Creamy Eggnog

Christmas in May? Well maybe for someone it is but after having an awful hangover and still craving anything creamy I know I cannot get any better than this tea. It’s light, sweet and super creamy and I think that is something to enjoy all year round. Nom Nom! Gulp Gulp!

I only have a few more new teas to try. Which is probably good because classes start on Monday and I can’t be distracted by all of these new teas. I’m going to try to get to all of them before Monday, and the first tea today is Creamy Eggnog. I added this tea to my Butiki order after reading all of the favorable comments about it. My fiancee loves eggnog, and he also loves green tea so I figured this would be a winner for him. He was away for Christmas, so now that he’s home it is the perfect time for both of us to try this tea. I was initially very concerned because the steeped tea is so very pale – almost colorless. But the aroma is definitely eggnog. The flavor is very subtle, but a creamy eggnog flavor with a wonderful rich vanilla note. I really love this one, and I’m not even a huge fan of green teas. This one will go on the list to order early next Christmas so I can enjoy it the whole season long.

-Dry blend has very large green tea leaves with small orange petals.
-Dry leaves smell very faintly of eggnog. Tea liquor aroma is of sweet vanilla.
-Tea liquor is a clear almost colorless pale yellow color.
-Buttery flavor with a slight fresh green tea finish. Light creamy vanilla and eggnog aftertaste.
-Best with sweetener.
-Very good tea. A delicate cup. Light and creamy custard eggnog flavor with a hint of rich vanilla.

I’m not from a noggy nation at all – those big cartons of eggnog you can buy at any supermarket in many countries? No. None of that. So I don’t really have a relationship with nog – it’s not a seasonal thing to me, and I can pretty much take it or leave it – that much said, I’m definitely curious about this sample.

Dry, this smells familiar – frustratingly, I can’t remember if it reminds me of another Butiki tea or something else altogether. It’s has a mellow, smooth, creamy, vanilla-esque note to it, which is very pleasant.

The scent is present in the steeped tea as well, but the sip is fairly vegetal. It has a slight metallic undertone to it – not metallic like hibiscus, but like that White Mulberry tea from A.C. Perchs I like so much. It’s a different metallic, one that doesn’t offend me at all, but it’s definitely there.

I like this a lot – that smooth, creamy vanilla I enjoyed in the bag is present throughout and highly drinkable. Is it distinctive and memorable enough for me to start craving it? Time will tell, but either way, I’m very happy I got to try it out.

[From my Butiki order to Santa Clara, October 2013.]
[Sample polished off in Rome, January 2014.]

Let me preface this by saying, I don’t really love green teas, and I’ve never really liked flavored green teas, but this one has such a strong presence on this site that I had to try it. And I have officially been converted. This tea is so good. It has the perfect creaminess and flavor but not perfumey. Like the leaves naturally come flavored like that. I will definitely be keeping this stocked.

Sil is a classy lady, so i’m sure she will forgive me for drinking this tea almost 7 days ago and not writing about it and basically forgetting my thoughts on it, but at least i remember that i did indeed enjoy it.
and i meant to write notes days ago but really, i’ve been too busy, what with watching all of Merlin and reading mountains of awesome fanfic in the sun until i got sunburn and then drinking wine til 2am after running miles and miles in the local cemetery. (i run in the cemetery cuz it has lots of hills). just too busy i say!
you understand.
i know you do.

This excellent Butiki blend has already been described quite eloquently by others and I agree with the positive reviews. Though black teas are my favorite, I really really enjoy this well balanced flavored green tea, enough to reorder it. I’m not sure I immediately think Eggnog when I taste it, but creamy, buttery, custardy? Yes. The second steep is quite tasty also. I especially enjoy Creamy Eggnog in the evening with a little Stevia. Very relaxing.

high 4/5

It only makes sense that after trying some of Butiki’s Huangshan Mao Fengs I should try one of the flavored teas that uses some as a base.

This tea is a good example of how Steepster and drinking lots of fuller leaf, unadulterated teas this year has changed my preferences. My initial feeling here is, wow I’m impressed and glad that the flavor, while very good at evoking eggnog (particularly the real eggy-creamy quality as opposed to the easier-to-bring-but-harder-to-balance/tone down warm holiday spices), doesn’t drown out the taste of the tea leaves. You can still taste a lot of the lovely nuance the base possesses throughout the whole sip and cup. I think before I might’ve been hung up expecting to be hit by a truck with stuff like cinnamon and nutmeg and not finding it. But this is so much better, and fits with the style of the other teas I’ve had from Butiki—there’s a lot of fondness and respect for the tea leaves, and for gentler but dead-on authentic flavor. Really lovely.

Oh no getting down to the bottom of my bag :(
I love the subtle flavour of this tea. Creamy eggnog—yum. Will have to add it to my list of things to order (lets see if I can hold off til June!) Oh well at least I still have some Pistachio Ice Cream left :)

2/8/14 Sipdown. I drank this this evening.

Another of the generous handful of samples Stacy added to my order! Such generosity had to be matched, so I split this with Cara, instead of hoarding my cup’s worth.

If I’d had this before the Pistachio Ice Cream (or the Caramel Vanilla Assam – note to come), I think I’d have assumed I’d ordered the wrong teas, as this must be the best. (My tenses and conditionals are a bit mixed up there, but best I can do atm.) Or if it had been called first-rate green with very delicious touch of vanilla (catchy name, no?), then I’d have expected less eggnog. Having read Stacy’s note here about her original plans for the spicy eggnog additions that went the way of all flesh when she tasted it as is, I think I agree, but it took me a bit of sipping time to get kapow! eggnog out of my head, leaving room for no-punching, no-knockout delicious, smooth, SO GOOD green with just the right touch of vanilla. The tea itself seems to have the creaminess of some greens, but it could be the magic of superior flavouring. Whatever, it is a fantastic tea, which didn’t quite manage to knock Pistachio Ice Cream off its green Butiki pedestal. (I got four infusions, btw!)