I know I shouldn’t have, but I had to buy a mystery box and a couple more teas! The way I see it, I won’t be spending any more money at Butiki anymore. And I didn’t think I could go wrong with any tea from Butiki anyway. Because of that, I’m pretty happy with what was in the box… of course I would have been happier with some of those blends I missed out on! I don’t want to make anyone feel bad about not getting a mystery box, but I calculated two of the eight teas I received would have paid for the entire box, even at 50% off!! That’s a deal. I actually didn’t expect some of the really expensive teas… this one happens to be one I also ordered, so I have two ounces now.
I wasn’t sure about the pumpkin WITH the apple, but with the Sansia base, I remember it being very bready, so I was imagining a pumpkin apple bread flavor. I do remember I wasn’t entirely in love with the Sansia though. The one time I tried it (from a teabox) even just because it didn’t resteep very well and left a very cedary type flavor on the second cup. This time, the flavor did seem lighter in the mahogany colored cup. Maybe a different harvest? It did seem like the Premium Taiwanese Assam was lighter too from what I remembered it tasting like. Ah well. I can’t see if there is pumpkin flakes in the actual blend, but I’m tasting more of a pumpkin spice and a little bit of green apple. The base itself seems less distinguishable than before… I can’t really tell if it has that bready flavor. BUT at least the second steep didn’t have the oversteeped cedar flavor this time. The second steep tasted almost exactly like the first cup which is nice… but this blend isn’t my favorite, both for the base tea, the combination of flavors, and the flavors themselves.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // 6 minutes after boiling // 3 min steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3 min
