Butiki Teas

Backlogging…I might have to purchase this in bulk :)

Awesome! Just…AWESOME! See my other note!

VEGAN and Gluten Free Chocolate Chips, folks!!!

Stacy is a RAWKin’ Girl! LOVE this!

I received a box from Butiki today and jumped right in! As you can see this is my second tea from her box!

This smells identical to a Raspberry Truffle! Amazing!

Taking a look at the loose leaf mixture you surely CAN see generous amounts of both VEGAN chocolate chips AND Raspberry bits! I LOVE THAT FACT!

The color of this is medium brown with gentle orange-reddish tones. I still can’t get away from this aroma and how wonderful it is!

As the sip first hits my lips and tongue I can taste the plump raspberry – berry, sweet, and a tad tart but certainly in a good way! Then I can taste the CHOCOLATE!!!! It’s chocolatey, smooth, sweet, and creamy. The creamy flavor lingers and meets at the end with the raspberry. The aftertaste is a slight dark chocolate taste rather than the milky-chocolate taste I got at the beginning. I like this change-up!

I’m seriously in LOVE with this! OMG!

2 cups sip down…see other notes

VEGAN!

YUM!
This is an amazing pumpkin and cream flavored treat! And VEGAN!

You know…sometimes Pumpkin flavored things can get a little out of hand. A little to over the top, sometimes too harsh…but THIS offering from Butiki is AMAZING! It has a nice amount of pumpkin but with the creaminess you crave! Paired with the Creme Brulee theme this is truly unique and I can’t help but go on and on about it! WOW!!!! VERY NICE! There is notes of spice (nutmeg) that works perfectly with the pumpkin and creamy-goodness! Everything jives well and is happy here with this Pumpkin Creme Burlee and an incredible VEGAN offering!

Okay, so I’m back with the five minute assessment. The brew is still pretty light,a very light honey brown in color. I needed to pour the tea through a very fine strainer to avoid getting a lot of small particles in the bottom of my cup. It has a somewhat dry aftertaste. It is different from anything I’ve had before. “Sweet woodsy notes” aren’t the norm for me. I’m not sure if that is what I’m tasting or not. I definitely get the astringency—I can pick up on that.I’m not sure I would increase the amount of tea used from 1/2 a teaspoon—I think that might be too astringent.

Overall, I’m not sure I like it, but I don’t dislike it. I’m rather indifferent toward it. I tend to like food that is bitter/astringent/tart, so I’m rather surprised I’m so “meh” about it. I wanted to like it, placing the order from Butiki Teas was a great experience (hello, samples!) but I’m just not feeling the love like I thought I would. And that makes me rather sad.

Hmmm, I don’t know what I think of this one yet. I made a four cup pot in my Breville, which meant 2 teaspoons of tea, at a three minute steep. That particular combination gave me troubled water that really didn’t taste like much at all. So I restarted the Breville and am brewing it for another couple of minutes, to see how a five minute brew comes out.

Having tried Butiki’s Lychee Oolong, I had to make sure that I didn’t immediately seek to compare this tea to Naivetea’s Lychee. I did enjoy this version of Lychee Oolong. The lychee flavor was sweet, strong and worked very well with the type of the oolong used as the base for this blend. It is a great tea and definitely worth trying.

Very nice hearty flavor. This tea has the aroma of rice with nutty and buttery notes. This is a great green tea to have in your collection.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a bit of this tea. It’s an outstanding strawberry tea.

It is sweet and smooth. Very little astringency to this one. The Oolong is rich and buttery and creamy… which melds so nicely with the strawberry. Strawberries and cream, anyone? I love this – definitely one of the best strawberry teas I’ve ever tasted.

Well, I’ve had this long enough, it’s about time I had an opportunity to try it. The beau does not like mint teas (or chais, though that’s a different matter) so I usually only drink them at work. This one, unfortunately, had never made its way to work and sat forgotten in the sample basket. Today, it was rescued! Dry, there is mostly a mint smell, but a little warmer and fuller than plain spearmint. Steeped, the aroma is very similar to a plain mint tea, but again it seems a litle more rounded, likely from the green tea.

I’m not much for green tea, but I AM much for mint…this tastes mostly of mint to me, with a slightly thicker mouthfeel than plain spearmint affords. The green tea doesn’t really come forward in any discernible way, but I’m aware that there is something there tempering the mint. I prefer this to my other mint green tea, largely because I find the green tea to be so quiet. I get a little queasy from green tea sometimes, so I prefer not to be too aware of its presence. I do get hints of it on the back end of the sip, but as I said earlier, it is playing nicely with the mint.

For what it is, this is perfectly satisfying, unfortunately there is nothing that stands out about it. Thank you for the opportunity to sample this, however!

Thanks LiberTEAs!
This is pretty and quite flavorful! I can taste the Calendula a bit more than the Rose Violet and I think that is just fine and dandy! This is good hot or cold!

This is the most amazing scented tea ever! So good. A short steep time results in a strong black tea. Wonderful almonds. It does taste just like a cookie! An amazing tea – very sweet tasting. It reminds me why I love tea! I haven’t tried anything that wasn’t delicious from Butiki, and I’ve tried a bunch now!

I’m the first to review this? Wow. I don’t know much about champagne, but this is a great tea. Its a bit hard for me to describe though. A subtle flavor that really stays on your tongue after you’ve sipped. It is a bit flowery. Very very good. Other darjeelings I’ve tried don’t even compare. I’m not describing it well at all. Try it for yourself! :D I must say, Butiki really does their samples well, listing the temp and steep time right on the bag. Which means there is less of a chance I will steep it wrong!

Finally getting around to this sample…Not a fault of Butiki Teas, just a lack of time on my own, and far too many options!! Steeped a pot of this while waiting for homemade pizza dough to rise, was enticed by the sweet creamy smell. Had a rich smell, for a honeybush. Steeped, the liquor is a deep reddish brown and the vanilla aroma is wafting through the apartment. It continues to be a rich vanilla smell, more reminiscent of a vanilla cake than of artificial vanilla, if that makes sense.

First sips are as rich as they smell…wonderfully delicious, shockingly thick mouth-feel for a honeybush as I find it to be thinner, much like rooibos. I am really impressed with this tea. I know that everyone has a vanilla tea, but this one really stands out for me. I think I like the natural smoothness and sweetness of the honeybush base to complement the vanilla. This is a success, for me! : )

num num! Chai is my favorite! And wow this is good. A nice strong black tea with spices. I could be wrong, but it seems there is some of the other Butiki tea I’ve tried in this one – their roasted yerba mate? It tastes like it a bit anyway. I loved that one too. And I must say that the pre-steeped leaves of this looked like the most delicious tea I’ve ever seen! I’ve tried a bunch of Butiki teas and all of them have been fantastic. You really can’t go wrong with Butiki! I really am thankful I’ve been able to try these.

Wow! This is a fantastic Oolong – so much better than I anticipated. I love floral teas as it is, but, I really didn’t expect such a beautiful harmony of flowery flavors with this tea. It is so soft and beautiful. Such a delight!

Flowers! Paired with oolong, these flowers taste fantastic. And of course it smells great too. It seems like a tea from another time. I want to say Victorian, but that would make tea sound too stuffy. This seems similar to a white tea, to me.

Now this is goood! WOW. The scent and flavor is amazing. I can’t imagine it being any stronger, even with resteeping. This is very delicious. You can’t have a jasmine tea better than this, I’m sure. I really haven’t sipped a Butiki tea that isn’t very very good. They know what they are doing! You can’t go wrong with Butiki!

Sipdown, 218. This one is extra coconutty today! And creamy. I have definitely decided that rooibos is not amongst my favorites, but this is pretty tasty nonetheless. Guess I will have to figure out a different type of tisane for my evenings, although I still have a lot of other herbals to drink through first.

I had a small sample of this waaaaaaaay back when Butiki was first starting out and Stacy offered a few free samples to some Steepsters. Guess that makes me old, in Steepster terms.

But now I have a new pouch of this, which has probably changed since I last had it, thanks to Azzrian! I haven’t been the biggest fan of rooibos, in the past, but I have to say this one is pretty delicious. Coconutty and creamy, with a hint of bright fruitiness from the rooibos. Not sure how old this is, but it seems like it might have benefitted from an even longer steep, since it is a bit less flavorful than I would have expected. Nonetheless, it is still very tasty and a nice evening drink.

It took me a while to get around to sampling my last tea from Butiki; thanks again to Stacy for the samples to review! Apparently it’s a coconut tea day for me. Brewed up, this one smells very coconutty, though it’s a ‘brighter’ coconut than my earlier tea, if that makes any sense. I think it’s partly the slightly fruity, slightly nutty flavor of the rooibos, and it’s giving the tea a pretty tropical aroma. The taste confirms this aroma; the flavor of the rooibos is definitely present in this one, with a lovely coconut note. It is fairly creamy and overall the flavors meld well together. Quite a tasty tea and a great one for coconut lovers.

I love a nice black tea. This one is simple and delicious. The hearty yet not-too-strong flavor pairs well with the chocolate chip muffin I had for breakfast. (The tea was better than the muffin!) The flavor stays with you (the tea, not the muffin). Maybe I picked this one to drink today because of the Irish movie I watched yesterday…