Grandpa's Anytime Tea

SIPDOWN (214) Another from this morning as i needed a good strong black to get me going this morning after the all nighter last night. I really do like this one for that kick in the fact sort of morning tea that’s as close to black coffee as i want it to be (without tasting like coffee!!).

WOWZA!
This is one potent cup of tea!
So, admittedly, this is one of those teas I probably would never have ordered. It’s so finely chopped it looks like coffee grounds!
Stacy sent me a sample, so here it is. It’s really intensely good!
I haven’t drank for 30 years, but it reminds me of one of those really dark thick beers. It’s malty, fruity, a little edgy. This is what I expect an Irish breakfast tea to be like, really In Your Face!

Not something I’d want to drink every day, but I might add a little to my cupboard from time to time.
Thanks Stacy!

Stacy from Butiki Thank You for this one as well as the other teas you sent us at Sororitea Sisters!

I didn’t see this one on the website (YET) but if aroma counts I share hope you add it!

It smells hearty like a meal, slightly bready, and malty.

WOWZA! This is a STRONG TEA! I’m glad I actually followed the instructions of ONLY 1 teaspoon – I usually use more because I LOVE strong black teas! BUT this is CRAZY bold, intensely strong, malty, peppery, and an interesting level of crustiness to it!

It should be called Grandpa’s Anytime (You Need A Kick In The Pants) Tea!

I love it!

It does smooth out more as it cools naturally at room temp but it’s still hearty and full of flavor!

A little bit goes a long way with this one and I think it’s DANDY!

I’m in love with this tea and it’s almost gone. I could live in this cup. It’s bold and malty and I could drink it over and over and over.
Plus it distracts me from learning how to drive standard. . . All cars should just be automatic.

Thanks to Sil for a sample of this one, and not making me share in a purchase :P Also, sipdown! 796 :D

Dominant opinion of this one? SQUASH! Yes, it reminds me a fair bit of the Kagoshima Black I had from Tealux recently. Which… is not necessarily bad, but it means I am not the biggest fan of this tea, which I completely expected. It’s a little astringent, but I think I did overleaf a touch. Probably not a tea I’d have again by choice. I think I may milk & honey this one up in a couple minutes, because I would feel bad dumping it (and I’m curious as to whether it retains the squash flavour when extras are added).

I’ll refrain from rating this one as I’m not a fan of this type of straight black, and I don’t feel that my low rating (around 33) would be indicative of anything other than the fact that I don’t care for this type of tea.

ETA: Ahaha, so I thoroughly doctored this one up with milk/honey/brown sugar, and it totally tastes like sweetened squash. Or like, sweet potato with brown sugar.

i had my first CTC tea today! i had two of them and this one was my immediate favorite.

i feel like i say i’m ‘putting something on my shopping list’ often. and kinda mostly mean it.

but for this tea i entirely mean it. i’m a person who likes lapsang. and puerh. and dark funk teas. for example i’m a stout beer gal. i like it strong and when it bites back. not exclusively. but i think it says something about my preferences. and this tea was like smooth melty blackness.

brew time 1 min? not for me. if i remember correctly, i steeped for 2.

thank you Sil!

Thank you Stacy for this sample tea!

I almost forgot to write about this tea…oh dear me!

When I looked at the tea (it does look more like ground coffee)…it appeared quite a bit like one of my favorite tea’s, the Ajiri Black Kenyan, which is ‘very’ strong! (My tea friends tease me about how strong I drink this tea!)

I was hoping Grandpa’s was going to be Grandma’s kind of tea!

The flavor was not quite as strong or wheat-bread tasting as my favorite strong brew, but it had the briskness and a little more malt.

I would definately put Grandpa at the top of the ‘strong tea’ list somewhere between an Irish and strong Kenyan tea.

Do…Love the strong flavor with milk and sweetened! My kind of morning brew! I think of these kinds of tea’s like having a great beer! Fish and chips, pizza and Grandpa’s Tea!

Doesn’t go sour or bitter on the finish like some strong black tea’s.

Should carry this one Stacy, just sayin’!

After yesterday’s festivities, I needed a strong cup this morning. Perfect morning to try this one. CTC Assams can be pretty hit or miss for me. One of my favorite teas is one, but so many end up tasting like grapenuts once they cool even slightly. Not my thing.

This one was not one of those. I followed her steeping instructions exactly as these can be pretty finnicy.No grapenuts flavor at all. Very malty and full flavored. Strong enough to stand up to some milk and honey. I really enjoyed it. This will go on the shelf for sure.

I’m always excited to try anything I get from Stacy at Butiki. I love a good black and Stacy has good teas, but I anticipated this might be rather ordinary since it is a CTC. I was wrong! If you like something bold and unique, you should give it a try! All I had was a sample, and I followed the instructions to only steep for 1 minute. It has a ton of bold flavor, rich and malty, and I didn’t find it to be bitter. My first impression is very favorable, and I want to order some more if she adds it to her website. I may even score it higher when I try it again. I may have under rated it.

I had a feeling I knew what to expect here—something similar to what I enjoy so much about say, Persimmon Tree Vintage Black, that classic memory-inducing brisk-black-done-well experience—and I wasn’t let down, though I was in for some surprises. This has all those classic elements of briskness and relative astringency done well, but it’s more complex than I anticipated (though maybe I should’ve known, given it’s from Butiki). There’s more flavor interplay going on here than with some of my other go-to comfort CTCs and legacy-style teas, and a lot more fruitiness (which I guess I could’ve expected if I’d, uh, read the copy :). It’s also amazingly fine, the dry particles. It’s a nice unique tea for not being quite so straightforwardly in that classic category, but still being breakfast-y strong and full of pure “old fashioned tea” flavor.

As a side note, I’m really enjoying getting my husband to the dark side slowly but surely, muahahaha. I’d already gotten him to switch from his mostly soda-based habit for after-work treat to cold steeped tea, and now that it’s finally cooler and darker here in the afternoon he’s been coming home needing a pick-me-up and we’ve inadvertently found ourselves doing classic afternoon tea all “peckish Lady Bedford-style”—a couple cookies or a leftover biscuit or split sandwich and hot tea before I start working on dinner (his school year schedule’s nuts for our standard lifestyle; he’s up before 5am and eats lunch by 11am, so dinner really ought to be eaten at like, 4pm but come on, that’s just SO culturally early! So this works well—he eats a little something just to tide him over when he gets home at 3 or 4 and then we eat dinner around 6). He’s so busy all the time that I really cherish these moments. He’s visibly restored afterwards too, from so tired and forlorn looking when he comes in the door he can barely stay awake long enough to change out of his work clothes to alert and calmed, ready to start grading and lesson planning. Plus, he likes all the flavored teas I started out with as a loose tea newb which is a great way for me to get rid of them, woo hoo.