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

Huge Black Friday through Cyber Monday SALE!!!!!!

For all of Friday, November 23^rd through all of Monday, November 26^th 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: Eggnog Day!  Spend $50 on teas & teawares and get a half ounce of our brand new eggnog tea!

• Saturday: Rooibos Day!  Spend $45 on teas & teawares and get an ounce of rooibos of your choice!

• Sunday: Guayusa Day!  Spend $50 on teas & teawares and get an ounce of guayusa of your choice!

• Monday: Premium Tea Day! Spend $55 on teas & teawares and get any one of the following: ½ oz of Mi Xian Black (retail $6.25), ½ oz Anxi Tie Guan Yin (retail $6.25), or ½ oz of Fukamushi Sencha Tenjo (retail $7.25)!

• Contest: By making any purchase Friday through Monday you will be automatically entered into a drawing for a chance to win a gaiwan of your choice.

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 23-26^th 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.

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

Please note that we will start shipping orders Tuesday, November  27^thafter  we have declared a contest winner for the free gaiwan.  Please allow 5 business days from Tuesday 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. 

Butiki Teas Super Awesome Free Tea Contest (Flavored Or Plain Teas) 2 Contests

So, the title might sound a little inflated but I’m in a super awesome mood so everything seems super awesome.

Contest #1 – Win A Custom Blend (Flavored or Herbal Blend)

This is the first time we are trying this, so hopefully this works out well but we think it will be fun.  We would like to offer a prize of 1 custom blend of 4oz of tea base plus any additions to the base (this custom blend is valued up to $60 and can potentially come out to 8oz of tea). 

How the contest works:  Send us your ideas for a custom blend.  Each person can suggest up to 3 ideas.  Please keep the tea bases to teas we currently stock.  Check here for base tea ideas (though we do have some teas that are not listed, including: Bi Lo Chun, Darjeeling, Moonshine, and a stronger Assam): http://www.butikiteas.com/.  Herbals may include herbs, flowers, fruits, and spices that we do not carry.  Submission for ideas are due by October 19^th.  We will compile all ideas.  If there are duplicate ideas, the first person to come up with the idea will be chosen.  Some ideas might not be workable for us.  If an idea is not realistic for us, we will email you back and let you suggest another idea.  After all the ideas have been compiled, we will choose the best 10 ideas and put them on our blog for voting.  Voting will close November 2nd and the person with the most votes will win.  We will contact the winner and discuss their thoughts on what the tea should taste like.  We will work on blending the tea then send the winner a sample for 1 round of feedback.  After the tea has been blended, the winner may choose a name (within reason, keep it PG13) and the 4+ oz of tea will be shipped out.  We will then offer at least a limited release of the tea so that everyone can have a chance to purchase the blend.    

Fine Print (Please read): Custom blends are risky.  The tea might not turn out as anticipated.  We will do what we can to get the blend as close as possible.  Send as much info about your blend ideas as possible.  It’s easier to choose a blend if there is an idea of what base tea will be used or at least what category of tea.  A description would be even better.  The more info we have the higher chance there is to make it into the final 10.  Please also keep in mind that we are a vegan company, we can recreate many non-vegan flavors but will not add non-vegan ingredients.  For instance, it is fine to suggest items such as marshmallow or cream flavorings but we will not add dried meats.  Send your ideas (up to 3) to stacylim@butikiteas.com with the subject line “Contest-Custom Blend”.  With your ideas, please provide us with your full name and make sure you are sending the email from an email address you check regularly.  We will not keep your email addresses after the contest ends, send you unrelated emails or sell your email address.  Please note it may take several days for us to confirm your entry.  Also, we would love to see people discuss their ideas on here after they have submitted them.  A discussion would be fun.  Also, we would love to see feedback about what you think of this contest. 

Contest #2- Win A Luxury Sampler Plus 1 ounce of our Wild Purple Buds Puerh (Plain Tea)

The winner of this contest will win our Luxury Sampler which includes our Anxi Tie Guan Yin (oolong), Organic Huangshan Mao Feng (green tea), and Mi Xian Black (black tea).  Each tea is housed in a tin and the tins are housed in a burgundy organza bag.  For more information about our Luxury Sampler, please check here: http://www.butikiteas.com/LuxurySampler.html   Also, the winner will win 1 oz of either 2011 or 2012 Wild Purple Buds Puerh (the choice is up to the winner).   For more information about this puerh, please check here: http://www.butikiteas.com/Puerh.html.  To win this contest, we are looking for blog reviews (or facebook reviews if you don’t have a blog) of our plain tea.  Simply write a review of any of our plain teas (negative or positive) and send us a link and we will enter you in a drawing that will be chosen randomly at www.random.org.  Simply send us a link to your review to stacylim@butikiteas.com with the subject line “Contest-Plain Tea” and send us your full name and make sure you are sending the email from an email address you check regularly.  We will not keep your email addresses after the contest ends, send you unrelated emails or sell your email address.  You may submit as many links as you like and each link will count as a separate entry.  Entries may be submitted up until November 2nd.  Please note it may take several days for us to confirm your entry. 

You may enter both contests.  We do accept international entries.