Mi Xian Black

Stacy generously provided a sample of this tea in my last order. I was excited to try another Butiki black tea. Unfortunately, it was not the tea for me. It tasted kind of fruity and sweet. Fruity black teas are usually not winners for me unless they are more of a dark berry fruit flavor. The description describes a peachy note, and after I thought about it, I could discern it. The tea does have a nice creamy feel, but the fruitiness didn’t work for me. It was fun to try though!!

Part 4 of my birthday tea adventure!

I decided to just brew my other sample before I get to my main order. This one I brewed with less water and a little less time to get a more concentrated flavor. I generally like my tea strong.

This is much more citrusy and juicy smelling than the assam! I’m getting some common raisin note between the two that is very much appreciated.

The flavor is a lot lighter than the assam (which I expected) but that’s mostly because of how juicy it tastes! It tastes like what a fresh peach or even a melon probably tastes like (I really hate fruit so au wouldn’t know—even the smell of most fruits makes me gag! This is nice though :) )

As the cup cools the flavors start to deepen and some berry flavors even peek through and it becomes really lovely. I would love to have a cup of this with a dessert! All in all a delicious cup of tea—sadly it’s all gone :( i’ll have to order more of this too!!

Note: i forgot to add, the very last sip made me wanna die! I swear it tasted like there was a drop of honey in the bottom. Oh my god i need this tea

I totally had thought that I had done a tasting note on this, specially because this is my last cup worth of it but I haven’t seen it. It is a nice tea, mellow and faintly sweet. I can kinda taste honey and something fruit-like. It does stand well for resteeps and if I had more patience I could keep going… but I really don’t so 3x is where I end it. It’s a nice snack tea – goes well with my crispy cookies. They’re new products at the store and are like mini sugar toasts. :) I have gone to Big Island Candies 3 times in the past week to prepare for my weekend trip to Oahu and meeting… so I figured I should pick up at least one thing to eat right now. The cashier even recognized me today, promise to self: next meeting I will plan my buying better – either wait till the last moment and go once or spread it out to not all in the same week. Hope no one thoughts just came every day to mooch free samples lol.

Lately I’ve been drinking Butiki Mi Xian Black several times a week. This has become a morning favorite of mine. It really hits the spot!

The leaf is beautiful – long, dark, and spindly. Putting my nose in the bag I pick up the woodsy smell – seems to be a lingering fermented fruit aroma as well. The brewed liquid is also dark but not as dark as the dry leaf. The wet leaf is almost as richly dark-chocolate brown as the dry. The aroma coming from the brew is quite enticing.

The first sip reveals the honey. I later learn that after cooling, the sweet honey taste is even stronger. Those leafhoppers have really done a job on these leaves and the resulting flavor is quite magnificent. The creaminess is also there. I can sense a bit of a malty taste but, for me, the delicious honey flavor is dominant.

3 teaspoons in a 16oz mug with boiling water for 3min 30sec works well for me. Typically go for a second infusion at 4min and it still makes a good cup although not quite as flavor rich. Mi Xian is a must have in my tea pantry!

Oooooo, this is nice! I can taste peach, but not like the kind of peach you’d expect to find in a flavoring. It tastes like actual fresh peach. Impressive! I can also taste the honey notes.

This tea is a little more subtle than the Taiwanese Wild Mountain Black, but I still really, really enjoyed it.

Thank you Stacy for this sample! I got it so long ago and I’m just now trying it.

Good black tea. It’s just what you need in the am.

I don’t know that I’ll purchase this one…kinda more fond of the Taiwanese Assam. But it is a good straight black tea. :)

As always with Butiki, lovely long unbroken dry leaves. A pretty, bright, almost orange-y color. In the cup it smells like luscious fruit to me (in a good way, despite my general dislike of fruitiness due to astringency…this is much juicier smelling).

Oooh this is good. It’s got a peach flavor and aroma, but it’s not heavily so, more gentle and “authentic” tasting, and sweet but in an airy-light, refreshing way, again like light honey. And no astringency! I love a good juicy, heady intense peach, and bizarrely they are very, very hard to come by in Memphis (yeah, I don’t get it either), so this is perfect. I don’t like fruity teas but Butiki always seems the exception to the rule (and yeah I know this isn’t flavored, just sayin’).

Oh my. This is rocking my world right now. This tastes like peaches with honey drizzled on top. I’m drinking it straight up without any sugar, milk, etc. it’s perfect as is. It has a lovely sweet aroma. This is really delicious! I’m so happy I got a sample to try. I will be ordering more.

Sipped while piping hot and my initial thought was “this is plain, I should have let it steep longer than the recommended 3.5 min”. I have been drinking the golden monkey from silk road which has a strong chocolaty flavor and almost coffee like when steeped for 4.5 minutes. My intention was not to compare them but sometimes our neurons transmit prejudices that we don’t always immediately recognize. After cooling a couple minutes the second sip had me thinking peaches, or maybe apricots. After 30 seconds I thought, wow, there is a nice brown sugary, almost marshmallow cream taste coating my bottom gum line. Am I tasting a caramel apple? No – too thin, more like an apple that has been cored out, filled with brown sugar and baked in the oven. Continuing to sip it seemed the tea had coated with demerara sugar. Wait…no, it’s sap that is lingering. Almost like it’s been dusted with maple sugar. After finishing it I couldn’t help wanting another cup, more so than any other tea I’ve tried. Will try steep a bit longer next time to see if it fills in the background a little bit. Feels like the caffeine/theanine content is low but balanced. I may try to re-steep this tea and put the resulting tea with a bit of lemon in the fridge to cool and drink at work. I got this in the leafhopper sampler and after one cup am ready to order a bunch more. I can see why this sells out. Overall a fantastic and unique tea with a sweetness that lingers long after the cup is empty.

This is sweet and very smooth with little astringency. It is mild in flavour. Not my favourite kind of black tea, but if you like lighter ones you will probably love this.