I’ve been slacking on getting to this tea because from the very first time I even perused Butiki’s website I had huge hopes for it—holiday latkes and applesauce are one of my all-time favorite comfort foods and the mere existence of such a tea blew my mind! Didn’t want to be disappointed, and wanted to try it at just the right moment when I could really pay attention to it.
The tea is visually stunning—all those pieces of yummy goodness and gorgeous green leaves! And as with every Butiki offering I’ve tried the smell is dead on, transporting me straight to my parents’ kitchen in the evening, snow outside, grating mountains of potatoes, the smell of them frying along with the sweet warmth of applesauce on the stove. So lovely. I love how evocative her teas can be, downright Proustian at times.
The flavor is wonderful too, and Stacy’s directions are spot on: with a bit of sugar you get lots of the applesauce at the front with hints of the potato gently wafting overhead and eventually joining the party full-on; with salt, more potato initially with sweetness subtly entering the picture. You might think the savory with sweet wouldn’t work, would clash perhaps, but they pair beautifully here as in the supper menu of its namesake. And somehow the whole thing manages to be satisfying without being heavy (probably thanks to the mao feng green tea base). Not at all too salty either. Yum.
This is also kind of a wonder to me because the past couple months I’ve remembered something I knew back in high school tea drinking days and forgot in my hiatus from the habit, namely that I almost always despise apple pieces in tea (which is a headscratcher in itself because apples are one of my favorite fruits; I’m from the empire state after all :b). Yet none of that fruit-tarty astringency I loathe is on display here; it’s the difference between spiced, rich applesauce with its full mouthfeel and the standard fruit tea puckeriness. So yay.
EDIT: Someone mentioned eating the leftover chunks of apple and potato, and ‘cause I’m a curious sheep I followed suit and immediately thought of my maternal grandfather—he was an Irish house painter who loved potato so much he’d even eat it raw! In the summer when we’d go over to his house to visit we’d go in the garden in the backyard and eat fresh peas in their pods too. So that was a nice bonus unexpected sense memory.
I think we may recommend 1 tablespoon. I wonder if that would help?
i really need to try this at some point.
Oh, I think I misread it as one teaspoon and not one tablespoon. But I used two teaspoons anyway! I think I let the water cool way too low for both steeps though.