to bed.

I received this in a swap.
I seem to be the only who isn’t loving this tea. To me I find it tastes like a genmaicha. Until I have something creamy, then when I take a sip of this it becomes, pure creamy, nutty goodness. Mmmm I wish it tasted like this all the way through, because it would be near perfection.

I definitely want to try this again.