Potato Pancakes & Applesauce (Holiday Series: Hanukkah)

So…
2nd infusion, here, but first a PS to the first infusion…
When it got cold it really does taste like applesauce and it’s terrific!

Tasting Notes for 2nd infusion…
I’m not going to lie…I stole a potato! NomNom!

The aroma is still present and pleasing.

The taste and texture is incredibly clean. I can taste a very clean plain potato flavor now. On the end sip I can taste the apple. It’s more of a Potato and Apple and not as much as Potato Pancake and Applesauce, per say, but it’s still impressive and flavorful and unique!

Overall, tho, 2nd infusion, the major difference is less apple – more potato – certainly more Comfort Food like…like Mashed Potatoes…no butter.

Neat! Just…NEAT!

Hanukkah tea for the eighth night of Hanukkah! Actually, I’ve been drinking it all holiday, but I was waiting to reach my 200th note to post about it. This tea was my 100th tasting note, too, so you can tell it’s really something special.

I have had so much trouble getting away from the apple-cinnamon aspect of this. I do love that flavor, but I’ve been wanting to tease out the brothy flavor too. Adding salt somehow wasn’t doing the trick. Finally I just added salt right into the steeper while I was brewing and boy howdy did that do it. Potato-y, savory goodness. Of course now that I’ve succeeded in my effort and thoroughly enjoyed a brothy cup, I want a sweet one! Mmm, with sufganiyot (fried jelly donuts). Yup, that’s totally what I’m having next.

Happy Hanukkah!

I almost didn’t get any of this in our West Coast group order because I thought it would be a little too weird for me, then opted for a bit, then what happened, it made sense to get more to make it all work out? Whatever happened, I’m so glad I got even more than originally intended, because this tea is a freak. A freak like me. And it’s awesome.

The scent of the dry leaf is so warm and comforting. That cinnamon is gorgeously rich. I tried a potato chunk and it’s tasty, even after you steep the tea.

But the most magical thing about it is the taste of the tea itself. Texturally, it’s actually thicker, like what I’d imagine potato water would be like. I know that sounds semi-disgusting, but it’s wholesome and carb-y. And again, that cinnamon is divine. Truly like cinnamon dusted applesauce.

I brought this to my morning seminar today and while one of my classmates was presenting an article, I kept sipping on this and thinking, “This is SO COOL.” So warning, this tea may distract you a little bit.

Stacy, you’re insane. Insanely awesome.

1oz sipdown! This tea is a creative novelty, which is another way for me to say that I don’t quite grasp the full concept of this cup. It’s probably the potatoes. I understand the spiced apple (which is delicious), and the pairing with the very smooth green base that I have yet to try on its own (next order). Then there are potatoes, whose presence in the blend is much akin to rainbow unicorns dancing a waltz in your kitchen (with potatoes).

I like how you can tinker with this cup to get different notes out of it. Add salt for delicious potato pancakes (that was yummy), drink right away or with sugar to get apples, eat potatoes and forget about rest of tea, etc. I think my best cup of this was when I forgot about it for an hour- I could taste all of the ingredients in that session. This blend is a lot of fun and I enjoyed scooping my big servings out. I’ll miss its funky presence and comforting applesauce flavours.

Yet another delicious tea I had been too scared to try!

My variable temperature kettle is rocking my socks. I can see how there is appeal for one you can choose your own temps for, but this works for me. For now. Muahah.. ahem.

Anyways. This tea is so weird. And good! But weird. It smells like cinnamon and syrup, but when steeped the potato flavour totally comes out. It makes the tea taste starchy, and makes it feel a little thicker. I took a sip, and immediately decided to add some brown sugar to bring out the syrup flavours more.

So good.

If possible, I might even get more the next time I do an order. It’s a green tea, but it’s THAT good!

Edit: Just tried it with salt. Oh, WOW that’s a different kind of yummy.

What a beautiful, unusual tea!

I’ve got two tea gift bags and a swap package sitting next to me, so whatever it is I’m smelling is delicious – and likely something other than the tea I’m drinking. ;)

Huge green leaves, chunks of what look like potato and something else? are in this blend. Steeped, it was a very, very light color, which surprised me – I actually opened up the Breville to make sure the tea had steeped properly. It did.

I can taste the tea foremost (lovely!), the applesauce, and something very latke-ish. It’s comforting, sweet and full, like biting into a potato almost, although I find there’s little taste there the few times I have eaten a raw potato, so it’s more the mouthfeel I’m comparing it to than anything. I added sweetener only because I’m a huge applesauce fan, and because we used to make our latkes like they were applesauce with latkes instead of the other way around.

Interesting note, of only semi-relation to the tea: I was raised with little to no religious instruction or guidance. I knew there was a story there, however my parents both passed before I really was able to get any sort of fleshed out details, and asking the family members left was… puzzling and, well, met with negative reactions. We celebrated Christmas and Easter, occasionally went to midnight mass (my Dad was Italian Catholic, my Mom, Dutch), and then for a few years we attended these amazing get-togethers at what I think was UBC’s Museum of Anthropology, where we made dreidels, ate latkes and listened to people sing in Hebrew. It was magical and a whole lot of fun.

Fast forward to a few years ago when I’m in Seattle attending film school, and I meet a Jewish man that I end up writing a rom-com with. It’s Friday night Shabbat, and as he joins me in the ceremony, I start crying. Quietly. I realize, in that moment, I am Jewish, and that this is something I’ve done many times before, yet had zero idea why, or even when. I kept quiet, wiped my tears, and went on with the evening.

Later, I received confirmation that yes, my Mother’s mother was Jewish and therefore I am as well. Long story short, a great uncle of mine along with my grandfather, published Mein Kampf in Dutch to avert the authorities from realizing they were Jewish. I have a cousin in her 80s in Amsterdam who still runs the bookstore and art shop where this all went down. I should note that this all occurred before my Mom was born – the beauty of having a family so large there’s a generation that divides them.

Anyway. This tea is an emotional one for me, for many of the reasons listed above. I am thankful to all of you who chose to read this novel of a tealog, to Stacy for making it, and for the opportunity to share these details (for the first time in public) here. Chag Sameach!

Sipdown (198/202)!

Thanks Kittenna for the sample. Sadly, I’m using it all up for this mug – I would have liked to play around a little with the whole ‘sugar and salt bringing out different flavours’ thing. It seems weird to me to add salt to tea; I mean, I don’t add salt to anything, and I never sweeten my tea either so I just made this cup plain.

This is one of those teas that you just have to try because of the concept. It’s pretty weird, at least in my opinion (though nothing like Bacon tea). It definitely solicited an interesting response from my friend who was over the other day when I said “Potato Pancake” tea.

So steeped up (with nothing added) I think this tastes pretty amazing! I’ve actually had apple sauce and potato pancakes before, though only once, made by my Grandma. We don’t celebrate Hanukkah or anything, but she made them for us anyway. It was a while ago – when I was in elementary school, but I remember shredding apples for her with a cheese grater, and loving them because they were sweet enough I didn’t have to add syrup or anything to them. I feel the same way about this blend; it perfectly captures what it claims to, and I think it’s really well balanced and doesn’t really need to be swayed more to one side.

Although it’d still be interesting to try it with salt added because that’s still a weird concept to me.

I’m also happy because, to me, it doesn’t taste green. Yay!

I’m going to add this to my shopping list as well, for when I finally finish off some of the Butiki teas I have that I don’t plan on keeping around (also for when I have money). Maybe I wouldn’t want a full pouch of it, but as a sample or something to drink very occasionally or as a treat – because this was good!

Holy smokes this is incredible. Thanks SIL for the sample!!!
I can really taste the pancake in here. Just like an apple sauce pancake. I am highly impressed. Will def order some for myself at one point.

Shalom!

I’ve been hitting the cold brew hard lately. Lots of tropical, sweet, or fruity-flavored teas.
But I wanted a little break this afternoon, so I decided to go with an old favorite. It didn’t disappoint. I’ve written quite a few tasting notes on this one, and I love it just as much now as when I first tried it.

I had another run with this tea, adding a big picture review on my blog http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/01/16/potato-pancakes-applesauce-tea-butiki-teas-tea-review/

The tea is nice, light and apple saucy! I really dig potato in this tea – soo cute!
/pinches cutie potato cube cheeks
I gotta say, Butiki teas has some really photogenic teas!