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“First cup of the day, trying to wake up. I have a bit of a headache & will have to wear sunglasses, as I’m having the photo sensitivity problem this morning. Otherwise I’m good! I’m relaxing in...” Read full tasting note
“had this in the morning. I have a bunch of tea to try and drink tomorrow morning/afternoon before i have to head out to the middle of nowhere to hang out from 6pm-6am. ugh. This is one of those...” Read full tasting note
“I’m testing out the leaves from my order a while back. This is possibly my favorite tea! Sadly, I think the leaves may have changed from the sample I had a while back (possibly a new batch?) Steep...” Read full tasting note
“This is day 3 of my raw food cleanse. From time to time, I like to follow a raw diet to cleanse my body. This time around, I haven’t really been overly hungry (yet) but today is a real low. I’m...” Read full tasting note
Our Hattialli Golden Lion Assam originates from the Hattialli Tea Estate in the Dibrugarh District in the South Bank, Assam region of India. The name Hattialli comes from the words "Hatti Alli", which means Elephant Road. This name came about because of a nearby elephant camp. The Hattialli Tea Estate is known for golden tippy handpicked teas and the balance of briskness and mellowness of their teas. The golden tips of this tea are longer than the black leaves, which imparts a more golden appearance. This phenomenal malty second flush Assam has baked bread and oak notes. Sweet potato and dried apricot notes are also detectable with fleeting lighter floral notes. There is a fruity sweetness and light astringency present in this truly exceptional second flush Assam.
Ingredients: Indian Black Tea
Recommended Brew Time: 3 minutes 30 seconds
Recommended Amount: 2 teaspoons of tea for 8oz of water
Recommended Temperature: 212 F (boiling)
For more information, please visit www.butikiteas.com.
Company description not available.
First cup of the day, trying to wake up. I have a bit of a headache & will have to wear sunglasses, as I’m having the photo sensitivity problem this morning. Otherwise I’m good! I’m relaxing in my PJs with this tea, listening to Tony play some Blues guitar. What could be better, right? He recently added a 3 string cigar box guitar to his collections, & although he doesn’t like performing in public, & just likes to sit around playing for his own (& my) enjoyment, he’s a damn good slide player. I did get him to play a couple tunes with me one year at my birthday gig. Maybe I can talk him into playing some blues with me at this year’s birthday gig (which I’ve been working on setting up this week).
This tea is delicious, a sweeter Assam, not so bold, but rich in the mid-range. I just realized I only steeped 3 min, & the suggestion is 3.5, so maybe later I’ll drink another cup & give it a little longer.
For now, time to put some clothes on & go to breakfast.
had this in the morning. I have a bunch of tea to try and drink tomorrow morning/afternoon before i have to head out to the middle of nowhere to hang out from 6pm-6am. ugh. This is one of those teas that only had a couple cups left so i opted for one this morning and likely tomorrow. I can feel the call of tea ordering…taunting me. Really need to hold off for a bit longer but there’s a part of me that just wants to order naaaaoo!
i still really enjoy this tea. it’s got a nice richness to it, though it’s not quite as strong and bold as i want it to be. still, i’d never turn down a cup!
You can do it! Willpower! :)
I almost drank this one this morning, & again just now. I opted for the Premium taiwanese assam upgrade instead.
I’ve been battling with myself about my desire to order more teas all week (face it, everyday all year is more like it…for years). I just paid bills & gotta come up with another $650 before I’m done paying bills, so no tea buying until then for me. “All of my needs & desires are abundantly fullfilled.”
Hi, my name is Sil and I’m an addict
Sil….will you be my sponsor? ;)
Terri….ok but if i am…we need to pass on the tazo order and keep on sipping down!
no comment
hahahahaha….
:P Well I’m ok passing on the order. I’m pretty much both ways about it right now.
…and decision made! hiatus continues!
Woo! That was close! (I’d rather break my hiatus for something I’m sure to like)
I’m testing out the leaves from my order a while back. This is possibly my favorite tea! Sadly, I think the leaves may have changed from the sample I had a while back (possibly a new batch?)
Steep #1 // waited 14 minutes after the water boiled // 3 1/2 min steep
Two teaspoons of this one. I’m not sure if I did something wrong, but the NUANCE isn’t here anymore. The dark chocolate flavor is here, but not as deep as before. And now any of the hints of fruits (like apricot or plum) are missing…even the sweet potato and squash isn’t there. It’s still very good, but it lost what made it so special. Maybe if I steeped with one teaspoon of leaves the fruity flavors would reappear. If I oversteeped this time, there would be a deeper chocolate flavor. Kind of disappointing.. I want the lovely leaves from my sample back!!!
Steep #2 // waited 14 minutes after boiling // 4 min
This cup is exactly the same as the first cup. It just doesn’t have that SPECIAL anymore. It’s very good, but I feel like other teas like this are better now (like the Teavivre I had the other day). Note to self: I’ll try one teaspoon at some point and another try with two teaspoons after waiting for 20 minutes.
Lesson learned: If a tea is your favorite, order as soon as possible. Do not wait for another harvest/batch! (I’m guessin g that is what made the difference here.) There are so many factors, even before a tea gets to the drinker, that the leaves are bound to be different.
I hate it when that happens. I’ve made that mistake before a few times :(
Butiki – I see your like! Can you confirm if this WAS a different batch? I would have received my sample in the mail around June 2013 or a couple months earlier.
Hmmmm, it might have been from 2 different years depending on when you first purchased or sampled the tea. We usually purchase this tea once a year.
I had to look up through my e-mail… the sample was sent out 6/4/13 and my order was shipped out 11/4/13, if that helps.
The harvest date is in July, so yes you did receive tea from 2 different years.
Aw, the other harvest was my PERFECT tea. Like I said, I learned my lesson in getting a tea from THAT harvest if I especially like a tea that I’ve sampled. It’s nice to know anyway! thank you!
You’re welcome. Hopefully next year will be even better.
This is day 3 of my raw food cleanse. From time to time, I like to follow a raw diet to cleanse my body. This time around, I haven’t really been overly hungry (yet) but today is a real low. I’m feeling very exhausted, weak, and am unable to focus. This will pass since I’ve felt this before in the detox phase but I was hoping to get the ‘community’ page of our website done tonight and that is not looking real promising right now. During my raw diet, I allow one cheat of one tea a day. Today I opted for the Hattialli Golden Lion Assam. This is a real special second flush. It reminds me very much of a Yunnan. I love the maltiness of this tea and the oaky and peppery notes. Right now I’m also getting an almost burned chocolate note as well as some apricot and floral notes. I’m very glad I chose this as my reward tea. Hopefully, it will help me focus a bit.
Hope your diet goes better after today. :) Usually after a week, or in the middle of a week is the most difficult part of a dietary change.
Talking about the tea now, I’m super excited to try this. I have it in my cart in an order I think is almost ready to be submitted. Hehe. :D
Chizakura-Thanks. I’ve done the raw thing before and the weakness and inability to focus usually only lasts a day or two but it can be rough. I was fine the first two days and was thinking wow this is easier than I remember. Guess not. This is a fantastic Assam. We recommended a 3 minute 30 second brew time but if you are ok with astringency, this tea is even more complex at about 4 minutes 30 seconds. :)
I did a cleanse last year. Not raw food but lots of restrictions. No tea! gah!
Hope tomorrow goes better for you.
Ahhhh this one sounds amazing
Indigobloom-In the past I’ve cut out tea with the raw food diet but this time around I decided not to. Thanks! :) It is quite delicious!
Love the name of that tea! Really hope it will help you feel better :-) Do you eat protein such as seeds and nuts during your raw food cleanse or do you keep it strictly fruits and veggies?
There used to be a raw food restaurant in the Cupertino Whole Foods when I lived in California. (Think it’s gone but I have their cookbook). They allowed brown rice and soup as heated items.
TheTeaFairy-I’m getting a lot of protein. I’ve been eating a variety of raw unpasteurized nuts (and raw nut butters), seeds, and soaked flax seeds. I’ve been monitoring the protein intake. The haze is a bit better now. I had a huge amount of raw mac and cheeze (nut cheeze) and I think that helped along with the tea. The name is great. I love that it means elephant road.
Bonnie-That’s awesome. I’ve been to only one raw restaurant and that was in Vegas when I attended the World Tea Expo. I make warm soups. I have Vitamix and came blend it until its warm but still below the 115F requirement to be raw.
Oh, then you reassure me! I know some folks who’ll do cleanse from fruits and veggies only, and though it is for a short period of time usually, I don’t think it’s good to cut off protein, even if it’s just for a couple of days.
I also own a Vitamix, I used to think you’d have to be out of your mind to pay that kind of money for a blender, but this is one appliance I now can’t live without, it has changed the way I eat completely. I use it min. twice a day, my body craves green juice whenever I skip one day, which almost never happens :-)
TheTeaFairy-I agree. Its important for me to make sure that while cleansing that I’m still getting proper nutrition. I LOVE my vitamix. Isn’t the self-cleaning feature awesome? I have a juicer too but it takes so long to clean, so I love using both the juicer and the vitamix. I know what you mean about your body craving juice/smoothies. This morning I made a carrot, apple, kale, spinach, ginger, celery, zucchini juice. It was amazing! Have any favorite recipes?
Stacy, your morning juice sounds great, love the ginger!
Every morning I have a green smoothie that involves these basics: kale and or spinach (love the fact that Costco now has frozen kale, it’s sometimes hard to find fresh around here and frozen makes it perfect for smoothies), uncooked oats, raw almonds, soy milk, coconut water, chia and hemp seeds. Then I add whatever inspires me, carrots, cucumbers, apples, strawberries, you name it! I put it in a thermos bottle and I sip on it all morning. It helps speeding up my metabolism and makes me feel so good, that’s why I’m addicted to it, plus it tastes great!
I have tones of favorite recipes, let me know if you want me to PM you some, feel free to send me some of your favorites too, it’s always great to get new ideas. I’m a big fan of this website, it is a goldmine of great recipes and ideas:
http://healthyblenderrecipes.com
Oh, and You are so right about the self cleaning, so easy compare to the juicer plus you get to keep all the fibres :-)
I used to be a raw vegan, & practically lived on green smoothies for a couple of years. I ruined a regular blender at least once a year until I finally broke down & bought a vitamix. Now that my garden is growing again, I’m looking forward to being able to walk out back, pick some Kale, Collards, or parsley, & make smoothies again. My favorites (which all include whatever greens are abundant that day):
- apple, ginger, & lemon
- peach
- mango
My other favorite is cuke & lemon, no greens.
TheTeaFairy-I put ginger in nearly all my juices. Yums. Oooh, I’ve never tried oats in a shake before. Interesting idea. I think I will have to try a tropical oat shake after the raw thing. Absolutely, feel free to send me any recipes. Thanks for the recipe link.
Terri-Oh that must be so amazing to have kale right after its picked. Mmmm. I’m a big mango fan too. Mango and kale smoothies are awesome!
To chime in, an amazing smoothie is banana, nut butter and oats. Adding vanilla, a pinch of salt, or some sort of chocolate makes it even better. I like to use almond milk in it, which is super easy to make at home if you’re doing raw. :) I should try spinach in it tomorrow.
Okay, lately when having this I have been finally noticing some of the florals. Still mostly bread and oak, though. Which is awesome.
http://s1165.photobucket.com/user/dagony/media/IMG_2506_zps0eb9fe69.jpg.html?sort=3&o=0
And it goes excellently with the pumpkin bread I made earlier in the week. I love autumn. :)
Wonderful wonderful tea from Terri! This is a good and smooth Assam, of just the right strength to my liking. It’s not an “in your face” CTC strength, it’s a quiet, power, “I am here” strength. Like a huge oak that’s grown in one spot for centuries and exudes power and permanence.
It’s a very smooth tea, that loves milk, but can be taken plain, if you don’t have an aversion to astringency.
I rushed to Butikis to buy some, only to see that it’s out of stock! Alas, alas, when will my troubles end…
Put this on my shopping list and keeping a hawk’s eye on Butikis site, waiting for a restock.
Yes, I’d like to think of Assam as a big solid oak, the analogy works really well for me :-)
Yay, I’m glad you like it! I think I have enough to drink it one more time, & then I will miss it.
Terri, thanks for the share! Do you know if they plan to restock anytime soon, or is it my lot in life to fall in love with out of stock teas? (Lao Cong Zi Ya, Piccadilly Blend, to name but a few)
NofarS-We just got in a shipment of Hattialli Golden Paw, which is very similar.
Yay!!!
Yay indeed! When will you stock it?
NofarS-Not quite sure when it will be prepped for the web (especially since I will be taking off for a few weeks soon) but if you are in need, we can certainly sell it to you by invoice.
Sipdown! 779. This is a generous bonus sample from Stacy at Butiki, sent along with my last order.
I kept the infusion time a bit lower than recommended as I dislike any sort of astringency, and I definitely think it was a good choice in this case. Not saying that the tea would have been astringent with a full 3.5 minutes… but that I achieved a perfectly smooth cup! Uh…. which is now gone actually, because it’s pretty darn tasty and I just downed it in like 2 minutes.
This tea is a close second to Premium Taiwanese Assam for me. It’s missing the chocolate, and the raisiny notes are quite subtle, but it has the same overall deliciousness and smoothness. So pretty much, it just tastes like a less complex version of PTA, which makes it quite delicious. I see that it’s actually more expensive than PTA, which kind of blows my mind, since I’m pretty sure I prefer PTA, but it’s certainly an amazing tea, so I can understand the price. Apparently I’m all about the really expensive black teas (probably has something to do with quality equating with lack of astringency and such).
ETA: Second infusion is pretty tasty as well, following the same parameters and probably 6 oz. of water. Still very similar to PTA, but missing the almost desserty aspect.
I figure I should probly put a tasting note up for one of the teas I’m drinking. I don’t remember what I thought of this one, so I picked this over the Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black.
Brews up a very dark reddish. Clean bready, woody smell. I say clean because because it’s, well, strangely clean smelling.
Taste wise I definitely get a oaky/woodchip sort of note. Kinda peppery/sharp. Not much in the way of fruityness, but maybe a second steep?
Delayed Edit – The second steep on this turned out to be rather ‘Meh’. Woody and vaguely something like fruityness, but nothing really much of anything.
Another free sample from Stacy with my recent order. Thank you Stacy! I don’t tend to go for assams so I left this one behind when shopping but am very excited to try it as a bonus sample. The dry leaf is beautiful, mainly golden and very full leaf. After discussing steeping parameters with Stacy from Butiki I have decided to follow her directions to the best of my ability to produce the best tasting tea I can – and also to stretch the leaf out as far as I can. Accordingly, this got 3.5 minutes with boiling water. Admittedly I used 10 oz of water rather than 8 but I seem to like my tea a little less bold than others. Basically, I will do anything to avoid astringency.
Steeped, this is remarkable. I find this very cocoa-y, rich, with some malt but no bitterness or astringency. Basically, it reminds me of a Chinese black rather than an Assam. Very cool! I really like this. This is the sort of tea that could change ones mind about assams. Man. Okay, if/when I do another order, I think I might stock up on this one. I wish a had a little more because I wanted to try it side by side with a couple teas I love from Teavivre, as the taste reminds me of their Golden Monkey and maybe even my long-gone beloved Golden Snail from Harney and Sons.
As I continue in the cup, the cocoa only intensifies for me. This is good drinking tea! This is definitely a bit more expensive than many teas I enjoy, but if I could get this on sale it would be great to have on hand. I will definitely be giving it a second steep to try to squeeze some more goodness out of it.
Backlog:
A truly exceptional tea. I really love this Assam. Sweet, malty, rich, caramel-y, and a delicious bake-y kind of taste. As the tea cools, I notice a distinct apricot note as mentioned in the description.
Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/06/20/hattialli-golden-lion-assam-tea-from-butiki-teas/
Feel better! :)
Thanks! Breakfast & tea always help tremendously!
They really do. :)
I also had a headache this morning. Normally, a nice straight, strong black is my remedy. Today it was a mix of Saigon Chai and Golden Phoenix pu erh. Did the trick since I wanted the spice for the sinus help and ginger for the tummy.