Organic Spring Twist

Time to give this one a fair shot! I followed the exact parameters this time (2 level tsp in 6 oz. water) so am expecting something good!

Although it brews up quite light, this tea has tons of flavour! Both aroma and flavour are reminiscent of Laoshan green (cooked green beans), however there’s much less sweetness here, and much more of a vegetal boiled veggie flavour. If I taste carefully, I can get a fruity, peachy flavour, although one that’s lacking in a bit of sweetness, which makes it a bit more difficult to pick out.

Definitely a tasty green, and clearly fits my preferences as I love the stronger, vegetal teas, however lately I’ve been tending more towards teas with a stronger rock sugar sort of sweetness, so will save this for those days when I want a more savoury-less sweet tea.

ETA: Second infusion accidentally left for 4 minutes… therefore rather bitter. My bad! I think this would produce a nice second infusion if steeped properly.

Thanks Stacy for this fantastic Sample!

This is a new tea! Stacy is coming out with a whole slew of tea’s soon and I can’t wait to find out what’s in store for all of us who know just how good her tea’s are!

At first, I was expecting an organic, naturally flavored tea…a nice afternoon pick-ME-up before heading off to pick up the 3 granddaughters who are treking from their ranch into town (about 5 miles). I’ll do a run to get them and we’ll have tea at my place, then I take them home.

To my surprise, this tea wasn’t flavored (the name Spring Twist tricked me).
My steep time was 2 minutes at 175F.
I was greated with the most fragrant salty spinach scented vapor raising from vibrant green leaves in my brew basket. Yum!

I’ve learned that all things spinachy in a basket don’t necessarily taste like spinach when poured… any more than wet Pu-erh leaves smelling like kerosene and leather taste that way as well.

The first sip… oh my, was like baby white corn on the cob. Sweet, young corn as juicy as if you had just picked it off the stalk. The kind of kernals that ‘pop’ with juice when you bite into them…and buttery.
This tea was thick with creaminess. There was no astringency or hint of tannin…no daggers of bitterness. Just a little salt, some fresh butter sweet cream.

I thought a bit before pouring another cup.

What if the corn was even a little sweeter? Not really sweet, but like the best of the Summer sweet white corn?
So I did it!
I added about a half teaspoon sweetening to just see if I could replicate that much loved flavor…and it was perfect.
(The saltiness of the tea is usually how I judge if sweetening will enhance a tea or not.)
I couldn’t taste any sugary addition but I could taste more sweet corn.

Since this tea has not been listed on the Butiki Website as yet, I’ll transfer my review or update the information when it becomes available… but I couldn’t wait.
I wanted to let Stacy know how much I enjoyed this tea. It is really good!

Thanks Stacy! Looking forward to all the new tea’s!!!

What, I thought this was a sip down, but I still have another run with this tea!

I enjoy this tea steeped via gaiwan – Spring Twist has a nice vegetal green bean flavor with smooth butteryness. I got 4 gaiwain runs, and once I finish this last run, I will make frozen perogies, which I haven’t had since I left Canada. Not sure why, but they were a pain to find here – whereas back home in Canada they are in every grocery store. That and when I’d ask other americans here they have no clue what I’m talking about! PFFF.

Liberteas Thanks!

Dry – this one sorts of smells LIME-E to me :)
I do enjoy the aroma. A gentle green with a touch of lime.

After infusing…it’s more vegetal – like Spinach. Again, I do enjoy this aroma.

The color is a pretty lemon-lime!

The taste is…well…SPRING! It’s a little floral, a tad grassy, a bit sweet, and touch citrusy…like lemon and lime. As I continue to sip and as it continues to cool – naturally – at room temp – I can pick up specs of peach hints. Then…Celery. Then…raw fresh sweet white corn. The after taste is more like peas. This is light and crisp and I like it very much!

Sipping on a cold brewed glass of this, because although it’s a bit chilly outside, the heat is cranked up a little too high for my liking in here. Absolutely delicious. It’s vegetal and sweet, a little nutty, and incredibly buttery when cold brewed.

But I must admit, the real reason I am posting is because I just found out that I’m getting a Zojirushi water heater for my birthday on the thirteenth (I’m turning 18). I am SO excited. I’ve been slacking big time on tea drinking lately just because I’ve been tired from work and school and didn’t feel like making tea, and this is gonna change everything. Hooray! :)

I’ve been resteeping this one today, and I think I understand it a little better than I did. Not everything is there on the first steep, and I think that’s where I was missing some of the complexity. When I have a moment to savour this, I really enjoy the asparagus notes that come out prominently in the first steep. I find the second grassier, and the third more vaguely vegetal. I’ve been brewing this quite lightly, as it can get quite bitter and astringent if overdone. All in all, though, a pretty awesome green.

I just realized that it is almost time for our second annual custom blend contest! Last year’s was so fun and is how our Ruby Pie tea came about! This year I would like to start in September since October is the start of our busy period (October-December). It was so great to read all of the amazing ideas everyone came up with. I know we will get some amazing ideas this year. Everyone gets to submit up to 3 ideas, a panel of judges will choose the top 10 teas and then we will have a poll to decide the winning tea. Here’s a link to last year’s contest rules which will be essentially the same: http://butikiteas.blogspot.com/2012/10/butiki-teas-super-awesome-free-tea.html

This morning I received a small quantity of this year’s harvest and a very lovely card from one of the estate owners. I love everything about this estate and can’t wait to place a large order next year. Mmmm, there are lovely soft, sweet green bean and corn notes with a gentle jasmine notes. I love steamed vegetable notes in green teas. There are also wonderful juicy peach notes. I believe the jasmine notes are new this year or maybe I didn’t notice them last year. I certainly don’t remember any floral notes. It’s a very smooth tea with a heavy mouth feel. This is one of those teas that you just start drinking and before you know it the cup is gone. We will be offering this back on our website tomorrow.

This is really delicious. The flavor is so fresh and vibrant, and I think that the “spring” in the name is very appropriate, because it tastes very much like spring: very light and fresh and crisp.

There are pleasant notes of fruit, the description suggests “juicy peach” and I get that. It is sweet and the fruit tones are peach like. The vegetative notes are also a bit like freshly steamed peas. I’m not one to eat peas (my least favorite vegetable) but, if they’re sweetened with peach juice, I might be persuaded… and this tastes like peas that have been sweetened with the essence of peach!

Very yummy, spring-like and invigorating.

Got my package in from Butiki today! This is the first one I tried. The leaves are dark green with some lighter ones and are slightly curled and twisted with a nice grassy-beany scent to them.

I brewed this in a smaller cup (about 5oz) but not actually gaiwan style. The wet leaves were a brighter green in color and the aroma was the same but with a creaminess to them. The infusion was creamy greeny goodness and pale in color.

The taste was at first a hint of something floral and juicy, it was creamy/buttery yet it remained crisp. Reminded me of buttered peas and beans. It had wonderful vegetal notes of green beans and asparagus. Perhaps a hint of spinach, but that could have been from my lunch earlier.

At the tail end of the sip I did get sweet corn on the cob that Bonnie got, but it wasn’t as prominent for me, it certainly didn’t make any less better. Definitely a good green tea and a good intro to Stacy’s teas.

Sip down :(

I will miss its sweet vegetal goodness. At least I got a bunch of sencha in the mail yesterday so I’ve got some greens around! Nothing quite like this one, though. It is similar to Laoshan Green but brighter and sweeter and with more of an asparagus/sweet corn flavor.