Ruby Pie

TTB&C #3

A wonderful vacation, followed by sick kid, and crazy week at work makes for a crazy week. So I have been trying a these wonderful teas from the TTB and making notes, just neglecting to post. So I apologize for the explosion of tasting notes here.

This tea is one I have been eyeing from Butikie for awhile., well lets be honest what tea haven’t I been eyeing from Butiki? This was one was nothing short of amazing. The base was wonderful with strong flavors of strawberry, tart ruhbarb, and a slight hint of pie crust. I loved it! I think my next cup of this will be with a touch of sugar. This one will definitely be on my next order.

I’ll tell you guys what is not right: That I haven’t had a Butiki tea yet that I have been indifferent about, not to mention disliked it. And it just makes me want to… buy all their teas!

I got this as an extra sample with my recent order (Thank you, Stacy!) and so I decided to have this today. Partially because there’s this piece of cake on the table that has been eyeing me and that I have been eyeing – and I’d rather not have it in case someone else in the house would like to eat it. So I went with a few pieces of dark chocolate and Ruby Pie tea instead.

Pieces of strawberry so bright red, loose leaf so beautiful! The steep turned out darker than I expected and I was worried that it would be bitter, but it wasn’t. The notes of strawberry and rhubarb (which must be imitated SO expertly by hibiscus. Can you believe that hibiscus can be actually USEFUL?) are present in the aroma as well as in flavor. I don’t detect much of cinnamon or graham (I wish I did) but it doesn’t make the tea any less tasty. It’s just perfect the way it’s in my cup.

The base tea is assam but it must be some pretty mild specimen of it. And that’s good. It actually makes me… crave a strawberry pie. Well, at least it’s not this cake on the table that I want anymore ;D

Good, good. Too good!

Yeesh. I’m so far behnd on logging teas that I’m pretty sure I’m never going to catch up. Lol. Logging them on an Ipad just sucks too much and tests my patience to the line. Lol.
I was originally planning on finishing up a random mix of teas left over from when my friends and I had a blending tea party (I ended up taking all the tea blends left over and tossed them all together which actually isn’t as awful as it sounds….the cinnamon kinda covers most of the weirdness. Lol). But I digress. Anyway. I picked this out of the bin of ‘teas I absolutely have to at least try before drinking anything else’. Got it in a swap….gods, I have no idea when. Smelled fruity though so I thought what the heck.
I’m pretty sure I got no bunny grahams, chocolate chips or even any cinnamon chips in the remnant bag I got. But there were a few bleached out pieces of fruit that I’d guess were strawberries. Lol.
Brewed this according to Butiki recs and it came out….nice. Not really sweet, it tasted like fruit water to be honest. But it was still nice and fruity. Added, well, more Truvia than I usually do to make it sweet enough to really like, but so.
It was nice….but it would probly do better being drunk ‘quickly-ish’ and not sit on a hotplate for an hour+ plus while one gets sucked into reading a book. Lol. Sitting that long it was still frui and sweet, but it was definately turning towards bitter with a coming vengeance. And it had an odd, almost minty sort of effect. Not astringency but more the sensation you get after taking a menthol drop or something. Not…well, not pleasant for me at least.
But all things considering, and after a rather rambling review, I think I would be tempted to pick up a measure of this for myself. To see if it differs from what I got, and gets better than the potential I could taste.

This tea has the right balance of sweetness and tartness. It starts with a strawberry sweetness and the finish is slightly tart that pleasantly tingles your tongue. As the tea cools down the tart notes become more prominent. This blend has such a refreshing quality. I think it will make a super good iced tea in the summer. Right now I’m having it with a chocolate covered apricot from Mondel’s Chocolates http://www.mondelchocolates.com

Thank you Sil for this sample. This is another blend I’ve kept for a while not quite daring to try it because I reaaaaalllly want to like it. I’ve also been putting off writing my review on Teanamu Chaya Teahouse in London which I visited on Sunday last week for my anniversary so I’m hoping to get started while I write this one.

Firstly the tea smells sweet and fruity like strawberry but the beautiful Assam in the background has a creamy yet malty scent. Very beautiful and a nice contrast.

Flavour wise I can taste the richness of the Asssam which offers cream, malt and a touch of smoke but cutting through it is soft, sweet strawberry and it leaves me with a hint of spice and dryness in the after taste. Offering creamy, sweet and sour in one delicious cup. Some sugar or sweetener would lighten the black tea base and keep the strawberry dominant and make it pop.

Ok again I am very impressed with this blend and I wished I tried it much sooner.

What a great tea version of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie…mmm…
I am so sick of Winter, and this tea has me wishing even stronger for Summer
and a fresh, warm slice of Strawberry Rhubarb pie with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top~
♡ Super Delish Dessert Tea here ♡
I think picking out individual tasting notes would kind of defeat the overall blend taste
for me and this is PURRFECTION

I didn’t know there was pieces of bunny grahams until I opened the tea package – so neat!
The flavor is light, but very natural tasting strawberry, bit of a cakey crust flavor and rhubarb tart. I love the light spice in this blend, really adds some oomph that other strawberry/rhubarb blends I’ve tried.

Full review on my blog, The Oolong Owl http://oolongowl.com/ruby-pie-tea-butiki-teas-oolong-owl-tea-review/ featuring unreal looking red rhubarb.

Yum! Ok, so this is pretty darn tasty, I definitely taste the rhubarb and the strawberry and a little hint of pie at the end – now I need to go and try it with a touch of sugar!

Wow. This is delicious. The more flavored tea I drink, the more I appreciate Butiki’s blends. I especially like how well the pie crust is coming through on this. There is something in here that’s making me go, “this is reminding me of something”, but I can’t put my finger on it. I hate it when that happens!