Peach HoppiTea

My husband and I were just talking about this tea, so I had Stacy include it as a sample with my order so we could both try it out. His retirement plan (many many years down the road) is to open a brewpub or something along those lines since he really enjoys making his own home brew. Since he knows I want to go back to running my own business, perhaps something tea related this time, he suggested buying a building and having my tea business upstairs during the day with his brewpub downstairs at night. This somehow led into a conversation about how we could tie the two business together and I told him about this tea.

He was doubtful that hops, especially cascade hops, would work, but he was pleasantly surprised. His words were “wow, this is actually pretty good” which is really high praise from his non-tea drinking self.

I actually didn’t get to drink much of this tea, hops tend to set off my asthma, but I really loved the juicy peach flavor. This actually reminds me a little bit of Wheach beer from O’Fallon brewery, although that uses Glacier and Bonlander Hops, so the flavor is a bit different. The Cascade hops add a very distinct flavor that is almost citrus-like and it really complements the peach.

This was such an interesting idea for a tea, thanks Stacy for including the sample with my order.

Azzrian must have read my bio when she sent me these teas, as I love the flavor of peaches, & she sent quite a few peach blends.
This one includes Hops!
A long time ago, in a land far away, I was married for 13 years. We had an awesome garden that included hops, elderberries, & lots of asparagus, plus various other veggies of course. I keep hops in my cupboard, it’s a great tea for headaches or to drink as a sleep aid.
However, I never would have thought to combine hops with peaches, & I must say, it’s a lovely combination!
Thanks Azzrian!

This is an interesting one. The aroma while brewing reminds me a bit of an oolong, although I know it’s not. There’s also a sweet fruitiness from the peach, and a distinctive bakey-floral note from the hops. I gave it three minutes in boiling water, by which point the liquor has become medium brown in colour.

As it cools, I can smell more peach than I could initially. That’s a good thing, I think. First sip was still a little hot, but varied in taste between sweet and bitter. The peach adds a light sweetness, and a delicate, summery fruitiness, while the hops and base guranse add a slightly bitter, slightly floral note. I wasn’t sure at first, but on balance I think the combination is a good one. There’s a weight to it, a bit like beer, and an almost thick texture. It’s certainly unlike any tea I’ve tried before!

I’ve left it right until the end of summer to try this, but it’s a tea I could happily drink all year round. To me, it’s quite summery in terms of flavour, but it’s also substantial enough to make a really interesting autumn tea as well. Definitely one I’d buy more of in the future!

I woke up with a cold this morning! I want to try new teas but decided to stick with ones I’ve already tried since I can’t taste everything properly. Meh. Anyway, this is perking me up nicely. Tastes good too though I can’t taste much.

I actually drank this over a week or so ago. But stupid that I am, I didn’t make a note here and only realized it now when I went to make another Butiki tasting note. But I did write my impressions down in a notebook that I recently acquired to write down all my tea tasting notes and things. So at least I can copy from that to write this note. XD
This was one of the free samples I got with one of my orders. I almost didn’t ask for it because the hops kinda spooked me off a bit. Mainly because I don’t drink at all, be it beer or anything alcoholic, so a tea that reminisced of a beer was kinda ‘ugh, maybe?’ to me. Lol. But I figured getting a sample wouldn’t hurt and hey, I might even really like it.
After trying a line of ‘meh’ teas (namely open sample packs from Adagio that I got from somewhere and I think had gotten a smidge stale from being open.) I wanted something different but potentially familiar with it being a peach tea. So this.
Wow. I was super surprised by this. It’s a very very nice peach tea. The brew has a wonderfully clean peach smell to it overlaying the black base. The taste is very clean/crisp which was surprising to me. Maybe it’s the hops accenting the taste. I do get a bitterness from the hops, but I was expecting that possibility from what I’d read about this tea. Adding a bit of Truvia completely banished that bitterness and brought the peach out even more. There’s a smidge of astringency, but it’s hardly noticeable. I just think I’m overly sensitive to it. As the cup got cold, it was still drinkable and peachy, but I think I prefer this as a hot tea. Then again, I wasn’t able to do a cold brew/iced tea thing with it, so I couldn’t be entirely certain of this.
This is definitely a tea I’ll likely order a bag of with my next Butiki order (which happen alarmingly frequently it seems. /shakes fist at Stacy/ Lol!) It’s a wonderful peach tea to have.

- Sheesh. For a small tasting note in my notebook, this sure turned out long all typed and whatnot here. Lol!

I’m being pulled off to something so really quick note on this one for now. SIPDOWN! thanks to kittenna and then technically Azzrian for letting me try this. I’m enjoying this one for sure! more to come!

This was such an interesting tea. Sometimes, you can try something and not really love the taste, while still appreciating that it is a really well done blend. That was the case with me and this tea for sure. I love peach, I don’t love beer. Turns out I am iffy on the malty peach plan in general. However, that being said, I love the creativity of combining peach and hops and, if you are a beer or malt fan, the flavours really work together. I find that I prefer my peaches a little fruitier and crisper, but this is a superb earthy peach and a really creative tea. I love that it is earthy, without being astringent and, like all the Butiki teas I have tried, just bursting with flavour.

This may not be my favourite tea, but it is a great tea and it is really worth a try to see how tea and hops can come together!

Resteeped my leaves in hope more than expectation, and was extatically surprised to find that it actually resteeps pretty decently! It’s also this tea’s fault that I just placed an order with an online craft beer company including a couple of peach flavoured beers, one lambic. It still tastes the same as it did on the first steep, same proportion of flavours, only a little weaker. I gave this a monster long brew, though, because I tried it after 5 minutes and wasn’t getting much of anything. 8 or 9 seems to have done the trick, though! Now I just have to cross my fingers that the beers themselves match my expectations.

Thanks to Lala for passing down some of this a few months back! I still have some of her teas that she graciously sent but were packed away up until now due to the move. Stacy kindly sent me a sample of this back in the day and I remember thinking it was alright. I’m not a fan of hoppy beer, and neither am I crazy over peach-flavoured things in general, so I never bothered picking this up. But it’s still a fun tea to try.

This time around, I’m getting a bunch of astringency. Apparently, I got that last time. Granted, hops can be ultra bitter so at this point, I’m not sure if it’s only the base, the hops, or a combination of both. Plus, the peach is very mellow, more so in flavour than in aroma.

It’s a feisty one.

Another Butiki sample from my order. This one definitely doesn’t look like as many hops that were in the Rhubarb Ale sample I tried the other day. I love this base in the Tamarind Pop tea even if isn’t the most flavorful. It’s a unique base that I could crave once in a while (unique – must be a Butiki tea.) I’d have to try it on its own to be able to tell what it tastes like. This one is nice – the base tea, peach flavor (a few pieces in the infuser) and the hops balance themselves out nicely. The hops are still slightly bitter… maybe giving the cup character but maybe just isn’t my thing. The color of the cup even looks peachy. The peach makes me miss the lovely peach oolong Butiki once sold… one of my favorites. So many lovely teas I was able to try (a LOT of them samples that I always appreciated!) I wouldn’t mind trying this blend without the hops. Also, this blend was created by Azzrian (and Butiki)… wherever has Azzrian been?
Steep #1 // couple min after boiling // 3 1/2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 min