Tea Information:
Leaf Type: White
Where to Buy: 52Teas
Tea Description:
This year’s Christmas week blend is inspired by goodies the vision of which supposedly danced in sleeping children’s heads before they had My Little Ponies to dream about. So here’s my attempt at a sugar plum shou mei complete with some lavender flowers. I sure hope you enjoy it.
Learn more about this blend here.
Taster’s Review:
I was thrilled when I saw what tea 52Teas created for the week of this past Christmas: a Sugar Plum Shou Mei White Tea Blend! I love sugar plums! That it to say, I love the Jelly Belly type of sugar plum that’s a jelly sort of candy. I haven’t tried a real sugar plum. I don’t think I’m really entirely sure of what a real sugar plum actually is.
Which I guess opens things up for 52Teas to be very creative with this blend, right?
It took a few sips before I started to really recognize the “plum” notes in this tea. I could taste the white tea in those first few sips: sweet, light hay-ish notes, and a crisp, melon-ish like quality is what I could taste.
After the first few sips, I started to notice some plum-like qualities. Sweet and juicy! Then I noticed hints of lavender starting to emerge. But the aroma of the lavender here is stronger than the lavender’s contribution to the flavor profile of this tea. I can smell the lavender as I sit here, enjoying the scent of the tea wafting out of the cup but the flavor is much softer, like a whisper of lavender, a hint of lavender that caught a ride on the airy notes of the white tea.
This is pretty tasty. It’s not quite as strongly flavored as I anticipated it being based upon my experiences with 52Teas. But it does have the flavors I’d expect from a “sugar plum” flavored tea: I taste the tea, and I taste notes of sweet plum. I don’t know if this tea excites me enough to start filling my head with dancing visions, but it’s a tasty cuppa.
Potato Pancakes & Applesauce Green Tea (Holiday Series: Hanukkah) from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Green
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our Potato Pancakes & Applesauce tea pairs our buttery Organic Huangshan Mao Feng with generous potato pieces and crisp apple chips. Plain, this tea is thick with potato notes up front followed by apple and cinnamon notes with some buttery notes that peak through at the end. As the tea is repeatedly sipped the buttery quality will become more apparent. The weighty body adds to both the potato and applesauce feel. Since this tea is on the lighter side, we recommend drinking this tea at a warmer temperature. For stronger potato notes we recommend adding a very small amount of salt; however, this may diminish the applesauce notes. For a sweeter applesauce, we recommend adding a tiny bit of sugar; however, this may reduce the potato notes.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Wow! This Potato Pancakes & Applesauce Green Tea from Butiki Teas (part of their holiday series in observation of Hanukkah) has to be one of the most unique tasting teas I’ve yet to encounter! I figured it would be when I requested a sample of it with my order, however, I still find myself in AWE of how truly unusual this tea is. Unusual, yes. Unique, certainly. But it’s also really good!
I can’t say that I’ve ever tasted the combination of potato pancakes and applesauce before. I’ve had these two foods separately, but never together. Until now, that is, as I sip this tea. And I really can taste both the potato and the apple in this. Yes, that’s weird, but it’s weird in the yummiest way imaginable.
The green tea base is light and smooth. I note no bitterness or astringency here. Just a crisp taste. It doesn’t even taste overly vegetative or grassy. Really, the strongest “vegetable” note that I taste here is that of the potato, and that tastes somewhat thick and starchy. It’s not a heavy flavor though. I suppose if I wanted the potato to taste stronger, I could have added a pinch of salt like the above description suggests, however, I didn’t want to obscure the apple notes so I decided to go without salt or sweetener here and just experience this tea without additions.
There is a buttery creaminess to this as well, and this melds beautifully with the potato. The apple is delicate and sweet. The cinnamon accentuates the apple nicely without bombarding the blend with a strong cinnamon presence. The cinnamon is added at just the right amount here, because it doesn’t taste distinctly “cinnamon-y” … instead, it makes the apple taste like applesauce, which is exactly what I think Stacy at Butiki Teas was going for (since the name of the tea is Potato Pancakes & Applesauce).
I love it when I find a tea like this: one that delivers exactly what is promised in the name, even if the name seems a little crazy! And yes, the idea of a green tea that tastes of potato pancake and applesauce does sound a little crazy (maybe even more than a little crazy), but again, that’s a crazy in a very delicious way.
Well done!
Traditional Plum Pudding Flavored Oolong Tea from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
This tea follows a more traditional form of plum pudding. Plum pudding is cake-like treat that is soaked with liquor, spiced and contains dried fruits and citrus peels. This plum tea has notes of rum, spice, brown sugar, orange peel, and a slight hint of custard. We went very light on the spice and orange peel but added it for a touch of depth and authenticity. This delicious plum, rum, and a touch of spice tea utilizes our Nilgiri Frost Oolong for a weighty body and a hint of sweetness. While tasty on its own, this tea pops with a tiny amount of brown crystal sugar.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
Yummy! This Traditional Plum Pudding Flavored Oolong Tea from Butiki Teas is really a festive treat.
I can’t say that I’ve ever tasted plum pudding, but, I can taste each of the elements that is promised in the description above. I taste the plum and the rum notes, and there is this smooth creaminess to it that is very custard-like. It is sweet and gently spiced in such a way that it tastes very holiday-ish. And the subtle notes of orange brighten the cup.
The base tea used here is Butiki Teas’ Nilgiri Frost Oolong, and because of the natural citrus and bourbon notes, I think that it was an ideal choice for this blend. It melds seamlessly with the flavors, accentuating them to bring out the most from those flavors.
I’m REALLY glad that I tried this tea. I took my first few sips of the tea without any sweetener, and it’s really good like that, but, I found that the tea really came to life after I added a little bit of turbinado sugar to the cup. Delicious hot, but if you happen to walk away from the cup for little while and return to a cooled cup – its still yummy. This tea gets two very enthusiastic thumbs up from me.
Pumpkin Milkshake 2.0 Oolong Blend from Butiki Teas
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Oolong
Where to Buy: Butiki Teas
Tea Description:
Our Pumpkin Milkshake 2.0 differs slightly from our previous version and has a fuller body, is creamier, and utilizes a more gentle base tea. This 2.0 version pairs our Doke Rolling Thunder oolong with pumpkin, vanilla, and cream flavors. Pumpkin and vanilla notes dominate our Pumpkin Milkshake 2.0; however, there is a sweet creaminess present that lingers. Some caramel notes can also be detected. We highly recommend adding some brown crystal sugar to transform this tea into a rich, creamy, decadent, vanilla and pumpkin desert treat.
Learn more about this tea here.
Taster’s Review:
I don’t think I tried Butiki Teas’ first version of their Pumpkin Milkshake tea, but, I’m glad to be trying this Pumpkin Milkshake 2.0 Oolong Blend from Butiki Teas! It is yummy!
I don’t think I’ve ever tasted a pumpkin milkshake. But I’m liking what I’m tasting in my tea cup right now. This tastes of pumpkin, spice, and vanilla with a very enjoyable Oolong background that is earthy. There are some distant fruit notes that seem to accentuate the pumpkin more than stand out on their own. There’s also … a sort of … toasty-ish flavor that I’m tasting which I can only assume is part of the Oolong’s character. I like how this toasty note combines with the spices. It’s a very harmonious blend.
What I’m enjoying most about this, I think, is that even though the pumpkin, vanilla and spices are strong, they aren’t overpowering the base. Everything comes together in a very pleasing way. It’s warm and comforting … but at the same time, I can see how this would make a really enjoyable iced tea too.
Holiday Blend Black Tea from English Tea Shop
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: English Tea Shop
Tea Description:
Holiday Blend: Black tea, cinnamon pieces, ginger pieces, cardamom pieces, nutmeg pieces, pepper, cloves and orange peels with vanilla and apple flavours.
Taster’s Review:
I received a lovely tea package from a friend for the holiday, and this Holiday Blend Black Tea from English Tea Shop is one of the teas that she sent me. And because the ingredients sound very “chai-like” to me, I decided to categorize this as a chai tea as well as a black tea.
However, I must admit that it doesn’t taste quite as chai-like as it sounds. (Yes, I know that chai means tea … but I’ve come to think of chai as a blend of spices and tea rather than just “tea.”) This is a bagged tea, and I’ve never made any secret about my feelings about bagged teas, but for what this is (that being a bagged tea) it’s really not bad. I steeped it for 2 1/2 minutes in boiling water and the flavor is sweet and warmly spiced with tasty fruit notes.
The black tea base is a mild-tasting black tea, leaving me to suspect that it is probably a Ceylon. It has a medium body, and it has a smooth, even taste – it’s not an overly assertive tasting tea.
The spices are not assertive either. They’re gently warming, and I think that with this particular blend, it is the moderate spice levels that make it work … there is just the right amount of spice here. In one sip, I notice subtle touches of cinnamon, ginger and clove. In the next, I’ll pick up on hints of cardamom, and nutmeg. In the next, I’ll notice the softness of vanilla peeking through, and a kick of pepper toward the finish. Every spice is represented without the blend ever tasting too spicy.
The same is true for the apple and orange notes. The apple is smooth and sweet, and the orange brightens the cup with a sunny note of citrus, but neither fruit tastes overly done. All the flavors here have been carefully balanced so that all the flavors are accounted for without any one flavor profile overpowering the blend.
It’s a pleasant cup of holiday cheer!