Cider Guayusa

Thank you greenteafairy for this sample.

I really like that the Butiki teas are not over-the-top with flavoring. When coffee was my preferred beverage (and I do still appreciate a good dark roast), I never like flavored coffees and I never added cream or sugar. Along the same lines, I initially drank only unflavored teas before joining Steepster. After reading so many positive reviews about dessert-type teas, I thought that they might be alright. So far the best I’ve tried come from Butiki. Stacy seems to know how to create a blend that retains the qualities of the base tea rather than smothering it in flavor oils.

As for the Cider Guayusa, its pretty good. I can’t say that it’s my favorite as I’m not terribly into cider in the first place, but my husband is wild about this tea. He doesn’t have an account on here and likely won’t consider getting one, but he did write up a tasting note that I can share here:

“This [whatever it is called] is nice. It has a nice soft Apple flavor and it generally smells like it tastes, and it smells absolutely wonderful. It’s delicate, and very natural tasting with a nice pleasant aftertaste. Of all the teas my wife has had me try, this is definitely my absolute favorite.”

When I first opened this package, I definitely could smell the apples, but I also got a scent of something that I didn’t like, which I am guessing is the clove. I don’t really like the smell of cloves. This is my first guayusa, so I wasn’t sure what the smell was until I read this tea contained clove powder. The tea is steeping right now, and I wanted to write this down quickly before I tasted it. I am not sure if I will like this based on the smell. It is almost done steeping.

The pot is done steeping. This definitely smells like a light, spicy cider. However, I can still smell the clove, which does not make me optimistic about this tea.

I waited for my mug to cool a little bit before tasting it. I can taste a light apple note and a whole lot of spice. Maybe I am just hypersensitive to clove, but it almost seems a bit overpowering to me. Like I said, I get a light apple note, and then I feel like that gets overpowered by the clove, which is the taste that remains in my mouth.

Seeing as I do not like cloves and that is the primary taste I am getting, I am going to rate this tea half way between the yellow face with the slanted mouth and the face with the smile. That is how I feel about it. I will definitely finish my mug, but compared to the other teas I have from Butiki, this is my least favorite so far.

If you are someone that enjoys cloves, you will probably really like this tea!

I smelled the dry tea, and couldn’t for the life of me figure out what it smelled like, so I can’t describe the smell. Once steeped, it does have an apple smell.

I tried it straight first, and it does have a light, apple cider taste to it, with a bit of orange coming out at the end. The flavours mask the grassy taste that guayusa usually has.

It’s ok, but I think I’m going to try adding a touch of sugar to it.

I like it a bit better with sugar, but I think that I prefer Butiki’s Tangerine Creamsicle and Good Morning Sunshine blens to this one.

Now that I know that ‘cider’ in the US isn’t the same as cider in the UK (we only have what is apparently known in the US as ‘hard cider’), I can appreciate this guayusa more without thinking that the cinnamon is out of place. It still reads as apple pie filling to me, since I’ve never actually tried American cider, but I’m willing to trust that it’s something along the lines of this.

Sipdown 215/399.

So happy I got a few grams of this from someone :)
Butiki’s guayusa teas are at the top of my list, if only they still were produced… now I’m on a long journey to finding a substitute :/

This one is quite nice and I got to resteep it without the loss of flavor :)

This is kind of interesting. The Guayusa is vegetal and a bit nutty. I’m not really tasting the Cider, but it might be adding a hint of sweetness. It’s an interesting change of pace, but probably someone who is more a fan of green tea would enjoy it more.

I haven’t been drinking much Butiki lately, which is a shame because Stacy knows her way around some tea! Actually, the only guayusas I’ve had have been Butiki and I’ve liked all of them. Thanks Cheri for the opportunity to try another! I tried it first without sweetener and the taste was mostly the guayusa base, which I really like, with some subtle spices in the background. I wasn’t really getting any apple though. So, I added a tiny amount of sweetener and that really woke up the flavors in this one! The base is still the main flavor but there is an apple turnover-esque quality shyly lurking in the background. Very tasty!

Ooh yes, very good.

Finally trying the last of the many guayusas I got in my first Butiki order. Some of them I love, others I don’t fancy at all. I held onto this one for a while to give me a bit of time between guayusas and I’m so glad to add it to the YUM pile (as opposed to the much smaller but still existent blech pile).

And it’s a great day for it, too—chilly cold and a “Sunday” for me, curled up on the couch and watching the entire second season of Vikings. Well played, self.

I grabbed a cup of this from the MTTB because I’d never had it and was curious about the guayusa. Guayusa… I wonder if I’m saying it right? :P

This basically tastes very apple cidery and it’s delicious! Buttery golden apples and sweetness. It’s a great cup for a rainy miserable day like today. (Why did I wear sandals? I should have looked harder for socks for shoes…)

Easter weekend is officially over, so high-caffeine teas to jump-start the “real” week are in order.

As this tea brewed, it smelled like apple cider, which made me happy. But when I reached the six-minute mark (which is the proper brew time according to my swap package), the cider smell disappeared, and it was all guayusa. No matter the flavour, it always smells and tastes earthy and medicinal to me.

This is the third guayusa tea I’ve tried, and I guess I’m just not a fan of this particular herb. Which makes me feel bad, because Kaylee was so kind as to give me a large variety of flavours to try in our very first swap. Sorry!

Jude has requested to try some of this, so I’ll give him the remainder when we swap.