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This was a sample from Kittenna. Thank you so much for passing it along!

Okay, oolong – it’s been a while since I’ve played with the greener counterparts. Normally I’m a huge fan of darker (e.g. dan cong) varieties, but I love coconut so much I will pretty much try it in everything. I’ve never had pouchong but it seems to look like a Ti Kwan Yin so I’m guessing this will yield a vegetal, buttery flavor. Looking forward to it!

The dry leaf smell is just, WOW. It smells like toasted coconut, like macaroons. These are not new descriptors (they are in a lot of the other tasting notes) but I’m still surprised to smell them myself. And it makes me realize that of all the other coconut blends I’ve tried, none has had this exact toasted coconut smell. I didn’t know what I was missing. Seriously. This gets 90 of its possible 100 points just for the smell alone.

The whole sample was 3 tsp. so I put it in my Breville with 500 ml. water at the below parameters. I won’t be adding any sugar or milk to this because I just can’t seem to make myself do that to any green-ish teas. But the smell emanating from the Breville isn’t worrying me – I’m pretty sure no additives will be needed.

I was right – I still get the amazing toasted coconut smell once steeped. The taste is the same as it smells! Except with an added bonus of buttery oolong to round out the mouthfeel. This is simple and complex, sweet and savory at once.

Since I used the entire sample on this batch, I’m probably going to put it through its paces today and get some resteeps going. I am curious to see how the flavor changes and how many steepings I can eke out of the leaves. Even if it’s just one, though, it has been SO worth it.

This ones going on my shopping list for sure. And if anyone knows of any other teas with this kind of coconut flavoring, I am all ears!

ETA: The second steep (at 6 minutes) retains most of the coconut (yay!) and loses alot of the brightness from the oolong (maybe that was what people thought of as floral?). In general this cup is heavier and less buttery. I’m surprised at how strong the coconut still is really. I’m sure I could actually get at least one more steep out of it, even. Will have to give it a try!