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.
Iced Tea Series II (Tropical Fruit Series) from 52Teas, Part 5: Papaya Flavored Black Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
About this series:
Here are FIVE unique iced tea blends we’ve created from high quality Nilgiri CTC teas. These are uber fine teas, so they are not as pretty as our whole leaf teas, but they steep up a bold, rich, flavorful iced tea.
Taster’s Review:
Deeee-lish!
With my first couple of sips of this iced tea, I was a little unsure how I felt about it. But now that I’m halfway finished with my second glass, I can say with complete certainty that I love it!
It does take a little time for the sweet flavor of the papaya to develop. Those first couple of sips were a little “off” – I could taste the black tea but little else. Now the flavor of the papaya is about even with the black tea. The strong Nilgiri is a bit more prevalent but not by much. It has a brisk flavor and a moderate astringency that at first came across as slightly bitter rather than tangy, but now that the papaya flavor has developed the astringency has tapered off a bit.
The papaya is sweet and flavorful. It definitely inspires a tropical feel – mentally transporting me to a hammock on a sunny tropical island. Now, if only I could get Johnny Depp to refill my glass of tea . . .
Iced Tea Series II (Tropical Fruit Series) from 52Teas, Part 4: Lychee Flavored Black Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
About this series:
Here are FIVE unique iced tea blends we’ve created from high quality Nilgiri CTC teas. These are uber fine teas, so they are not as pretty as our whole leaf teas, but they steep up a bold, rich, flavorful iced tea.
Taster’s Review:
Tasty!
Lychee isn’t what I’d consider a favorite fruit flavor. Hey, I like it alright, but there are many fruits I’d prefer. You probably wouldn’t catch me putting a lychee-flavored tea on my shopping list. There are just so many other flavors out there that I prefer over lychee. So, I was not really excited about this tea being part of this series. I mean, why lychee? Of all the tropical fruits out there, why lychee? Why not banana or pineapple or passion fruit?
Anyway, I still decided to order the full series, and you know what? I like this. It is really tasty.
The lychee fruit is sweet and pungent. It has a somewhat sharp, tart flavor that is especially noticeable in the aftertaste. It is a little bit floral and it tastes… well, it tastes like a lychee fruit. It’s one of those fruits that is truly it’s own distinct taste.
The black tea is the same, strong Nilgiri tea that is used in the other iced tea blends, and it works really well with the lychee flavor. It is bold enough to hold its own with the rather intense flavor that is lychee. The astringency of the tea melds well with the lychee, cutting through some of the more pungent tones.
I like this much better than I thought I would. It is very refreshing.
Iced Tea Series II (Tropical Fruit Series) from 52Teas, Part 1: Kiwi Flavored Black Tea
Tea Information:
Leaf Type: Black
Where to Buy: 52Teas
About This Iced Tea Series:
After the success of our first Iced tea series, we’re going for round two. This time, all of the teas are tropical fruit flavors! We’ve also increased the amount of tea in each package to make sure you get a good solid gallon of iced tea out of each pack.
Here are FIVE unique iced tea blends we’ve created from high quality Nilgiri CTC teas. These are uber fine teas, so they are not as pretty as our whole leaf teas, but they steep up a bold, rich, flavorful iced tea. We’ve packaged them in approximately 1.2oz. pouches, which is just enough for one gallon of iced tea (more if you re-steep) so you can just rip them open, dump them out and steep. No measuring required!
Taster’s Review:
I really enjoyed the last iced tea series from 52Teas so I was confident that I’d enjoy this set of five teas as well. This series even has a theme: tropical fruit.
The first thing that you’ll notice about these tea is that it looks different from a typical loose leaf tea. This is a very fine cut black tea … almost resembling tiny granules. And if you’ve had teas from 52Teas in the past, you’ll also notice that this tea looks different from other 52Teas blends in another way – it doesn’t have big chunks of fruit or other additives in the blend.
But that doesn’t mean that these teas skimp on flavor. The flavor is very well-defined in this tea. The kiwi notes are so juicy and delicious. When describing the flavor of kiwi, people often compare it to a banana, a strawberry and/or a pineapple, because the kiwi fruit possesses notes that are similar to each of these. I can especially taste the banana notes here – in fact, when I first opened the package I could smell banana and I had to double check the label to see if I hadn’t accidentally opened a package of banana tea by mistake.
The black tea base is delicious. It is brisk and there are hints of malt. It is astringent, but not overly so. Brewed properly, there is no bitterness to this tea, just a beautiful, lightly sweet, crisp taste that highlights the flavor of the kiwi fruit very well.
This has been a very hot summer so far – but the heat becomes bearable when I have a glass of delicious iced tea.