Spectacular Black Friday through Cyber Monday SALE!!!!!!

Spectacular Black Friday through Cyber Monday SALE!!!!!!

For all of Friday, November 29th through all of Monday, December 2nd we will be offering $20 of free tea of your choice with a purchase of $40.00 of tea.  Please read all the rules carefully.  Additionally, we will be offering special bonuses each day:

• Friday: Maple Pecan Oolong Day!  Spend $50 on teas & teawares and get one ounce of Maple Pecan Oolong!

• Saturday: Teaware Day!  Spend $60 on teas & teawares and get your choice of either a 3 compartment twist canister (as pictured in our blend kits, canister version) or a Finum Brewing Basket! 

• Sunday: Green Tea Day! Spend $50 on teas & teawares and get 1 of your choice of the following: 1oz of Glenburn Estate Green, 1/2 oz Hangzhou Dragonwell, 1oz Organic Korakundah, 1/2 oz Organic Spring Twist, or 1oz Pistachio Ice Cream!

• Monday: Leafhopper Day! Spend $60 on teas & teawares and get a half ounce of Mi Xian Black plus a "I Love Leafhoppers" magnet!

• Contest: By making any purchase Friday through Monday you will be automatically entered into a drawing for a chance to win a tea jar of your choice (valued up to $20.75).

The rules:

• Teawares, accessories, and samplers will not be counted towards the 'tea purchase' or as 'free tea' but can absolutely be added to the order.

• Free shipping offers do not apply, even if a $75 order is made.  Shipping will not be charged on the “free tea portion” for US and Canadian customers.  International orders will be assessed shipping charges after the purchase or can request a quote.  Please note we may not be able to respond that day. 

• Free samples will not be offered during this sale.

• Purchases that qualify for this sale must be made during November 29 - December 2 Eastern Standard Time and the daily specials apply for that day only (EST).

•  The “free tea” must fall within the dollar limit.  For example if you purchase $40 in teas, your free teas cannot exceed $20.00, not even by $.25.  No exceptions.

• Please let us know what free teas you would like with your order either in the “instructions to seller” section during check out or in a separate email.  If you qualify for the bonus of the day, make sure to let us know what you would like added to your order if there are multiple options.  If you do not let us know which teas you would like and do not respond to our emails within 5 days, the special will be void and teas will be shipped as is.  Please check your email box for communications from us.

•  We have received a lot of questions about larger orders, so I wanted to answer a question about those that purchase $80+. The first $40, receives $20 in free teas, then each additional $40 will receive $15 in free teas. The reason for this is due to shipping costs. At the large quantities, we eat some of the shipping costs which we will not be able to do for this sale, this will even it out a bit. If you are in the US and purchasing bulk teas so that you have 6 or less teas and can split them into 2 orders, then it will probably be more beneficial to place 2 separate orders and receive the $20 of free tea for each order.

• Failure to follow rules may make your purchase ineligible for this offer.

Please note that we will start shipping orders Wednesday, December 4th after  we have declared a contest winner for the free tea jar.  Please allow 5 business days from Wednesday for teas to be shipped out of our office as we expect this to be a popular sale.  Our communications may also be somewhat slow. 

The Story Behind Foxy Roxy's Banana Walnut Treat

Foxy Roxy’s Banana Walnut Treat pairs our Congou Keemun with fresh banana flavor and a hint of walnut.  But how did this tea come about?  We knew that we wanted to have a banana tea.  First, we started with an oolong to make a creamy banana oolong but that just didn’t work out.  Then, we tried a banana rum white tea but no matter how we combined the rum and banana the rum just didn’t work well with the banana.  Then we tried a banana chai but we weren’t in love with it.  

We were almost at the point of setting the idea of a banana tea aside for a while and coming back to it later but then I received an email from Foxy Roxy.  The message was mostly about other matters but towards the end she mentioned that she thought we should have a banana tea and had discussed how she tried a Keemun with a banana and thought that the combination worked well.  I definitely wasn’t sold on this idea, especially since our Keemun has mushroom notes but I thought this is just such an odd coincidence that she was emailing me about a banana tea when we were almost at the point of putting this on the back burner.  We went ahead and made a sample and once we tasted it we knew that there was a lot of potential for this tea.  The mushroom notes were gone but the fresh ripe banana flavor worked well with our premium Keemun.  I sent Roxanne a sample and later she mentioned walnuts.  After working with that combination for a while, we ended up with Foxy Roxy’s Banana Walnut Treat.

We did a short interview with Roxanne and she was kind enough to send us a ton of awesome photos.  We hope you enjoy the interview and photos!

Tell us a little bit about yourself.  I'm just a simple gal, a free spirit who enjoys simple pleasures in life.  Books, art in any shape or form, music and tea are basically what makes my world go round!

 I live close to nature in Quebec, Canada, where some winters never end it seems... Animal lover, I will rescue any type of life form that will knock on my door.

My love life: I was lucky to meet the man of my dreams many years ago, and to this day, he still completes me in every way possible!

  

When did you first become interested in loose leaf teas?  It was my Grandma who introduced me to loose leaf tea for the first time, she loved Jasmin Chinese tea. I must have been about 7 years old, so I've been drinking loose leaf nearly all my life! But the last two years got me into more refined teas. My palate rapidly evolved, and Butiki became my favorite online tea shop!

What are your tea preferences?  I will describe my tea preferences as relationships:

I'm married to straight Blacks.  I have torrid love affairs with Oolongs.  My BFF are Greens. I have distant White acquaintances that I like to visit once in a while.  I socialize more and more with Pu'erhs.  I party with Flavored. There you have it, in a nut shell! I come to the conclusion that monogamy does not exist in the world of tea. It's more of an ongoing dating game and I like it!

What are your tea rituals?  My tea ritual involves my pets. As I reach for the kettle, Doberman Dexter sits and observes, hoping to learn how to serve tea one day.  The cats, Happy and Pixelle anticipate the moment I'll go sit and sip. They know they'll soon be lying on my laps, getting love and affection :-)

If you were banished to an island, what type of tea would you bring if you could chose only one?  If I was banished on an Island and could only bring one type of tea (what a sad thought!), it would have to be Black teas, cause they are reliable, low maintenance, and yet so versatile! But hopefully on that Island, there would be tea trees and we could start our own estate and transform Camellia Sinensis into whatever type of tea we fancy :-)

  

What is your favorite tea from Butiki Teas?  Why?  It's hard to pick a favorite tea from Butiki, but  My favorite flavored tea is beloved Flowery Pinapple Oolong. The pineapple taste is so juicy, there's such a brightness about this tea that makes me happy, I see life in yellow when I drink it! (I must mention that Foxy Roxy's Banana Walnut Treat and Cantaloupe & Cream are close runner ups!) if I have to, I say Premium Taiwanese Assam just because no other tea tastes like it! I could drink it forever and never get tired of it!

How did you come up with the idea for pairing banana, Keemun, and walnut?  Foxy Roxy's Banana Walnut Treat came to life by accident. I'm a huge fan of the banana, I eat it everyday. One day, I was having a very ripe and sweet banana while drinking Keemun tea. It tasted awesome! It got me curious and I dared the unthinkable: I added mashed banana and walnuts to my cup,  I did! It was gross looking, but it tasted really good,  better than most banana flavored teas I've had!

  

Can you tell us a little bit about the process of how this tea came about?  I desperately needed

help from the only true Tea Alchemist I know, so I emailed Stacy. Turned out she was already working on a banana tea! She tested the Keemun and walnuts, and played her magic. The rest is history!

 Where did the nickname Foxy Roxy come from?  Stacy surprised me by naming it Roxanne's Banana Walnut Treat. She wrote that she initially thought of «Foxy Roxy» but figured it might be too out there for me...little did she know, in high school, I was the only girl named Roxanne. My friends thought it was a cool name and everybody started calling me Foxy Roxy, it became my nick name :-)  So Foxy Roxy is perfect and makes me feel like a tea celebrity, LOL!

How would you describe this tea?  Sometimes, the hardest thing to achieve is to keep things simple.  It offers plenty of sumptuous natural freeze dried bananas paired with hints of fresh walnuts. The nice and smooth Keemun base brings it all together.  This tea does just that, and that's why I like it.

Who would you recommend this tea to?  This tea will please you if you're a banana lover, but even if you're not, I'd still give it a shot. All you need in order to appreciate it is a preference for natural and subtle flavors, and a love for excellent quality Keemun :-)

Thank you Butiki and Stacy for giving me the perfect Banana treat, it was so much fun being part of the process!

 -------------------------------------------------

Thank you Roxanne for the wonderful idea!  

For more information about or to purchase Foxy Roxy's Banana Walnut Treat, please check out: http://www.butikiteas.com/Black.html

                                                                                    -Stacy

 

 

 

 

 

Custom Blend Contest Winning Tea Now Available: Ruby Pie

Back in October 2012, we held a Custom Blend Contest. For this contest, we asked that entrants submit up to 3 ideas for a custom blend.  A panel of judges chose their favorite 10 ideas and created a poll for everyone to vote for their favorite idea.  The top 10 ideas were:  Apple Dumpling, Banana Pudding Oolong, Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Ice Cream, Grateful Castaway's Chilipaya Sweet Tropical Heat, Purple Honey, Rainforest Absinthe, Saffron Sesame Huangshan Mao Feng, Strawberry Rhubarb Delight, Thai Tea Cookie, and Tropical Movie Night.  Strawberry Rhubarb Delight, now titled Ruby Pie was the clear winner, though the Saffron Sesame Huangshan Mao Feng was awfully close. 

Sarah submitted the idea and won 8oz of her own custom blend idea.  The initial description that won over voters was: Strawberry Rhubarb Delight pairs rhubarb and strawberry together with Golden Assam to capture the essence of Strawberry Rhubarb Pie. The fruit notes combine with the richness of the Assam to produce a delightful dessert tea as comforting as warm pie, fresh from the oven.

Here is how we describe the tea now:  Ruby Pie is designed to taste similar to strawberry rhubarb pie.  The pie crust notes are immediately noticeable followed by rhubarb and lingering fresh strawberry and vanilla notes.  Hibiscus adds a hint of tartness to supplement the rhubarb notes but does not overwhelm the tea.  Adding some sugar will intensify the strawberry and rhubarb notes while still maintaining the pie crust notes.

After the contest was over, we embarked on a several month journey to create Sarah’s ideal Ruby Pie blend.  This tea is just now being made available for at least a limited time.  This tea can be purchased here: http://www.butikiteas.com/Black.html.  Below is a short interview with Sarah and discusses her love of tea, the blend, and the contest. 

Tell us a little bit about yourself. I'm a Canadian, living in Toronto but originally from out west. I miss my mountains *sigh* I've only been doing this whole tea thing for 9 months or so - long enough to have a baby tea obsession! :) My other passions besides tea involve board games, travelling and as long as there's music i'm good to dance and make a fool of myself!

When did you first become interested in loose leaf teas? I've been interested in loose tea for a while now - probably 6 years or so thanks to a dear friend in Florida, but I never really made the plunge until I found Steepster last July.

What are your tea preferences? I find that I am deeply in love with black teas, whether they are straight or flavoured! I'm gradually venturing into other things like puerhs and roasted oolongs. I don't mind greens and whites (or yellow) but i find them less intense than my blacks! I drink 95% of my teas without any additives but i do enjoy the occasional sweetened cup of cold brewed tea.

What are your tea rituals? Right now, I don't have a lot of tea rituals, unless you count getting together with tea friends as often as possible. I do have a gaiwan that I recently purchase from Stacy! That I am using to gradually use tea as a means to force myself to sit and take time away from the craziness. other than that, I suppose it's my morning weekday matcha smoothie that I take to work nearly everyday with my two travel mugs of tea - always one straight black and one flavoured :)

If you were banished to an island, what type of tea would you bring if you could chose only one? Uh...do i have to answer that? Eesh...I feel like this is a trick question. How about one that could multiply and make little tea babies for me so I never run out? :) I guess it would have to be either Premium Taiwanese Assam or Laoshan Black at the moment, though I can't promise that tomorrow that won't get a different answer.

What is your favorite tea from Butiki Teas? Why? I have no favourites! I hate Favourites. Mine change depending on a multitude of factors ranging from whether or not I've been able to watch Doctor Who, to the position of the sun in the sky. It would be FAR easier for me to tell you which teas I'm not a fan of...green oolongs, I'm looking at you! I'm a huge fan of your Premium Taiwanese Assam but I also really love Grapefruit Dragon, Cantaloupe & Cream; Maple Pecan Oolong (it's not green!); Creamy Eggnog; Mango Lassi uh..the list goes on!

How did you come up with the idea for Ruby Pie? To be honest? I'll enter any and every Butiki Tea contest out there. When this one came up I didn't have a lot of time to sit and be nearly as creative as everyone else was. I opened my fridge and there was one sitting there. So I went for it!

You also submitted two other tea ideas, Whiskey Sour and Pomegranate Grapefruit tea. Which of the three was your favorite? Probably the strawberry rhubarb, but I also think that you'd make a mean whiskey sour. Also, given the awesome Grapefruit Dragon you have....i think you could kill a pomegranate tea.

Were you surprised that the Ruby Pie won? uh....that would be like saying I was surprised at my ability to annoy people into doing what I want. :) Yes, but only because I thought there would be more votes. Less so if I think about the people I harassed to help me win *grin*.

Can you tell us a little bit about the custom blending process? Well, if people like the blend, it's 90% you doing all the heavy lifting, if they don't...it was all my fault haha. From a logistical perspective, Stacy does a great job working with even the most difficult of people who give her instructions like uh...it should have strawberry....and rhubarb and be like uh pie. :) I pretty much answered all of her questions in the most vague and probably irritatingly frustrating way possible. Once that was out of the way she took over and created a couple of sample batches for me to try. Those were sent to my place and it was left to my incapable hands to taste and provide feedback. Again, vague statements like "uh...it needs more pie" helped Stacy to refine her blend. It's at this point that I should mention that even though she's allergic to strawberries, she was tasting and refining the blend! Talk about dedication! Stacy perfected the batch and then sent me a giant bag of delicious goodness!

How did you come up with the name Ruby Pie? I wish I could take credit for that but once again, I had no part in it! That was all Indigobloom as I asked her, Raritea and Kittenna for some help and gave my favourite choices to Stacy to pick from :)

How would you describe this tea? It's Strawberry...it's RHUbarb! it's PIE! does that count? haha

Who would you recommend this tea to? Anyone looking for a flavoured black strawberry, rhubarb tea, as most that I've seen have been either white or rooibos! The hibiscus in this one isn't very present, so hibby haters shouldn't be afraid! :)

We had a great time creating this tea!  We hope you enjoy this tea as much as we enjoyed creating it!

-Stacy

Butiki Teas Picture Contest! Discounts & Chance to Win Free Tea!

Butiki Teas Contest-Discount & Chance at winning $60 in free tea with free shipping

We are in the process of thinking about how to restructure our website.  While contemplating our website, we thought about how we would like to convey that we appreciate our customers as real people and are dedicated to our customers.  We decided that we would like to add a community page.  We are looking for some creative photos to post that include our tea or teaware.  We would like to have a variety of photos.  The photos must include either our tea or one of our teaware pieces.  You can submit as many photos as you like.  If your photo makes it to our website then you will receive a discount of $5.00 off your next order of $10.00 or more (not to be combined with other special offers).  On the 22^nd of March we will raffle off 1 prize worth $60 in free tea of your choice with free shipping (worldwide) to on lucky winner that’s picture made it up to our website.  Also, if you post the photo to your Facebook and tag us in the picture, you get 1 additional entry. 

We would like a variety of photos, some ideas include: tea & people (we definitely want some people photos), tea with pets, funny tea pics, artistic tea shots, tea in front of famous locations, abstract tea shots, tea mosaic, etc.  We love variety.   Creative, fun, serious, funny, artistic, cute, beautiful, we love it all.  You must have the rights to any photos you send us.  We reserve the right to post anything you send us for this contest and use it in marketing material. 

With the pictures, please include:

1.  Name-How you would want to have it posted on a website.  This could be just your first name, your initials, your first name and last initial or your full name. 
2. Location-As general or specific as you want to be but we will not post full addresses.
3. The name of our tea or teaware in the photo-Especially if it is abstract or in liquid form.  These pictures still must be of our tea.  
4.  Your favorite tea of ours & why- This could be a very brief few words or a couple sentences.
5. Anything else you would like to add about yourself our teas, service, etc. (optional)

Please email photos to stacylim@butikiteas.com and use the subject line “photo contest”. 

We will look at these in batches and make take a few days before getting back to you. 

Here are some examples of pictures that we have come across that we love:
Cute!: http://oolongowl.wordpress.com/2013/01/14/dragon-feelers-by-butiki-teas-tea-review/

Gorgeous: http://www.daisychubb.com/review-cantaloupe-cream-by-butiki-teas/

Beautiful: https://twitter.com/RachelKCarter/status/305806012651298817/photo/1