Champagne & Rose Cream

Wow, this is very rose like! I’ve had teas with rose in it, but never as the star of the tea like in this one. It’s a little too much for me, not because it’s not a good tea, but I guess I don’t like rose. For someone that does like rose, this tea would be a must try. I hope I can pass this on to someone who can appreciate it.

Ok wow! I’ve been away from Steepster for a few years and things have… changed! Somehow I totally missed the news about the Adagio takeover? Would love to hear from folks who have been here throughout about how that has gone, if you are up for sharing.

Anyway, 2021 is finally over and hopefully this year will be just a smidge better for us all. In that spirit, I wanted to ring it in with a cheerful tea that I knew wouldn’t disappoint. This tea is really old now but it still delivers. I brewed exactly as directed, although I did add an extra teaspoon of leaf to compensate for the age. With a touch of brown sugar to bring out the flavor, it’s still perfection. The rose hits first, followed by cream mid-sip and ending on what I can only describe as somehow a bubbly note that really does evoke champagne. I even managed to get three good steeps out of it by steeping the third one for almost 20 minutes. All in all, a great tea to start the year with.

This was a sample from Kaylee, and I’m so glad I was able to try some from her stash. I’d long been curious about this blend—it sounded so delightful, but I’m wary of rose teas after too many letdowns. Happily, the rose in this one wasn’t too strong—indeed, everything about the tea was quite light. It even had a fizzy, champagne-like sensation, which I’d never encountered in a tea before. It was all very pleasant, but not very memorable, and on the whole I’m not too sorry this one never made its way into any of my Butiki orders.

This is another of the older Butiki teas in my cupboard, but it finally got its chance today! As with a lot of Butiki blends, it’s a beautifully pretty thing. The rose buds are a bright, vibrant pink, and very fresh-looking. They could have been picked yesterday, but I know they weren’t. The silver needle leaves are a creamy green in colour, and very downy. The scent is heavy on the rose, in a way that’s almost reminiscent of perfume. Thick and sultry, very fragrant. It’s a beautiful beginning.

I used 2 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in water cooled to around 180 degrees. Even though floral teas aren’t usually my bag, I’m in love with this one from the first sip. If parma violets were rose flavoured, they’d taste like this tea. I’m going to find it fairly hard to explain that now, but it’s how I felt immediately upon taking a sip. The rose is obviously the most apparent flavour, but somehow it doesn’t dominate the blend. It’s sweet, and tastes almost sugared, with just a hint of something powdery. It’s also truly, madly creamy, as if I’d added actual cream to my cup. Smooth, with a dairy like mellowness that complements the rose so, so well. Like rose milkshake, if such a thing existed. There’s the tiniest hint of champagne in the aftertaste, which adds a heady richness to the overall cup. It lingers beautifully, as does the rose, for a good few minutes after each sip. All together, the flavour, the smoothness of the mouthfeel, and the scent combine to make this a real sensory experience. Very few teas have this sort of impact on me, so I’m doubly sad I didn’t try this one sooner. My bank account is pleased, but that’s little consolation.

I love this blend, and I’ll cherish the little bag I have. It’s completely disproved my belief that I don’t like floral teas – clearly that’s not the case. This is a beautiful, fabulously tasty tea, and I’m honoured to have had the pleasure of trying it. Butiki may be gone, but they will always live on in my memory.

This tea is so lush and dreamy. I didn’t get much champagne flavor, but the lovely sweet rose fragrance wafting from my cup made me feel like I was being lulled to sleep on a fluffy pink cloud next to a tray of Turkish delight. The thick texture complements the flavoring, giving a fuller experience of creaminess. It’s sweet enough to drink plain, and I sort of regretted sweetening this, but it’s very good either way. If you haven’t already, see if you can snap some of this up before it’s all gone!

Woo, 100th tasting note! and it only took about 3 years :P

I just kept forgetting about this tea. I think I oversteeped it twice! The rose was SO strong. I’ll have to try again soon!

I’ve heard good things about this tea, but for whatever reason I just hadn’t tried it yet. Now that I have I’m sorry I waited! The dry tea smells like candied roses, and as it brews it mellows out slightly. The taste is creamy, floral but not perfumey, and I actually do taste something like wine—a very sweet version, but it’s definitely there. The balance of flavors is amazing and even with all that going on it still doesn’t overpower the base.

This is as rosy as tea can get! The blend consists of silver needles and brightly-colored rosebuds, and no matter how I tried to portion it, I was going to get more rosebuds by volume than tea leaves. The dry scent is very strong rose, but not cloying or perfume-like. The brewed aroma has an added note of tart champagne. I’ve played around with this one a bit, and while the champagne isn’t too obvious in the flavor at first, it becomes more prominent and crisp as the tea cools, and is a good balancer to the very strong rose aroma. The rose fragrance really lingers after the tea is gone. There is a touch of something vegetal from the silver needle tea as well. It also brews to an interesting, light green color. Overall, this is a very, very floral tea, dainty and not overwhelming. Maybe a bit of an acquired taste for some, but fairly enjoyable.

This sample came with my recent Butiki order. Thank you Stacy!

Rose flavored teas scares me. I have had the opportunity to try a few and they are really hit or miss. This one was a HUGE hit. I am blown away by this tea. Smooth, creamy, sweet, with a nice balance of rose. This is such a calming tea. I think this will have to be added to my next order. Thank you Stacy for the opportunity to try this one.

So I got this in the mail and I was wondering to myself…why did I get this tea again? I don’t really have any special preference for rose-flavored tea and in fact…it didn’t sound all the appealing to me! But I think I ordered this because it seemed so out of the ordinary and it had gotten really good reviews on Steepster so I decided to give it a try. It was in fact pretty good! I’m pleasantly surprised! It wasn’t overwhelming with rose flavor even though I thought I used too many rose buds in the steeping. Instead, there’s a nice rose taste with a creamy under tone that pulls it all together. I can’t say that I can taste much white tea in it, but overall it’s a good flavor to try.