The Killer’s Vanilla

Thanks TTTTB for this tea!

I’m enjoying the tea. It’s more complex than I thought it would be. I didn’t look at the ingredients before brewing. I was surprised about the lavender . The spearmint goes well with the vanilla. I like a change from peppermint to spearmint . Not bad, not the greatest ever.

This same came from NayLynn. I haven’t tried any of Butiki’s guayusa blends, or any guayusa blend in general, but I’ve been curious about them since most of the flavor sound really good. Visually, this looks like flaky crumbled dry leaves. They’re a muted green/grey color. I confess, I was a little sad when I noticed the lavender buds mixed in, as I didn’t realize there was lavender in this one. Ah well. Steeped a teaspoon and a half of leaf for 6 minutes in boiling water.

This one is just okay for me. I don’t taste a lot of lavender, which is very good in my opinion. The lavender mostly comes off as citrusy in this blend instead of heavily floral. Mostly what I taste is the mint, but even it is quite mild. I could use more vanilla here. Overall, this is a very mild minty herbal with a few other light flavors.

Much thanks to Sil for providing me with so much of this one, and to VariaTEA for passing it along from Sil to me! I’ve been curious about this one for quite some time but wary about ordering it because I often see it described as “Good but not necessarily one you’d want to have around in any sort of quantity”.

However, making it up this morning/afternoon for a bit of an energy boost before work (I’m working a closing/overnight cleaning shift today so it’ll be a fairly long night) I’m really enjoying this! There are a lot of interesting things going on in my cup, but in a way that really ties together.

On the whole, this is a rich vanilla tea with a fresh guayusa undertone. Thanks to something Courtney said in a tasting note once, I always associate the flavour of guayusa with “rain forests” now – and that’s what this is! Vanilla and fresh, outdoorsy rain forest tea. However, there are layers to it: within that vanilla flavour you can pick out notes of the lavender which isn’t anywhere near too floral, as well as the mint which is just present enough.

It’s soft but flavourful and definitely enjoyable. I’m not so sure yet whether I’d want to have this around all the time, after all I have some great guayusa/mate options stocked already, but I liked it and Sil has kindly given me more than enough to play around with so that I can enjoy several cups before deciding whether this’ll be a restock.

This is a nice Saturday morning tea. I don’t know that I would want to do this during the week, because even though it’s guayusa and chock full of energy, this blend is a relaxing Saturday (or Sunday) morning mug of tea.

I love spearmint. It’s my favorite mint. I’m really glad that’s the mint in this tea because it’s perfect with the vanilla and lavender. I love how the lavender is just barely there, but it’s definitely there if you know what you’re tasting. Lavender is kind of subtle like that.

(I had a Blue Magic Lavender beer last night. There’s a surprisingly good use of lavender. As a lover of lavender, I had to try it. It’s lighter than I often drink, but it’s a really good summertime sitting in the beer garden kind of beer. If you’re in Michigan, and you enjoy lavender, I highly recommend this beer by Right Brain. Now back to the tea.)

The vanilla. At first, I wasn’t sure it was there, but I was definitely getting a creamy. And then it was there. Perfectly balanced with everything else, and the more I drink it, the more prominent it becomes.

I added a little sugar, just a touch, part way through the mug, since Stacy suggests that with this tea. She sure knows what she’s talking about. When Stacy says to add a little bit of sugar to really bring the flavors to the forefront, add that sugar. Just a little tiny bit (less than 1/4t for a 15 oz mug) and I now have The Killer’s Vanilla dancing in my mouth.

I’m also listening to the music that this tea is named after. I’ve never listened to Amon Tobin before. Thanks for sharing this, Stacy. I will have to add an Amon Tobin playlist for working to and try this out. It’s definitely intrigued me, and if the rest is like this, it’ll great for working to.

Thank you, Stacy from Butiki Teas, for blending such awesome teas. And thank you to mj1851 for recommending this one to me. You’re absolutely right that this is a great tea.

This morning it feels like the only thing that could wake me up is a roundhouse kick to the face a nice cup of guayasa. The enigmatic mj1851 sent me this bad boy and thanks to her, my day can be more Brie from desperate housewives working in the garden, and less Plants vs Zombies.

So after falling asleep at 2 am, waking up at 4:30 am to a sick baby ( aw :( ), I finally get my first cup of tea in.

I normally really dislike lavender, but in this it’s saying “Hey Virginia! I like your hair!” as opposed to the usual “Virginia, let me suffocate you in my pungent vapors”. For the most part though , vanilla and mint are the most prominent flavours, with a tiny hint of – dare I say it? Cannabis.

OK…so I have to say upfront that I’ve been curious about this tea for awhile. Cavocorax sent me a generous sample awhile back, but I’ve been in an avoidance pattern for weeks (months?). There is some part of me that was sure this would be yucko, because I just don’t really like lavender in my tea.

So guess what? It’s actually no bad! The vanilla aroma is especially nice, & the lavender is not particularly noticeable. Probably not something I’d keep in my cupboard, but worth trying. I drank it hot, & there is also some in the fridge, so that I can try it chilled.

Sipdown 298

Took this to rehearsal instead of a coffee this morning. I’ve got more cider guayusa than killer’s vanilla so I was going to sip this down first, but considering they’re both Butiki maybe I should go one for one until they’re both gone? And then openly weep?

Hello Steepster! How I have missed you and tea this past week. I had friends visiting from out of town and that left very little time to enjoy tea, with the exception of some matcha quickly whipped up in milk to share with my friend and some Corn tea when we went for sushi. Now my friends have parted which is sad but it means I can get back to enjoying some tasty, tasty cuppas, starting with this one, courtesy of Sil (thank you!!).

This package of tea is actually meant to go to Roswell Strange but I figured neither would mind if I stole a little bit for myself. So, now, as I eat breakfast and watch training videos for my new job (Yay for getting hired! Boo for having to go back to retail work, but yay for having an income again!). The last cup I tried of this was surprisingly delicious with amazing notes of vanilla and a hint of delicious lavender that was all tied together with a little minty bow. Today, though it is still enjoyable, I am not loving this one as much. The vanilla is there but not as much as I would like it to be while the mint and guayasa are really fighting to be the main attraction. Lavender appears as a little bit of spice as opposed to being more floral like the last cup. Good, but not something I need to stock. I am glad I got to try it once again though.

I tried this cold brewed, but only brewed a cup’s worth because I wasn’t sure I’d like it cold and I didn’t want to risk wasting too much of the prrreeeccciooouussss. I totally regret that decision now. This is excellent cold brewed! It’s completely refreshing. It does taste slightly different than when it’s hot. The mint comes through stronger, with the lavender close behind. You lose a bit of the vanilla. I’m still a huge fan though! I brewed this for 10-11 hours in the refrigerator. 2.25 tsp/12 oz filtered water.

Many thanks to kaylee for sending me this in a swap. This is my second time trying a guayusa tea, and while I’m still adjusting to the taste, this was quite interesting.

I followed the steeping instructions on the package (1.5 tsp, 8 oz, boiling water, 6 minutes) and came away with a dark amber brew that smelled of vanilla and herbs. I could taste the medicinal-ness of the guayusa in the background, but I swear that I smelled some other flavours that weren’t listed as part of the ingredients: thyme, definitely, and perhaps oregano.

Not quite sure what to make of this. Perhaps it’s the lotus stamens? It’s interesting, I’ll give it that.