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