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For some unknown reason I gravitated towards this today, and I have to say that I really, really like it. It’s not so surprising now that I know the base is Mao Jian, which is still pretty much the only green tea I really enjoy, but it was a nice surprise since I didn’t have such high expectations. The base tea is lovely – it’s mellow, buttery, smooth and has a flavour of fresh spring vegetables. It doesn’t overwhelm the pistachio flavour but doesn’t shrink into the background either. I drank this plain, and got a very strong, very accurate pistachio note from it, but can’t say I picked up on the ice cream. My mam described it as ‘pistachio water’ but liked it, which is a plus since she’s even less of a fan of green tea than I am. I didn’t want to add sugar since it was the first tea of the morning and I wasn’t in the mood for anything sweet, but from reading the description it sounds like the vanilla and cream flavours come out more after adding sugar, which makes sense. The pistachio note takes more of a back seat when the tea starts to cool, so I prefer it hot.

The other tea I drank yesterday – I only had time for two. This one I remember less clearly. Black, I definitely got a tangy plum compote note, with little astringency, which I was pleased about because I generally really like Butiki’s plum flavouring and I was hoping it would be the strongest note. The cashew cake was a little present, but only towards the back of the sip if I really concentrated. I added half a sugar, which brought out the plum flavouring more, and it probably the way I’d like to drink it best. In the name of trying everything, though, I added milk (admittedly too much), which muted the tea and plum notes and brought the cashew to the fore. I really like cashews for eating, they’re probably my favourite nut, but in tea it just doesn’t come across as a strong enough flavour to lead a blend. The cakiness is noticeable with milk, which I didn’t get before, but there’s just not enough of the plum flavour to cut through it and make it interesting. I might try it next time with less milk, because I did mess up the amount I added, but I really enjoyed it black and with just a little sugar, so I’m probably more likely to drink it that way instead. It was a very tasty tea, though.

I drank this yesterday, but had a super busy day and didn’t have time to write up any tasting notes. It was a weird sort of day, all in all.

I love this tea. After getting mostly a lime aroma from the dry leaf, I was really surprised by how much the tea itself smells like marshmallow. For something which just has a few ingredients, and none of them really things you can replicate with tea, the scent is dead on. I often get my brother to try teas and guess the flavour, and can sometimes persuade my mam to play along, though she’s generally less willing and way off base. This time, she took one sip and immediately said ‘marshmallow’ very confidently. I hadn’t tried it yet, and didn’t believe it would actually taste like marshmallow, so I accused her of looking at the packet, which she denied. I think I believe her too, because for one thing it really does somehow taste like marshmallow, and for another, when I did show her the label she was gleefully triumphant, and also confused about the lime, which she didn’t taste. My brother was less certain, but drank half my mug trying to figure out what the "familiar " flavour was so I’m going to say it was met with general approval from my family (he said he could taste the lime and eventually got marshmallow after sniffing it). My dad is very fussy with food and I’ve never even attempted to get him to try any of my teas.

After my disbelief at my mam’s reaction, I’m not sure why I was still surprised when I tried this and found it to taste like marshmallow, but I was. It’s incredible how such a generally mild flavour, which I wouldn’t be able to describe at the best of times, can be translated so perfectly into tea. It’s sweet and pillowy just as a marshmallow should be, and it’s followed by a sweet candy lime note which helps to prevent it from being too sweet or blah. Out of all my Butiki teas, I think this is one of the most accurately named. The tea was sweet enough on its own that I didn’t want to add sugar in case it wrecked the flavour balance, but I will eventually (reluctantly) try it with some added.

I like this. It’s not one of my all-time favourites but when I’m in the mood for creamy mint it’s nice. The first steep (Western, because I’m doing everything like that for my drink-a-thon) was great – deep rich puerh, creamy vanilla, sweet mint and an actual discernible cheesecake flavour. The cheesecake is very rich and mixes with the vanilla well, but I do think that the mint is a little bit too fresh and strong for the rest of the flavours, and it’s even stronger than the puerh, which doesn’t surprise me based on how much mint leaf was in my bag. Nice all the same, but I’m wishing that the mint was just a little bit weaker and more candy-like. I’m currently on my second steep and the puerh is surprisingly not holding up as well as the flavours. Granted it’s more vanilla mint now without the creamy cheesecake, but the puerh is definitely ‘watery’ this time round. I might stick to one steep next time for this, or more likely brew it gongfu. The first steep was definitely the best.

Stacy included this for free with one of my last orders, and I’m actually not sure if I’ve ever had this before because it looked pretty scary so I’ve spent a while avoiding it. Still, it has to be drank at some point and after my lunch (which – tmi – I can still taste) none of the flavoured options were calling out to me and I actually quite fancied a straight green, so I thought I might as well bite the bullet and go for it.

The reason I’ve been so hesitant is because of the size of the leaf which, even though I have lots of teas from other companies this size, is a lot smaller than most Butiki teas I own. I always associate smaller leaf with bitterness, and I’m wary of green teas for this reason too, so this was never high on my list of priority teas. It’s not as bad as I thought it would be, but there is some astringency though it’s on the milder side of what I’ve experienced with green teas in the past. I can taste most of the notes Stacy points out, apart from the lemon, though I can really only notice them when I think about it. Green tea is my fuzzy area. Without suggestion I can taste a floral note almost reminiscent of jasmine, and some steamed green vegetable notes which are probably what I was identifying as spinach when I was looking at the specific notes.

Basically, it’s not for me. It’s not bad, and probably one of the better straight greens out there, but I have uncouth tastes and this deserves a better home than mine. There’s a good chance this might end up with Red Fennekin.

I made a cold brew of this using the same three teabags I’d previously hot steeped to make regular iced tea, and it actually still had a lot of flavour to it. I wouldn’t really say it was all that different, but I’m upping the rating from 77 since I managed to get double the tea from it.

Resteeped my leaves not expecting much after the delicate first cup, and was bowled over when I tried it and found that it was even more tasty than the first cup! I can taste the Doke more this time, and it has a really lovely nutty, honeyed tone I like a lot. The maple is very prominent, helped along by the sugar I added, and only gets stronger as the cup cools (though a little bit of astringency comes into it too). It’s very waffly and bready, but the almond is still not really there for me. Having said that though, I did just have some almonds as a snack before I drank this so there’s a chance that that’s why I couldn’t taste them in the tea. I’m really pleased I bought this. Not upping my rating because I think I overrated it last time, and 89 is about right for how I feel about it now.

Sipdown 74/391!! (I’m still on a no-buy, but VariaTEA very generously sent me a load of samples and it’s single-handedly destroyed my hopes of reaching 400 by the end of the month).

This was a very fitting final cup and a lovely way to part – for now, at least – with this tea. I drank my final cup from my Arthur Conan Doyle mug whilst watching the last episode of Sherlock series 4, and made sure I had plenty of time beforehand to make it properly for once. Either the base has gotten weaker over time or I’m getting more used to astringency and brisk teas, because I drank it without milk and had no inclination to add any. Either way it was really lovely. The Earl Grey bergamot note was much more present this time, and the cinnamon took more of a back seat but was still noticeable, and gave a lovely warmth which grew as I drank the cup. This tea fits John well, and I enjoyed it almost as much as I did the finale. I will most likely buy a bag of this in the future, too, even though Adagio have raised their prices on it by over 20% since the last time I bought it grumbles.

Upping my rating again, this time from 80.

Today is my early start busy day at work, and I’m really struggling to find the motivation to go in. I was doing full, busy weeks not so long ago, but lately they’ve cut my hours right back with no explanation and this week they only have me in today. It’s the least work I’ve been doing since I started 6 months ago and I’m finding it hard having no money when I’ve been used to being able to buy things and pay what I owe for a while now. How do adults do life??

Anyway, I needed a caffeine kick to get me going this morning, so this is what I went for. I don’t particularly enjoy it for the flavour but the energy boost is a big help. Flavour-wise this is mostly guayusa, and it’s not because it’s old, it’s been like this since I bought it. Even with a little added sugar the flavours aren’t willing to come through stronger. Weirdly, I got one really nice, clear sip at the beginning of my drink which was all juicy blackberry lime goodness. I’ve been drinking this like a madwoman, sipping different amounts at different speeds, trying to get different amounts of air into each mouthful, but I can’t seem to find those flavours anywhere any more! Ah well… there is a hint of blackberry in with the almost savoury leafy, earthy guayusa, hidden somewhere in the background, and every now and then I get a little hint of lime at the end of the sip. I should try this one cold-brewed, because the flavour combination sounds so delicious I wish I could appreciate it more.

Today I got a wonderful package from VariaTEA in the post! So my cupboard has suffered a mini explosion and VariaTEA is entirely responsible.. hehe. I was so close to getting under 400, too! I wanted to play with my new teas sooner but I was out most of the day and then when I got back I made sure I drank a couple of Butiki teas to stay on track with my drink-a-thon. I’m in work early tomorrow so it’s almost bed time for me. I have time for one more cup of tea and I’m having this because it sounded yummy and relaxing and it was a teabag and I’m too tired to sort out anything loose leaf at the moment.

The scent while it’s brewing is a lot like most chocolate teas to me; chocolatey but artificial. I pick up some nuttiness from the hazelnut in the scent but no toffee. The flavour is pretty much the same as the scent initially – artificial chocolate with hazelnut background and no toffee anywhere to be found. It tastes quite a lot like a knock-off ferrero rocher! The base tea is present enough that I can tell it’s there, but for a supermarket teabag I’m pretty impressed because it’s really smooth with no astringency at all. I added the tiniest bit of sugar and the tiniest bit of milk and this brings out the hazelnut a lot more, and makes it actually quite a nice comforting bed time cup of tea. As it starts to cool a little the chocolate becomes far less pronounced and the main flavour is hazelnut, with a hint of the toffee finally peeping through at the end of the sip. Now it reminds me quite strongly of Adagio’s Hazelnut tea, only with a much milder base and a more artificial hazelnut flavour. It’s nice, but not so different that I could justify having them both in my collection and Adagio’s plain hazelnut tea has the edge over this one with it being stronger and more natural-tasting. Thank you again VariaTEA for sending me so many generous samples!