Watermelon Xylophone

Bubble Bath Tea #1 – Yum Yum!!

I say that I’m not a big fan of flavored teas, & in particular I mean artificially flavored teas. Sometimes I have wierd reactions to them, like my lips & tastebuds puffing up a little. It doesn’t usually last a long time, but it’s wierd & unpleasant.

Even teas with ‘natural flavoring’ can be suspect, because you never REALLY know what is in them, & I have a lot of allergies.

This tea is delicious. I have no problems with it at all (or with anything I’ve gotten from Butiki so far), & although I don’t drink it often, when I do I’m in love. And usually in the bubble bath.

having a couple of my “green” teas before i switch to some of the caffeine free options i have tonight. Not because caffeine bothers me but because i feel compelled to also drink those up. I just finished looking at my cupboard list/spreadsheet and it turns out that i’ve tried 1600 teas! (well that i’ve logged anyway). I like even numbers… I’m also having a great night because the snow has been falling all afternoon and it’s fluffy and beautiful outside tonight! And i might just work from home tomorrow…so that’s always a good tea time! I’m seriously itching to place an order but i am TRYING to hold back. It’s hard….i want more cacao…and some verdant staples…and mandala…and damn fine tea and new companies… sigh resistance IS futile…but maybe i can manage to hold out for one more week to get me into late march! Especially since not having samples (though some are inbound in swaps) has me able to focus on my older teas! Only 14 teas left before i’m within 6 months of my oldest tea…i won’t make it for the end of March i don’t think…but it’s always a possibility :)
2-May
2-June
6-July
2-August
2-September

Oh the games i play with myself to encourage me to do this, that or another thing and have fun doing it!

Well this got oversteeped a bit. While I was steeping this tea the following things happened:
my husband’s jiujitsu buddy came over to train.
the mailman with tea packages
a friend of the husband’s came over to drop off something, we chatted a bit about his work.

So I have no idea how long this got steeped for, 15 minutes? Surprisingly, the flavor is still fine, maybe not as delicate watermelon, with more white tea potency. Now bitterness though, phew. The other day I was sampling a white tea for a blog review, and I’m finding some whites are a little more durable than I previously thought.

Yet another attempt to get back on the tea-drinking, tea-reviewing bandwagon!

I’m making a valiant effort to get through some of my older teas, particularly those not in resealable packages, and lucky(?) for me, Butiki teas fall into that category! So I’ve been neglecting swap samples and having Butikis instead. Bad.

Anyways, despite being a bit elderly, this tea is still great. Delicate and melony and quite delicious. I’ve said before that I prefer Cantaloupe & Cream because of the creaminess, and that still holds, but this one’s still quite a treat :) A couple cups left to savour before I’m out!

It’s my birthday! Whee!

I am very much one of those people who make a big deal out of birthdays. I decided to ring this one in with something light and sweet and summery to distract me from the cold. This tea tastes like optimism tonight.

Next up is some Butiki Lavender Chamomile to lull me gently to sleep…

Abstract thought, but I’ve been craving a tea with a really strong petrichor kind of flavour as of late. If anyone has any recommendations for something sort of like that I’d be stoked to hear them!

So, I don’t think I’ve really talked about it much or even at all in tasting notes but this weekend I went up to Regina to celebrate an early Christmas with my brother, Dad and Step Mom. We exchanged gifts, went to Cirque De Soleil as part of our Christmas present, and I did some tea shopping! It was really fun and I’ll kind of break things down a little in the next few tasting notes but it was a much needed mini vacation from work, and it was cool going back to Regina even if only briefly. I wish I’d had another day there to try and meet up with Regina Tea Friends, and maybe go to a movie at the theatre I used to work at.

But before all that, we had to drive from my house to Regina. And this was the cold brew that I picked out to sip on for the drive there. It’s not new to me, so no surprises here: just good, authentic and lush watermelon over a beautiful silver needle base. Glad I stocked up on this one! My first Butiki love…

I am so behind on my tasting notes it’s almost embarrassing. I have like 10+ to log that I’ve totally neglected! I’ve had a lot of work-related stuff to do the past few weeks, including dealing with NYCC’s ridiculously elaborate press registration. Why do I need to fill out a 5 page form and FAX it? Is it 1990 and no one told me?! Seriously, who faxes anything anymore. But I got my badge, so now that’s all taken care of I need to catch up on tea!

This tea is magical. I think Stacy is some sort of tea fairy who just sprinkles stuff with magic dust and voila, it’s perfect! You see, this is a VERY watermelon-y tea. In the bag it smells like candy. Not Jolly Rancher watermelon, but pure tasty watermelon. When it’s brewed (cold steeped in this case) it’s an almost crystal-clear liquid that smells SO strongly of watermelon it’s amazing! And the taste, wow. It’s SO natural watermelon! And really strong! But, at the same time it’s not overly strong at all. In fact, while it’s very watermelon-y there’s just as much if not more of the delicious white base going on. It’s like… watermelon juice and white tea together in harmony.

I don’t think I am properly describing it, but it’s like… the most natural, perfect flavoring in the world. You’d never know it was actually flavored at all it tastes so natural! Like the tea leaves just grew and tasted like watermelon. My dad, who is wary of fruity-flavored teas, even loved this one! He mentioned it the other day, so I think I might get him some of this for Christmas. It’s just… perfection!

Increased the leaf to water ratio to 1 tablespoon for 281 ml.
There is more creaminess at this concentration.

About time I get down to Watermelon Xylophone. I felt like something light and airy and figured this would be a good choice. The dry leaf smells quite similar to Cantaloupe and Cream, although from memory, understandably, Cantaloupe and Cream has a creamier aspect to it.

The taste is actually quite similar, too. It’s not a definite watermelon, not artificial either, but very similar to the Cantaloupe and Cream. The melon here is crisper. I’m sure this would make an awesome cold brew, but that would be quite expensive.

It’s beautiful but I think I prefer the Cantaloupe and Cream since it has more going on. But I’ll gladly enjoy the rest of the smaller amount I got with our West Coast group order!

On an unrelated note, I have Abba’s Dancing Queen in my head and I have no idea why. Maybe Watermelon Xylophone sparks happy tunage.

I ordered this one for a blind taste :) with my last Butiki order.
I had no idea how it was but it was a lucky blind taste. I love it really much : it’s so perfumed , wonderful.
I’d love to know why it is called xylophone…because for sure I know why it is called watermelon ! it’s so watermelony :)the aroma is just fantastic, like a fresh and really mature watermelon.

Surprising idea of a watermelon tea.
People who don’t like tea often say it’s just hot water…watermelon is a very refreshing fruit full of water (more than others !) let me tell you dear tea haters that Stacy managed to blend a mathematical tea…water+water = a wonderful tea !so you can begin to drink tea now, no more excuses, convert yourselves to the God Watermelon Xylophone !