Maple Pecan Oolong

Stacy You are an angel!
Thanks!

Every time I see or hear about something Maple Pecan flavored I think of my Grandpa…RIP. I’ll get more into that story as to why when I review this in a more lengthier review over at Sororitea Sisters in the future.

Anyhow…I am super excited to try this one! I’m also really happy Stacy used a Nilgiri Oolong here, too! I have large REAL Pecans in this and that I LOVE. I might just have to gnaw on one after it’s finished infusing!

The Maple is nice and even aroma-wise and there is a sugary-sweet aroma to follow, too! The pecans are delightful and of course…NUTTY!

The flavor is VERY Pecan-esque with a bit of sugary-sweet Maple flavor. It is certainly comparable to Maple Pecan Ice Cream or Maple Walnut Ice Cream but in tea form.

I also wanted to share with you – incase you missed it last month – on my blog – what I did with Pecans! I was darned proud of myself actually…check it out…

http://blissfulyogajourney.blogspot.com/2012/12/maple-spiced-pecans.html

This flavored Oolong is an amazingly flavored oolong! Excellent! And more importantly…TRUE to it’s name!

YUMMO!

This was one of the teas I most wanted to try from Butiki Teas. Maple pecan reminds me of really sweet, sugary pastries studded with pecans. I love oolong and this looked like such a tasty tea!

I am in absolute love! The leaves are dark & long & beautiful. There are actual pecans throughout the bag and they are huge! One of the things I most appreciate about Butiki Teas is that their tea always looks so pretty, unique and fresh. The scent is toasty, sweet, nutty and is mostly of maple.

Sipping… it’s smooth and rich. I taste a sweet, woodsy, toasty oolong with a sweet maple finish. I also detect that kind of drying, almost bitter part of the pecans. That sensation that fills the back of your throat. What I think I love about this tea is that while you are drinking, the oolong and nuts are most present, but as you finish sipping you taste that scrumptious, sticky, sweet maple. The cup is satisfying and rich, but not too much! I simply love this tea.

Backlog, as I actually had this tea yesterday evening when I got home from work.
I tossed a bit of cream and rock sugar into my cup even before brewing, because “I am who I am” and all that jazz. I think I brewed it a minute or so longer than the suggestion, which I’m actually happy about because i always end up doing it anyway. In the bag, this smelled of delicious toasty maple, and the scent continued to grace me as it brewed.
although I don’t think I quite detected nearly as much maple, I think it did come through more clearly once the tea cooled a little. But when I took my first few sips, there was a sort of generic (but still very pleasant-tasting) sweetness, and i’m certain I could detect the pecan, which made me really happy.
Bottom line: I’m going to keep playing with this one, and am glad I have enough left in my sample to do so. I have a feeling I could be quite smitten with it if I let it steep for a million years before sipping.

In other news, I spent the entirety of yesterday at the Apple store, basically bribing and begging the technicians to look at my phone. Finally someone looked at it, only to conclude that it was likely fried (the apple symbol would just cycle endlessly). 250 dollars later, I have a replacement phone, and the amazing thing is that because everything had been backed up on the cloud, it’s literally as if I have my old phone back—complete with text messages, missed calls, and all my apps still exactly as I’d left them (complete with the specific screens that I had open at the time!). The moral of the story is: no more phones in back pockets (I’m not quite at the point where I can say I won’t bring it into the bathroom at all)

I got my first order from Butiki! I gotta say I was pretty impressed before I even tried it. The customer service was amazing, the shipping was fast, and the elegant packaging just confirms the fact that there’s quality stuff in there.

As soon as I smelled this, I knew I was in for something special. And wow. The maple pecan flavor is dead-on, but the slightly woodsy oolong also comes through and balances the sweetness, so you don’t feel like you’re drinking warm syrup. And it tastes so natural, like the maple flavor was somehow magically infused right into the leaves. This is one of those teas that I had to remind myself to slow down and savor, rather than gulping down like a dehydrated runner, because it’s just that good.

This is insane. I’m drinking a sticker. And I mean that as a good thing. See, when I was a tiny Anna with braids and glasses and knee socks, we used to trade stickers during our breaks in school. This was a huge deal; I carried something like five albums on any given day. Some of the most highly prized stickers were scented, my favourites being a large strawberry with the best sweet berryful vanilla-esque scent ever, and another one, the shape of which I can’t currently recall (and this is driving me crazy) but that smelled…

…exactly like this tea.

Nose-in-bag, this is almost too lush. Malty and dark and nutty and sweet. I very much want to eat something that tastes just like this tea. Preferably in cake form.

Steeped, the scent is far more subtle, but equally gorgeous. Flavour wise, it’s all there – the malt, the maple, the pecans – and I absolutely love it. I think I might have underleafed slightly (trying to measure out a teaspoon of spindly oolong leaf is about as awkward as trying to put pants on a cat) so it’s much too elusive and I find myself savouring the aftertaste more than anything, as the sip itself is a little watery. I always try to follow the instructions to a T (Ha! Punface!) on a first brew, and this definitely meant using less leaf that I would have chosen myself.

This is the second massive nostalgia trip a tea has given me in the past month (the other one was this: http://steepster.com/annchen/posts/196900) and I’m enjoying it immensely.

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

1 tablespoon for 375 ml of water

Brewed tea has a lemony note that is associated with the pecan scent. There is a baked-goods note; like that of a scone.

Maple syrup main on the sip with an lemony tartness in the background. Toasted pecan flavour near the end of the sip and strong in the lingering aftertaste. The tea has a thin quality up to the middle of the sip but blooms with flavour into the aftertaste. Camellia Sinensis notes close to the end of the sip; detecting malty notes I would normally associate with black tea.

As the tea cools, I’m detecting notes of crumbly baked goods. Pecan flavour is surprisingly strong and I’m also getting a post-nut eating mouth-feel with the aftertaste.

Second infusion at 5 minutes. The taste has a greater focus on the strait oolong, I can taste hardly any of the flavouring.

Tonight I was reading how Tealizzy practically stalked her mailman for her butiki package, and she got it in the end. I felt some sort of envy, knowing my package is on the way but not in my hand. I didn’t stalk my mailman because I am not home during the day, but let me tell you that refresh button on the USPS tracking was getting tapped so often I thought I maybe was crashing the system.

For three days the message was the same: “customs clearance”. Today when I got home from work I saw that same message. So I did my thing, made dinner, took a bath, put on my PJs and then when I was reading a steepster note my eyes glanced over to the USPS open tab and thought “what the hell, let’s see again”. I think my eyes popped out a little bit when I saw “delivered”. So in the middle of The biggest loser, in my pyjamas! I jog over to the mailbox and get my stuff!

You know when you can’t heat the water fast enough? Yah. The kettle was on before I even opened the packages, before I even decided what to have. I couldn’t even drink it fast enough. I was like some person in the desert finding an oasis.

Tonight it was between “three friends” and this.

I am pretty sure it is by far the most flavourful butiki tea I’ve ever had. But then again, remember I’ve just been in the desert so take it with a grain of salt. And the tea is plenty sweet, no need to add anything. Large chunks of nuts are in there with the leaves. I didn’t fish for anything, I stuck my spoon in there and when I dumped the contents in the pot I saw them and …“whoa”. Amazing. I was kinda skeptical, thinking there will be a flavour behind the base. But the base takes the backseat and lets the maple and pecan really come out. Great.

I want to add creamer to it but don’t want to wreck it. Maybe for the resteep.

Ok, I’m happy tonight! (Also, this is probably the longest note from me you’ll ever read)

Let me preface this by saying I don’t like maple syrup. I know, I’m crazy, how can someone not like it, but I don’t. I’ve heard it all before.

Okay, that’s off my chest. I LOVE this tea! I’ve never ordered it because I was scared of the maple syrup flavor. But whatshesaid had it available in a swap so I figured it was a good time to try a bit. Thank goodness! I love pecans and the pecan flavor in this is perfect. The maple syrup flavor is definitely there but works so perfectly with the pecans that I actually like it.

This is definitely going on my order list. Thanks whatshesaid!

Today was a Butiki Tea day! I received my order yesterday, thank you Stacy! My husband showed interest in Pistachio Ice Cream and Plum Pudding but it didn’t fit in last night. So this morning I woke up craving something decadent, one of the Autumn Comfort sampler teas that were on sale and Maple Pecan came into my head first. I asked the toddler if he wanted pancakes of breakfast of course he did.

Before mixing the batter I opened up my bag of tea and upon smelling and seeing the pecans uttered an “oh my!” (think George Takei). I brewed up a mug, poured a small cup for me to taste, “oh my” again, and the rest went into the batter. Thankfully it resteeps well so I had a mug with breakfast as well. The pancakes didn’t even need syrup though I drizzled just a touch.

Lovely breakfast, lovely oolong much better than the few other maple, hazelnut and other such flavored teas I’ve tried. Stacy is an awesome blender though I am also looking forward to trying the Nilgiri Frost Oolong on its own! Oh my!

Oh my goodness!!!! I’ve been waiting for this ever since I knew it existed. A while back (like maybe a year ago), I had some delicious maple pecan granola. I’ve never been able to find it again, and I always thought it would make a great flavoring for tea. Then I accidently stumbled across this tea here on Steepster and knew I had to purchase it ASAP!

And that brings us to today. It may not have the black tea base I was imagining or the granola flavoring, but it’s pretty darn close! I brewed this 10 degrees hotter than recommended because I thought 170 was too cool. I don’t even use that cool of water for matcha or white tea! So, I’m definitely not doing that for oolong.

I’m not sure where this oolong is from. It’s definitely not the green oolong that I love. I usually dislike the dark Formosa oolongs, which I assume this to be. But it actually works! The leaves are dark and thin. If I had to guess, I would have thought they were black tea leaves and not oolong! I used 2 teaspoons, and the resultant liquor is a light brown.

The flavor is awesome! But I knew it would be with a winning combination like maple and pecan. ;) The dark oolong adds a nice woodsy element that complements the pecan nuttiness perfectly. This tea really needs sweetener in my opinion. With just a little sugar, the maple really POPS! Even the third steep for 5.5 minutes is delicious! Oh, I’m so happy Stacy decided to make this magical creation! I’m in love!