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Sipdown 45/375

One of three teas which vanished under mysterious circumstances. All three were from Whittard’s, and I kept them all in a sealed container because of the open packaging they were in. The container disappeared a while ago and though I’ve looked for them a few times, I’ve come to accept that I’m never going to see them again. I’m not too cut up about it, though; there’s actually a good chance I just threw them out because of age. They were all getting on a bit.

I could never seem to coax much flavour out of this one, but that was back in the day when I used a tiny little metal strainer on a stick which I’m sure didn’t let the tea breathe at all. I do miss having it as a tea latte, though.

I threw these teabags out when I moved house and only now realised it was still in my cupboard. This is, as far as I remember, the only tea I’ve admitted defeat on and thrown away rather than drinking or gifting to somebody else. These were just too bland and hard-going and life is just too short for bad tea.

Sipdown 44/375

Guzzling this one as my dinner gets cold as I didn’t want the soup’s flavours to interfere with the tea. It is absolutely delicious!

I’ve only tried Butiki’s blackberry flavouring in this tea and Blackberry Lime Guayusa, but it is lovely and authentic, and why wouldn’t it be? Stacy did flavourings so well. There’s just the right balance between the flavour of the blackberry and the tea, which is also delicious. It’s paired very well too, and I really do think that the honey note of the sansia, which is very prominent, helps to give a sort of ‘cordial’ impression. I can also taste a brandy note as described but it melds in with the tea and the blackberry so well that I can’t be sure if it’s flavouring or part of the natural tea, which is a huge compliment in my eyes. I added a teaspoon of sugar as per the recommendations and the berry notes became more pronounced as did the ‘cordial’ aspect, but the black tea is still shining front and centre, and has only a little astringency. Stacy had such an eye for detail when it came to blending teas, I’m constantly impressed with everything she created.

One of two teas picked up at the weekend on our family trip to Chester to celebrate my grandad’s 70th birthday! Okay, so I’m technically on a no-buy, but I only picked up two new teas, and only 1.5oz in total. It could be worse (and often has!). I’ve only ever tried Butiki’s Oriental Beauty before, and never unflavoured, so was looking forward to trying this and brewed it up as soon as I got home, even though I was feeling crappy from the long coach trip and my stomach didn’t want it. This is a pretty good tea. It tastes more like a black than an oolong, malty and smooth with some almost honeyed notes, and some nuttiness at the end of the sip which I had expected more. My brother tried this and said ‘it just tastes like weak tea’ (meaning any old teabags, though we do usually buy extra strong). I disagree.

The packaging suggested steeping for 2-3 minutes, which I overdid slightly, but didn’t mention the temperature so I guessed at 90. I’m looking forward to playing around with this more to see how changing the steeping parameters changes the notes.

I came across this happily while I was organising my sipdown box today (yes I do that), and realised that thanks to Janelle and VariaTEA, who both sent me samples I had almost finished with, I had enough left over for one final cup with Stacy’s recommended 1.5 teaspoons of tea if I combined them both.

Reading through the notes for this one it seems to have been a lot of people’s first foray into the wonderful world of Butiki, and I think it was mine too. That was some time ago now, though, and I’m quite surprised I haven’t written a note on it yet. Though the tea has lost flavour over time (I’m going to stop saying that now because seriously, after a year away from Steepster this is true of almost all my teas, sadly) it is surprisingly not all that different to the way I remember it tasting when it was fresh, a couple of years ago. The first few mouthfuls had a disturbing cinnamon flavour which I’m blaming on myself storing it next to Della Terra’s Cinnamon Diletto, but luckily this faded as I drank and the main flavour was that ever-present cantaloupe. I’m not sure I got the floral and vegetal notes which Stacy mentioned from the base tea, but that I think is likely from the age, since I think I remember tasting the floral notes more in previous cups. The cream I don’t necessarily get, and never really have – to me, this is really more of a straightforward cantaloupe tea. I added half a teaspoon of sugar which I hoped would bring out the creaminess but it didn’t really do anything much. I’m afraid I don’t love it anywhere near as much as everyone else seems to, though I have enjoyed every cup I’ve had. This is NOTHING to do with Stacy, obviously, and everything to do with the fact that as I’ve mentioned in reviews of other teas I just don’t like cantaloupe. The flavour is spot on, but it’s just mimicking something I don’t choose to eat – in fruit salads and melon medleys I always leave the cantaloupe. A sad sipdown because it’s another Butiki tea gone forever, but beyond that I can’t say I’m going to miss it. I’m so sorry to everyone who loves this tea, it’s just not the one for me.

Sipdown 43/375.

I am drinking this tea with my young cousins Robyn and Mason, who are drinking flavoured tea for the first time. Later, I will write a full review of my own thoughts on it but for now here is what they think:

Robyn – It is a wonderful tea for my first one I would recommend it. You can not really taste the almond but you can taste the cherry and it’s really good with one sugar!

Mason – This is the best tea I have ever tasted. I think you SHOULD try it and if you don’t like it put one sugar in because it tastes nicer.

Sweet Lord of all that is holy this smells terrible during steeping! I know I’ve noted the scent before but really it’s never been this bad. Somewhere between vomit and wet dog (I’m so sorry). I was wary because this is three years old now – it was part of my very first order of tea back in the days when Bluebird Tea Co.‘s owners hand-wrote the label on each pouch before shipping them, and one of the oldest in my entire cupboard – and I thought it had gone horribly bad, but after the steeping it really doesn’t smell all that awful. It’s definitely not enticing, but passable and way less vomity dog. I was super relieved when I tentatively tasted it to find that even after three whole years in my cupboard this tea is still absolutely delicious! The chilli kick is still making itself known, and the fruity jamminess is lovely and really brought out by just shy of a teaspoon of sugar. Out of all the fruits I’d say the passionfruit is most prominent, but really they blend together very nicely to give the ‘jammy’ feel. The lime and lemongrass (and presumably hibiscus) give a nice tart tang at the end of the sip and I’m pleased to find that I love this as much now as I ever did.

I don’t know what it is, but today is turning out to be a really great tea day! By that I mean that I’m getting through quite a few teas and tasting notes rather than drinking the best teas I’ve ever had. I was supposed to be heading to the hospital right about now to visit my grandad (knee operation, nothing serious), but got a phonecall not long ago letting me know that he was coming out this afternoon! I shall drink more tea in celebration.

I chose this one in part because I remember it having strong, fairly simple flavours and I’ve just eaten chicken with sriracha for my lunch so didn’t want to go for something delicately flavoured, and partly because I wanted to give another 52teas shou mei a chance, having just drank the Apple Jack’s Apple Harvest tea and brewing it at too high a temperature and with too short a steep for my liking. I can safely say that this method of brewing brought out the flavours much better! The shou mei still comes through but quite delicately, and the cranberry and grape are big flavours. I was quite amazed to see several whole dried cranberries and grapes in my scoop, which is always fun. I like my flavoured tea with additives, especially if I’m using my IngenuiTEA (which I wasn’t today, but that’s besides the point…). This was another tea that gave me ‘hot juice’ feels, but also tasted artificial and reminded me of sweets/candy. I really should stress that grape flavoured things give me this impression all the time, and it’s nothing to do with how well the tea itself is flavoured. Even straight up grape juice tastes like artificial flavouring to me, but it’s a flavour that I really do like. Maybe it’s to do with grape juice not really being readily available over here, but when I was younger most of the grape flavour I had was in sweets, excluding actual grapes, which I had a mildly unhealthy obsession with as a child. Anyway, it’s a flavour I like a lot, and while I’m not the biggest fan of cranberry juice it’s a nice flavour here and goes well with the grape. I also think the cranberry flavouring is pretty authentic. Weirdly, I’m getting canteloupe-y notes every now and again which is throwing me a bit, and the scent of the brewed liquor also reminds me of melon. I have no idea where this is coming from, and my only guess is cross-contamination (even though it’s stored in an air-tight container?) because I don’t see it mentioned in anyone else’s notes. The tea ends on a surprisingly floral note, which could be down to the shou mei though I’m not entirely sure. Either way, it goes nicely with the other flavours. This is a tea I definitely want to cold-brew in the summer.

I seemed to enjoy this one more the last time I had it, but it was new then and now is almost two years old so that’s only to be expected. The sucky thing about rediscovering my love of tea after such a long crappy time is that no matter how well I stored it at the time, a lot of my tea is now a year or two old and losing flavour. I am desperate to get the oldest teas out of my cupboard so I can find new, fresh teas that I love even more. That being said, I brewed this for almost twice as long at a lower temperature last time so that could be what affected the flavour. Really, I should check my previous notes on how I liked (or in some cases didn’t) the tea so I can replicate it or avoid that method of brewing again. I never learn! Never mind.

This is still a tasty tea, but I’m not quite as in love as I once was. The shou mei is way more prominent than I remember it when hot, but as it cools the apple becomes more dominant. It’s definitely a sweet rather than crisp apple, and I can’t see any pieces of dried apple in the leaf so I’m assuming this is mostly from flavouring. The shou mei was a great choice for the base – apple goes really well with white tea – and the hay notes and slight dryness combined with the apple really do remind me of ponies! The hay is mostly in the smell of the tea with only a little of it noticeable in the taste, which I’m grateful for because whilst it is tasty, hay doesn’t really scream “eat me!” when you’re a human. I added half a teaspoon of sugar which gave the tea more of a ‘warm apple juice’ feel, which I actually quite enjoy in the autumn and winter. It reminds me of when I was little and had a backpack with a pouch for juice and a straw which reached all the way around. My mam used to fill the backpack with warm juice in the winter and I would go out into our back garden and play in the snow all wrapped up with my backpack full of hot juice. I loved it and still have really strong memories, so this kind of makes me feel like a grown-up little kid. I only have a couple spoonfuls of this left, so will probably use it up soon, but if I have any left in the summer I think I’d like to see what this is like iced.

This has been my go-to morning tea the past few days. It’s good enough that I can drink it down easily while I’m getting ready without much thought, but not so good it makes me wanna stop and concentrate on the tea while I drink it. Eventually I want to get my cupboard down to a point where every tea is one I want to focus on and thoroughly enjoy, so this isn’t a tea I’d probably restock.

The scent of the dry leaf is really citrusy and promising, with maybe a slight tangy hint that reminds me of orange sherbet or marmalade. There is quite a lot of orange rind mixed in with the darjeeling leaf so that could explain the marmalade evocation. I’m not a fan of this plain, I’ve found, as the darjeeling is a lot stronger and more bold than expected (even after sitting in my cupboard for a year or so and brewing it below boiling) and has quite a bit of astringency which personally I’m not a fan of – I usually prefer a smooth black tea. I do think darjeeling was a good choice for the base though, and the fruity backnotes of the tea pair well with the orange flavouring. Plain this tasted more like an orange or marmalade tea, but when I added a tiny splash of milk the astringency really pulls back, and the cream flavouring comes through more and it really does remind me of orange ice cream. I’m not sure I’ve ever had a dreamsicle before (do we have them in England??) but this tea does a decent job at approximating what I imagine they might taste like. I originally thought this would be a good dessert tea with milk and sugar, but I definitely prefer it as a bold breakfast tea with just a splash of milk.

The last cup I had of this tasted a bit weird as it cooled – I kinda got a slightly sour milk note coming through in random sips (yeuch) but not in all of them. This put me off a bit but since it’s only happened once and I did add milk to it I’m going to give it the benefit of the doubt and not reflect this in my rating.