Bouteaque Blue Mist Reviewed Again

Name; Bouteaque Blue Mist
Type; Black, India, Nilgiri, Coonoor Estate

Price; £ 5.55 for 50 grams from Eteaket.

http://www.eteaket.co.uk/teaboutique/info_A09.html

Review; OMG. I hate to start a review like that, and I thought I wouldn’t ever review the same tea twice but seriously, wow. Here’s the link to my first review (http://criteacism.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/bouteaque-blue-mist.html).

So in my first review of Eteaket’s pride and joy I tried it in their shop, and I pose a question of who is to blame; the tea or the tea shop? The answer clearly lies with the staff to the tea shop. I recently acquired some of this tea and in the past week I’ve had 5 pots of it. It is very nice, and I can see how it has won many tasting awards.

As per my problem when I first tried it in Eteaket, do not let it over brew, if you do you lose all of the flavour and it becomes fit only for milk and sugar. Catch it before, probably around 3 minutes, maybe 2 minutes and 30 seconds, and you get a wonderful bouquet of flowers. Roses, and gardenias, and maybe just a hint of caramel. Brew it til it’s the colour of light amber. I even like to let it cool a little bit as then I can let the liquid sit on my tongue and absorb the flavour. This tea rivals even some nice Nepalese teas I’ve had.

When I first opened the packet I was a bit disappointed in the leaves, long and slender, much like an orange pekoe grade, lacking any luster. They unfurl beautifully though in the tea pot and one can see how the flavour is preserved so well. The price might be a little steep (ha, steep!) but c’est le vie, enjoy tea and splurge. Well worth its money than the crappy Darjeeling last week.

This is probably the nicest Nilgiri tea I’ve had, so hats off to you Erika, though don’t let your staff ruin this delicious tea.

Enjoy!

-Tea Fan

P.S. Thank you readers! March 2012 was the most reads my blog has had, stay tuned for a super critical evaluation on Mariage Freres

Yellow Gold Oolong/Tie Guan Yin

Yellow Gold Oolong

"There’s a new gold rush in town and while we can’t promise it will make you rich, this Yellow Gold Oolong tea will definitely make you feel like a million dollars. The hand-rolled leaves open beautifully to create a complex mix of sweetness and tangyness topped off with notes of fresh grass."

Type; Oolong, China, Tie Guan Yin

Price; £ 12.98 for 100 grams from Eteaket

http://www.eteaket.co.uk/teaboutique/info_B01.html

Review; As promised, please find delivered my review of Yellow Gold Oolong. There remains two predominant traditional styles of oolongs, if indeed one wants to try and categorize them as such; which can be defined as light and dark. The dark presenting more roasted, higher levels of oxidation. The lights presenting as delicate and floral as buds on a bush. Oolongs are defined, along with being a completely different style to processing tea, as a range of oxidation and fermentation ranging from almost zero like greens, all the way to 90 percent, close to black teas. Yellow Gold Oolong is one of the few teas to have captured my soul. the first time I tried it, I opened the tea pot searching through the leaves for the mysterious source of the fragrance to identify. Years have now passed, the fragrance remains, that of tea. If this review is already seemingly more loopy, and "poetic" than normal, it is a direct testament to this tea. Teas are meant to alter our mind, bring consciousness, invigorate us.

There is literally not a single bad word to be said, floral, delicate, the floral scent first reminded me of a peony, or a gardenia. With such a heady scent, it is truly amazing to realize a tea when it is at its full potential.

I have already done a review upon Tie Guan Yin before for the observant reader to notice. However this one I have felt needs specific notice. For those curious about Tie Guan Yin, this is a surprisingly decent wiki article. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tieguanyin. However there has been a growing trend in China to title almost everything Tie Guan Yin. Even greens or blacks have managed to procure the name, as in a failed attempt that the name by proxy deliveries the delicious notes to the palate.

Enjoy!

-Tea Fanatic

Bouteaque Blue Mist

Bouteaque Blue Mist

"The production of our Bouteaque Blue Mist tea from India is unique and therefore top secret. The resulting cup has complex and competing flavours that pull together to produce a refined and distinguished tea unlike anything else we have tasted. Like a private members club in Mayfair or an invite to the Playboy Mansion to party with Hugh Hefner, this tea is uber-exclusive and uber-good. Strictly for the A-list fashionista."

Type; Black, Indian, Nilgiri, FTGFOP

Price; £ 9.98 for 100 grams from Eteaket.

Review; Ask Erika what tea personifies Eteaket best and she will tell you Bouteaque Blue Mist. Winner of several tasting awards and a tea unique to Eteaket with Erika having personally visited the estate to choose the best quality. It is not often that one finds a Nilgiri tea by itself. First impression gives a distinct malty caramel notes with a flush of citrus that reminds me of a lemon tea later, hidden somewhere in the "mists". However I will be the first to state that this is not Eteaket's best tea. To me it is their Yellow Gold Oolong. This is the tea that brought me back today. In fact at a recent tea tasting comparison, Bouteaque Blue Mist tied for 6th place. I believe that if Yellow Gold Oolong had been tasted it would have taken its name sake. A separate review of Yellow Gold Oolong will come at some point. I do feel describing the production method of Boteaque Blue Mist as "unique" and "top secret" might be over the top.

Tea or Tea shop at fault?

While this tea is interesting, its not a tea that I feel I will go out of the way to own. In fact if I were to receive it as a gift it might end up being re-gifted at Christmas time. Its nice, but maybe better suited to someone else. Which leads me to the question of if its the tea I didn't like or the tea shop. I've been to Eteaket several times now, and have noticed a re-occurring problem where too much tea is brewed in their small pots. Each pot holds probably close to .5 litres. In each of these pots probably around 5 grams is added. For this size it is too much and to me brews too much on the heavy side. While I appreciate the fact that tea can be taken out, I have received my tea numerous times when it has already over brewed just waiting to be delivered to my table.

Nilgiri

Nilgiri teas are quite interesting. Wiki article below, Nilgiri's are wonderfully fragrant yet offer a good strong body. This often times led to them being used predominately in flavoured and scented teas. In my head I compare them to a Keemun or a Yunnan Indian equivalent to China. As the tea producing regions continue to shift towards Africa this may suggest a growing trend of Nilgiri's being produced by themselves. Though a recent book I have read (Darjeeling, The Golden Brew) talks about the level of marketing required, Nilgiri still has a long way to go.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nilgiri_tea

To sum up my review, Bouteaque Blue Mist offers a nice burnt caramel malty tea with hints of lemon mingled. Certainly something to try, I wouldn't really rank it as a tea I would want to own.

-Tea Fanatic

Link to purchase. http://www.eteaket.co.uk/teaboutique/info_A09.html

Edinburgh Land of Tea

I have decided to change the texts of these posts a bit, and no longer will it be limited to just discussing the teas, but also the tea shops.

I feel that now this is better suited, especially as friends know, the occupation I am in.

Notably the three tea shops of Edinburgh will receive a detailed criteaque and voteaing on which are the best, and which you'd be better of with a tea-bag.

These three shops are, Anteaques, Eteaket, and Tea Tree Teas.

If (god help us someone is actually reading this) feels that I should re-evaluate, I shall consider, or if another shop to judge. (and believe me, I am good at judging...sometimes too good...)