Dark Side of the Melon

Sipdown (482)!

It’s been a long time since I’ve had new Butiki teas in my cupboard; or ‘new to me’ at least. However, I just got several from the always overly kind and generous Kittenna as part of a swap. Teaware for tea samples, though.

I can’t remember why I originally skipped this one when it first launched years ago; maybe just ‘cause there were so many other Butiki blends to try? And I definitely had a smaller tea budget. I’m glad I’m trying it now.

It’s kind of weird, to be honest, but at the very least the dry aroma works for me. It actually still smells really strongly of melon after all this time – but I actually thought it was watermelon over cantaloupe. It smells more like watermelon to me, almost exactly like Watermelon Xylophone but with this malty/earthy undertone to it. Less creamy than Butiki’s white based melon teas, for sure.

Taste wise it’s not as strongly melon as both dry and steeped aroma are; but it is there. I imagine it would have been a much more punchy flavour when this one first came out, but the subtle watermelon in the body of the sip is still nice. I don’t get malt so much; in fact I get more of an earthiness – so much so I actually had to double check this one was a black tea and not a shou. It’s also a little salty, and I can’t place where that’s coming from. I’m actually really into it though – salted watermelon is very much a lovely and delicious thing and to me this is just reading as a fun recreation of that treat.

I wont rate it ’cause I doubt this is good representation of what the tea was intended to be like, but I had a fun time experiencing this one!

Song Pairing: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbnVMSYVbvA&list=WL&index=5

So, it feels almost blasphemous to me to not be listening to some Pink Floyd with this one but this is what was speaking to me when I steeped up the tea. I’ve been on an indie/rap kind of kick lately. Actually, though, I think I may have picked this one kind of because of some word association though; the album image for the track is of a horned melon, so…

Resteeped my leaves, since it seemed a shame not to when it used so much to begin with. The melon flavour is definitely more subdued this time, but I think the coffee note is even more pronounced. In the first cup the base tea seemed to support the flavours, which were the star of the show, but this time it’s the other way around. The cantaloupe note does come through first, but the main body of the tea is classically darjeeling notes. It’s a fairly floral tea, which pairs well with the supporting melon note, and also has some earthiness which is well matched with the espresso. Everything is much more evenly balanced in this cup than the last. As it starts to cool the tea becomes slightly bitter, so it’s definitely best drank hot. For the second time this week I’m regretting throwing out my leaf after the second steep without tasting the tea; this could easily have gone for a third.

This actually ended up being one of my favorites from Stacy’s last few batches. It seemed like an odd combo at first, but the mix of coffee and cantaloupe actually works. Really well. Alas, the flavor has definitely faded over time so it’s just as well that this is a sipdown. It was always good for at least 2-3 resteeps, each one gloriously juicy and coffee/nutty/chicory-ish. Sad it’s faded and gone but glad to have tried it.

This was an odd blend—mainly fresh, juicy cantaloupe with an aftertaste of espresso. The flavoring was quite strong, and I couldn’t really appreciate the nuances of the Giddapahar base underneath. I did get that faintly astringent note I enjoy in Darjeelings, though. Cantaloupe’s not honestly one of my favorite fruit flavors, though I like it well enough, but Butiki’s cantaloupe was so true-to-life. I think it stood better on its own, without the espresso, but I’m glad I got a chance to try this unusual tea.

additional notes: I woke up today wanting 1) a coffee tea and 2) a melon tea, so this was the perfect fit for today. I’m glad I thought of it. The flavors are of course by now fading, but the lingering memories are lovely enough. This is still better than 98% of fresher teas. Have I said lately that I REALLY wish Butiki would come back? triple sigh.

I agonized AGONIZED over which tea to choose for my 666th tasting note. I’m delighted that I hit that number during October with Halloween coming up, but what to choose?! Graveyard Mist? Black Cat? Smaug? Something with pumpkin? The pumpkin matcha I had the other day? I was torn for hours trying to decide. I ran across a sample of this and not remembering if I had tried it before, I thought with the name having “dark side” in it, it was a good match. I now have the appropriate Pink Floyd album playing in the background as I steep.
The aroma coming off the cup is a light sweet melon scent. Mellon is on the sip and although it is bright, there is something deeper to it, earthier. The melon is able to carry it’s flavor without the needed addition of sugar, something I find necessary to round out the flavor for many fruity teas. The espresso seems to work behind the scene propping up and complimenting the melon. I never would have guessed the two flavors would work so well together! Drinking this tea and listening to Pink Floyd is making for a really great afternoon. I do wish Butiki was still around so I could grab more of this, but it kinda makes it special that it is a limited thing too.

Backlog from yesterday:

So very glad to have a second chance at this tea! Thanks DeleriumsFrog for including this in the package you sent me. I’ve had this one before, but I used the whole sample, and it was too bitter and strong. I gaged that there were about 4 rounded teaspoons in the bag, so if I had used the full tablespoon as directed, I would, once again, run the risk of having too much for one steep—and not enough for the second. It is possible I may have mis-measured, as I woke up still feeling a bit sick, but I scoured the reviews here and decided to go with 2 tsp for my steep…and I am glad I did!

This time the tea was more mellow, and while the espresso was the dominant note, the cantaloupe was lightly present, in more of a lingering juicy taste. I made two steeps of this hot, and a third cold steeped, but I think I’d steeped all the flavour out by then.

I am grateful for the chance to try this one again. I do like the flavours very much!

I’m drinking this tea at the moment so that I can have a just for me moment. I’ve been very busy with: 1) Kickstarter stuff (seriously, unless you are exploding kittens, it’s hard work!); 2) blog stuff (getting all my reviews in place so that I can ‘retire’ and get our new sisters on board, plus getting the blog in order for them to get started); sampling/testing teas and flavorings.

Which is to say that I’ve not taken a lot of time to just sit back and enjoy a tea that is neither for a review or for me to test out for potential teas for the all-new 52Teas.

So, I decided to take a tea moment for me now and try this tea. It’s been beckoning me for a while.

And it’s good. I am not usually a big espresso fan. But it works with the melon. The espresso adds a roasty element to this, making it taste almost like roasted cantaloupe which I’ve never tried but based on my reaction to this blend, I’d say it’s probably quite delicious.

The black tea has a Oolong-like texture to it that I’m liking with the melon notes. It’s a very tasty … very unusual blend. I like.

yep! i like this one. It’s not knock your socks off and i see why some people think it’s a little light but i can get behind this, esp since i didn’t get to restock canteloupe and cream. I like stacy’s coffee/espresso flavouring so that’s a win :) now to get back to organising my cupboard lol ugh. glad i have a bit table!

Honestly? This tea should not have worked. Melon and espresso? Just saying it sounds wrong, because they’re such incompatible-seeming flavours. But it seems that the rush to create blends/use flavourings let some of these weird ideas through, and unexpectedly, this pairing, which I sincerely doubt Stacy would have ever tried otherwise, is brilliant!

Don’t recall what the base is here, but it’s the flavourings that are the stars – the bright melon that reminds me mostly of Watermelon Xylophone, plus the espresso from Red Queen Cupcake to really make the name accurate. It just works for some reason, perhaps because the melon is featured, with the espresso creating the background (whereas when one might think of pairing the two, a melon coffee might come to mind, in which COFFEE would be the dominant note… and I don’t know how that would go).

Overall, I’m quite pleased. The one thing is – though I love melon, I’ll admit that it does seem to be a flavour I tire of in teas, which is why I’ve had trouble getting through my 2 oz. of Cantaloupe & Cream (though I quite enjoy it when I actually crave it). So I have a good amount of this, which will probably last me for quite some time for that reason.