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A quicky from the iPod! My sister and her husband received this as part of a wedding gift in the summer.

Not bad at all; a smooth black tea with some prevalent peach notes to make it softly sweet and fruity. The light astringency comes off as rather pleasant.. Maybe it’s that way because I always understeep my black teas.

I’m glad I got to try this! I had completely forgot about it until I opened my sister’s and brother-in-law’s pitiful tea cupboard. What they lack in tea they make up with (unwanted) pigeons on “their” apartment “balcony”, however. City birds are fearless and better at sleeping through the whine of the sirens that ricochet off buildings than I am!

Thank you, BoxerMama, for this sample. I think these tuocha pieces found a good end, although they definitely aren’t something I would find myself drinking regularly!

To me they have a musky odour. They taste exactly like moist clumpy rice ,that has been wrapped in vegetal bamboo leaves, once steeped. I went with a rinse and 30 second steeps.

I have two cups of this beside me right now (first and second steep). First is more oily and buttery and makes me think that there might be egg in the middle of this rice ball. Second steep comes off more green, although equally buttery. Mild astringency but no bitterness. Picking up salty and sweet notes.

Third steep is more astringent and bold; the tuocha disintegrated completely (so cool!). Almost have to reduce the steep time when it falls apart to reduce the briskness.

Pros for me: not fishy, coffee-like, or bitter. Flavours of buttery steamed rice with a pinch of green. Savory and filling profile.
Questionable qualities: light musky body that may rub people the wrong way if noticed (like eggs, mushrooms, or fat). Also picking up a note very similar to cilantro. I like cilantro but it’s a wild card.

I think this may be very good alongside certain dishes.

I heard you like eggnog, so I put your eggnog in your eggnog tea so you can drink eggnog while drinking eggnog tea…(sorry).

Half completed experiment last night where I put eggnog in this, as I felt it wasn’t quite eggnoggish enough. However, after making it I decided I wanted to sleep instead and placed the cup in the fridge. Result? Not bad. Cold, creamy, somewhat eggnoggish spiced rooibos that tastes like it has alcohol in it.

I think I prefer it on its own. That way I can appreciate how naturally creamy and spiced it is, even if it doesn’t taste quite like eggnog.

The snowflake sprinkles are cute!

“You know you are addicted to tea” when you dream about walking into an average grocery store and finding Tiger Assam, from Andrews & Dunham, on sale, in bulk quantity, just before check-out. What is this!? Best dream ever. I want to try assam so badly.

I was worried that this oolong was going to be too syrupy, in the vein of DT’s Canadian Maple Rooibos, and taste like little else. To my glee pecan nuttiness, maple sweetness, and rich dark oolong are all kept in tactful balance. Some roasted notes are paired with caramelized sugar to create a savory, warming tea. Soft tangy quality too. I love how naturally everything pairs together; it doesn’t taste artificial either!

Thank you, Stacy, for this last generous sample. I’m officially out of new Butiki Teas to try. Tasting them was a great experience that I hope to repeat in the near future.. I need to withhold on buying teas for at least a month. :/

End day edit: Neglected it second steep and it still came out smooth. Being able to eat the pecans in the leaves at the end of the session: priceless.

The cup is full of ripe and unripe, peppery mangoes. It doesn’t always pull off the mango lassi in every sip, but when it does life is good. The cardamon is prevalent and compliments the bright and juicy mango. Something, possibly the calendula, adds a light salty element near the milky finish. Lingering aftertaste is peppery mango. The rooibos never takes over, although it is present.

Thank you for the sample, Stacy! I’m not typically a fan of rooibos blends but the solid mango notes put this one near the top for me. I’ll think about getting this again; I need more non-caffeinated beverages to drink at night.

Sipdown… :( At least there’s more on its way and my first wave order from 52teas arrived today! Hurray for fandom teas!

Buttery sourdough notes, a roasted chestnut and toasted rice nuttiness, and something sweet. I love holding up the bag of dry leaves to my nose; it smells like sourdough or pickled plums (umeboshi). Sweet & sour and, oh, so very good.

Butiki’s introductory note on steepster for this “puerh” spurred me on to make my first purchase. Yeah, that’s right.. it wasn’t the Cantaloupe & Cream but this! It sounded so intriguingly unique and, even though my experience with puerh style tea is limited, I always get a mouth-watering sensation when I see posts for them. Weird, yet it worked out for me here!

Happy New Year (or New Year’s Eve, depending)!

Man, this is good! Today I finally worked up the courage to try the five second steep, gongfu method, in my measuring glass. When I made it yesterday using my wonky method it felt like the oolong was jumping from one flavour profile to the next in a chaotic array. This allowed me to taste all of the transitional stages, slowly, step by step. This is simply magical.

I let my mother smell the wet leaves and her reaction was in the negative but then I pleaded her to take a sip of the first steep, and also the fourth one, I think (when the finish became delicious). She told me it was smooth and like drinking a fine eighteen year old scotch. A positive reaction.

I haven’t kept track of how many times I’ve steeped this; I’m just enjoying the transformation of the flavours. It started out malty smooth, had a stage that tasted and smelled like fruit jam, and is now on a buttery, creamy, honey stage. I’m not getting anywhere near as much of that “roasted rice/genmaicha” flavour as I did yesterday. Where did it go?

I don’t have a gaiwan or a device to measure grams but I can do this! Yummy oolong, although I think I still prefer the greener ones.

Bengal Spice used to be my absolute favourite hot beverage; I brought boxes of it with me when I started university away from home. It was my comfort drink. Then things got busy, I “discovered” tea, and this was pushed to the back of the cupboard. Until now.

I went to check up on my mom, and she handed me her mug and said “I think I’m spoiled on pumpkin chai.. try this.” I never thought I’d be the type of person to say “blegh”. Just awful cinnamon cardboard water in milk. We both agreed to dump the rest of it down the sink.

Maybe.. the box had gone stale (better chuck out the box). I’d like to believe that but I think the truth is that it’s not for me (or my mother) anymore. I wish I could give this a higher rating, just for old times sake, but I’m afraid my face looked very similar to that red dude on the far left of the spectrum.

When I think of nauseating, overpowering jasmine teas this is one of them.

This pretty pink tin of twenty tea bags was given to me as a birthday gift last year. It was an incredibly sweet thought and I had never seen pearls before this. The individual sachet bags are gorgeous; the leaves themselves look like delicately rolled bits of green and white cloth. At the time, the jasmine aroma reminded me of root beer.

This tea is consistent. The jasmine is exuberantly floral. Sometimes, I pick up a pleasant “salty” sweet finish. The flavours have a tendency to overwhelm and I can’t imagine following the suggested four minute steep.

Unfortunately, this isn’t one of those teas I find myself reaching for. I still have twenty tea bags. They must have given me extra because I’ve had this at least three times in the last year.. just did a count on my gifted Paris tin and, although it says “twenty sachets”, I counted twenty-one. Lucky me!