Pumpkin Irish Cream

How old is this tea Sarah? I can’t believe I’m even drinking it.
It might have been good 3 years ago, but bletch…
As a person who doesn’t usually care for flavored teas, I find this one to be bitter & kind of cloying.
And of course, it’s no longer available, unless someone wants this last tablespoon ?

I’ve gotta say that as much as I love Butiki’s other blends I’m really not liking the base they used in their pu-erh blends. It has a bitter, very ‘dirty’ undertone no matter how well I rinse it. It’s a taste that strong enough to alter the flavourings added to the tea making the whole thing taste rather ‘off’. I think I won’t bother finishing off this blend or the Grasshopper Cheesecake. They can go in the garden come spring.

The flavour of this is holding up really well, I don’t think it’s faded even a little bit. After finishing Pumpkin Milkshake 2.0 yesterday, I decided to brew this up today in comparison and shake up the bag like I should have done with that one. They are actually pretty similar in their flavourings, but I much prefer the base of this one.

The last time I drank this, I added milk to almost all of my ‘dark’ teas, and sugar to quite a few. Now, I only add milk (apart from lattes) if I’m in the mood for it with my first – typically bold – cup of the day, or if I overbrew a cup so badly that the astringency is unbearable. This is my first cup of the day, but I wasn’t feeling the need for milk. I still add a pinch of sugar on occasion when I’m curious about what it will do to alter the flavours of the tea, and I did so here out of curiosity more than any need for sweetness. I find that adding sugar, the smallest pinch possible, really brings out the pumpkin. There are strong notes of cinnamon and clove, some cardamom, which contribute to a ‘pumpkin spice’ feel overall, but there are actual pumpkin notes too which I find are often lacking in a pumpkin spice blend, a huge complaint I have with them usually. There’s a distinct cream note which hits the sides of your tongue, and a creamy mouthfeel from the suncha, alongside some sweet earthy and light smoke notes, which really add to the experience. My main complaint with this tea is the name. ‘Pumpkin Spice Milkshake’ would have been a great one for it. Even ‘Pumpkin Spice Cream’, just ‘Pumpkin Cream’ or ‘Pumpkin Milkshake 3.0’! However try as I might, and creamy as it is, there’s just nothing ‘Irish’ about it to me. From reading Stacy’s description, and other notes, I wouldn’t be surprised if there is no whisky flavouring added, but rather Stacy was trying to convey the impression through the use of the lightly smoky suncha base. I suppose that would make sense, but as a whisky drinker it doesn’t come across that way to me. Aside from that, though, this is a really tasty tea and I’m glad it hasn’t lost its sparkle. Upping my rating a lot from 72, because I appreciate it so much more now that I used to, and I think it might be my favourite of Butiki’s pumpkin blends.

Currently drinking this for my sinuses are all blocked, but a chai-like tea sounded like it’d be good for my current situation. Everything coming from the tea is subtle—subtle notes of cinnamon, clove, and vanilla (?)—and it’s hard to pinpoint exactly what’s going on with the flavor. Perhaps it’s an old sample, so the age of the tea is present with the brew. There’s potential here, but considering Butiki Tea is no longer around, I cannot give an accurate rating/review. I’m happy that I was able to give it a try at least once, though.

Thanks to Tea Pet for this lovely blend. No doubt it has lost some flavor in the years that I have been hoarding it. I made the last bit in my Breville for optimum enjoyment. The first steep was mildly flavorful but pleasantly pumpkin spicy with some heft in the base. The flavor grew stronger as the brew cooled – pumpkin, cinnamon, and cream. For the second steep, I added some pumpkin agave syrup from DavidsTea. The result is sweet, creamy, and gently spicy. The earthy base keeps the agave sweetness from being overly cloying. I now see that the brewing instructions recommend a rinse, which I totally didn’t do, so I probably messed this up. Harrumph. Still a nice cuppa!

This review might be a little unfair because this tea is old by the first time I am drinking it. While that may be good for the puerh, it certainly can’t be good for the flavoring.

The aroma of the dry leaf is cinnamon and earth. The smell of the wet leaf adds vanilla, nuts, and light clove. The tea actually does smell like a creamy pumpkin pie.

The brew is creamy and sweet. I don’t really taste the Irish part of the cream. I enjoy the way the spices mix with the nutty earthiness of the puerh. There is something that comes across as borderline fake in the flavor, but it doesn’t linger, so it’s tolerable.

The brew gets a lot nuttier and a little sour in subsequent steeps. Oversteeping causes it to become chalky, astringent, and undrinkable..

As the tea dies, it becomes a light kind of cream soda root beer flavor.

I liked this one more than the Strawberry Cheesecake. At first, I was concerned about the aging but then, oh…..aging is a good thing for Pu-Erh. The base tea was actually really good, a really smooth pu-erh absent of odor. As for the flavoring, it does have Yankee Candle going for it…but I like this one because it’s a Fall tea. Halloween and Thanksgiving are its holidays. I do taste the Irish Cream, which I love, and it accents the pumpkin, but….I want just the Irish Cream. Pumpkin is so overused as a flavor now for Starbucks-or coffees and teas EVERYWHERE that I don’t want it anywhere near my drinks again….and I loooooove Irish Cream. Nevertheless, this tea is GOOD, and flavored amazingly. Don’t let my anti-establishment inclinations detract from the real quality of this tea. I’ll try this again with maybe sugar or something to spice it up. It’s just a shame that this company doesn’t make teas anymore…. but there are more things to life than tea and I hope that the creators of these amazing things have good lives at that.

I’ll be sad when I reach the end of this tea, but thankfully that day is not today! I drank a good deal of this in April because it was one of the only 5 teas I took with me for a week long stay… then my luggage had a mishap on the way back (it melted…) and all the stuff I was able to recover sat in a corner for the past few months.

I was actually a bit confused this morning while drinking this for breakfast. For some reason I thought the name was Pumpkin Creme Brulee, but it tastes nothing like that. It took hopping on and seeing the Butiki Sipdown thread to recall the name, but as soon as I knew that it was Irish Cream, I knew that it was completely spot on, and took my time to savor the wonderfulness that is Stacy’s magic blending.

The pumpkin is light, and I want to believe that is because the tea has aged a bit… and all the pumpkin flakes had fallen out of the bag proper and was in its outer bag. But the delicate pumpkin flavor that was left was the perfect balance to the slight smokiness of the puerh. I was impressed to still have pumpkin flavor at all, since I followed the bag instructions to rinse, but it was great. If you’ve ever baked a small sweet pumpkin (those meant for pies) and couldn’t resist a spoonful of the soft warm flesh before continuing with the pie instructions, that’s what I was reminded of for the pumpkin note – a not too sweet but warm delicate pumpkin taste.

Usually I brew 60oz in the morning and that lasts me the whole work day, but that was all gone by end of lunch time today and so my afternoon tea was different.

Another one from my super sweet package from DeleriumsFrog today…I will say that this may be my fave pumpkin tea from Stacy, and I was shocked to see it was a pu er base. Say what?! There was lovely cream, but it was not the same as the pumpkin milkshake…this was much richer, perhaps from the pu er base…I dunno. I do know that this was a single serving, so I am sure that this was the last of the tea that was sent, and I feel honored that I got to try this. Bittersweet that I only had one serving, but I did get a second steep out of it, so that helps. So thank you, thank you!

Warning, long review ahead

Before I had an account on Steepster, I stalked this website looking for the best blenders in America. When I found Butiki I got my best friend and went through their teas to decide what I would purchase. This is a vivid memory for me because it was the first time I bought tea online from someone who was started their own tea company. The teas I got included a few guayusa blends, multiple straight teas, and the fan favorite Birthday Cake. Those teas were stored away quite nicely and treated with high regard and respect because like I said, they were my first high end teas that I researched about.
I wasn’t in the loop because I was finishing college, but Butiki was closing down and I missed the sale which was unfortunate because I really wanted to study their teas because their liquid was my mentor for what I want to produce for the community.
Fast forward a bit: I joined Steepster and found a nice warm welcoming and over the course of a few months was able to acquire samples of more Butiki teas so I could realize the different between teas smashed into mixtures and hand blended teas that had something beyond ‘like’ put into them (I call it ‘love’).
That brings me to this blend here, one that I really dislike the taste of. However, true studying can’t forfeit once it finds something it doesn’t like. So what did I do? I drank a lot of this today to come up with my reflections.

This tea communicate what Butiki was about, at least from my perspective, bringing teas to the community that are clearly unique and only to be found from the hands of one master blender. I don’t want Butiki to be remembered for the interesting straight teas they had nor the simple flavorings such as the Lychee Oolong I tried yesterday, but the truly remarkable flavors that were able to find themselves in the high, low, and unknown tones of teas. I am not a fan of the flavor of this tea, but it is smooth and I can taste each flavor run across my taste buds in a silky transaction of providing me with its taste. The difference between this tea and something like their Farewell tea is that this has so much going on that you can’t identify it in just one sip, which makes it a memory to cherish. This kind of blend would overtake a coffee shop in an instance. The warm pumpkin taste with such a mild sweet pu’erh taste that somehow has cream notes that hit the side of the mouth and not the tongue (as I have experienced) is a wow factor.
If only I was able to swoop up more Butiki when they were around, yet I am grateful for the Steepster community that has been so graceful by providing me with the opportunity to have almost 20 of their teas now.
A farewell might have been issued by Butiki, but I assure you that message was not 100% accurate as Butiki is not truly gone; it will live through those who supported and appreciated it for what it was.