Pear & Jasmine Candies

Sadly I think time has been less kind to this than to some of the other Butiki blends I still have kicking about. My palate is contaminated with the garlic butter king prawns I had for dinner, though, so maybe it’s just being overpowered. My mam surprisingly seemed to enjoy this one, she said it was ‘not bad’ and it got an eyebrow-raise of surprise, which is high praise from her! This is all the more surprising because, like me, she is not usually a green tea fan. The jasmine and anise are still noticeable, though soft notes in a delicate cup, but the pear was mostly lost to me this time. Brewed in my IngenuiTEA to Stacy’s instructions, I’m going to try resteeping the leaves at a higher temperature and with less water to try to coax out more of the brilliance that I know was once there.

EDIT: I resteeped the leaves in less water for 5 minutes at 88 degrees C/190 F and the anise note is much stronger this time around, while the jasmine has faded into the background and I can actually taste the pear now. Still no astringency from the base, which I forgot to note the first time around. Overall I would say this is a more robust cup than the first steep, though still a shadow of its former self.

EDIT AGAIN: I steeped the leaves a third and final time, and the balance of jasmine, anise and pear is much more even now. This time I used boiling water for 8 minutes, and was actually somewhat surprised that the more delicate notes are still present in the cup. There aren’t many teas I would steep more than twice Western-style, but for Butiki I keep going as long as the leaf lets me. I get the feeling that I could probably eke out another very delicate cup or two, which is impressive considering the age of the tea and how mild the first cup was. I’m half tempted to try it and keep going, but it’s just not quite enjoyable enough at this stage in its life, and I’m going to have to drink something else if I’m going to hit my target of a sipdown a day! I only have enough leaf left for one more sitting with this tea, so maybe then I’ll see how far I can get with it.

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge Saturday, December 4th: World Pear Day Tea #1

Some old pear teas today but they both taste amazingly pearish still!  This one is so lovely… I think I might have been steeping it too hot this entire time.  I used VERY cooled water.  So sweet and somehow seems fresh??? I need to raise the rating from 80.

Butiki sipdown! I wasn’t a huge fan of this one, actually. The pear tasted very artificial. Hot brewed, it was just unpleasant. But, this made for a decent cold brew. The artificial-ness was toned down and the candy sweetness was more palatable. Basically it tasted like liquid pear and jasmine hard candies, which is gross in a hot tea but decent in an iced tea on a hot day.

This one I didn’t care for. The pear tasted artificial to me, and it didn’t go particularly well with the green base, which I found quite vegetal. I didn’t get much star anise, unless I’m very much mistaken about what star anise tastes like, but I did get a weird taste that reminded me of play-dough more than anything else. I still have a little bit of this one left; if anyone wants I’m happy to hand it off.

Anise. All I am getting is anise. No pear. No jasmine. No candies. Just anise. The power of hate….when you don’t like something, it seems to be the only thing you can taste. Nonetheless, I am grateful for the sample so thank you Kittenna for passing on a bit.

It looks like this month is going to be devoted to Butiki teas that are still in stock so that I can determine what to hoard stock up on while the gettin’s good. Apologies to all the other wonderful tea companies I’ve ordered from in the last few months – it’s nothing personal! I’ll get around to your wares after the closing-up-shop frenzy is over.

This is probably my favorite of the flavored teas Stacy’s released after she made her closing announcement. The dry leaf has lovely little jasmine flowers scattered throughout and smells exactly like its name. I haven’t had the best luck with Butiki greens, including the Taiwanese bi luo chun, so I was slightly apprehensive about how the base would work out for me. Turns out I had nothing to worry about – the infusion was delicate but well-flavored with a dominant pear-candy note and a pleasant lingering aftertaste of star anise. It was perfectly drinkable without sweetener, but adding my usual squeeze of agave drew the flavors out a bit more. A very nice tea if you like pear drops and licorice like I do!

Not much longer to go on the bus!

I split a pouch of this one with Kittenna in a shared Butiki order. Even though the flavourings all sound wonderful to me, the base has me wary; I do not like green tea and even though I’m generally viewed Stacy’s flavoured greens more favorably than other companies I’m still hesitant.

I cold brewed most of my half; I tend to really enjoy cold brewed pear flavours, and I like iced tea with jasmine as well so I thought it’d suit my tastes really well. Wow, the anise flavour is definitely a little stronger than I was expecting. I like it; but it’s bold. Anise is tricky though; it’s a strong flavour that people tend to feel rather polar about.

And even though the anise in this is dominant, I can still taste both pear and jasmine! The jasmine in particular is well done; sweet and fragrant without tasting like the perfume lady at The Bay just spritzed you right in the face. The base is actually nice; it has a light spinach taste that I find pleasant, and it works well with the flavouring. I know Stacy is pretty well done blending now, but a version of this one without the anise would be really interesting. I just personally thought that since both pear and jasmine are in the title they’d be a little stronger and more of the focus of the tea.

Overall I did like this one though, even though it wasn’t quite what I expected! It reminds me a lot of Camellia Sinensis’ Peking Opera blend which is also Pear/Anise but on a white base. Of the two I think I like Peking Opera better, but mostly because of the base it uses and my personal preferences. It’s nice to have something comparable to drink since this is no longer available for purchase even if I did want to get more of it.

Hello, old friends! It’s been a while!

Had a nostalgic and slightly bittersweet sipdown of this lovely tea today with my boyfriend. The dry leaves still smelled wonderfully of pear and jasmine, just as they always did. I brewed it up in my big glass teapot and we shared it between us.

On the nose, the brew still smelled wonderfully of pears and jasmine, with a sweet, buttery-milky note underneath.

On the palette, it’s still a wonderful, smooth drink with all of those lovely flavours.

We got to enjoy 3-4 little cups each and I’m glad I got to share and enjoy this lovely tea with him, one last time! I’m sad there’ll never be more but I’m glad it was always so delicious.

Hmmm. Well, this tea isn’t as bad as it could have been. And I mean that in a ‘me disliking the flavours’ way, not on execution. The predominant aroma is star anise, though it’s not overly strong; the flavour is more a smooth melding of a beany green, smooth vanilla, and a quite acceptable (aka low) level of star anise. Not really catching the jasmine, nor the pear. It’s actually rather soothing… I was planning to send the rest of my portion off to Roswell Strange with her half but I think I may actually drink the second cup myself (with the third off to VariaTea). I feel like this is the sort of tea where, if Butiki was remaining open, I might actually pick up another small quantity. But it’s not a big loss.

However, if you enjoy creamy/vanilla licorice, and can tolerate a good green base (it’s not sencha!)…. you may want to try this.

ETA: Guys! How am I the only reviewer for this? I hope my tasting note spurs more people on to pick this up in their order, because yum.

ETA: Subsequent infusions become too heavy on the anise for me.