Butiki's 2003 Reserve Four Season Oolong

This is that kind of tea that you stash for forever because you never want to run out. Especially since it was harvested in 2003 and YOULL NEVER GET IT AGAIN. Once the supply runs out, it’s gone. But oooo it’s so worth the drink.

This is a taiwanese tea that was reroasted every 2-3 years to minimize moisture, giving it a charcoal look. Dry, this tea smells faintly of a brisk day in the woods.

Butiki has you steep this tea at 180F for 4 minutes but I prefer to steep all of my oolongs and puerh tea’s gongfu style so I shortened the 4 minutes to 20 seconds per steep.

After the initial rinse of the tea and the first steep it comes out a pale yellow color with a faint sniff of honeysuckle.

As I am writing this review, I’m literally going back to Butiki to buy more. I’ve had this tea a handfull of times prior to this review and I LOVE LOVE LOVE it. First steep comes in with a pine/bark/honeysuckle taste with minimal vegetal tones. You can definitely smell some roasty-ness when it’s super hot. Second infusion comes out a deep brown amber color but with no discernible taste difference. 3rd and 4th steep come in with a little more vegetal tones, darkening to a more roasted oolong with less sweet notes. This tea is AMAZING. I could drink it all day, and I plan to do just that :) When I wrote this review Butiki was still around, unfortunately it is permanently closed and I've long since run out of this tea. :[

If you have any questions about this review, or would like to see a particular tea review, send me a PM! :)

xoxo

Jordan