Oh, my. This is bloody delicious. It’s also my third coconut Oolong in a week.
I’m at that point where I have so many teas that I can’t recall what’s in my cupboard, and that the less-than-stellar ones never end up getting used. So there is just a backlog of mediocre teas I try to force myself to drink while the new ones and samples pile up.
And THEN I realized that I had a Tao Tea Leaf voucher expiring March 1. Oh dear. I knew I wasn’t going to have time to visit the store in the couple days I had left to use it, so an online order it was. I’d never tried anything from them before and obviously don’t have any big vacancies in my collection, so I thought lots of samples was the way to go. This left me with the box that arrived today, full of no fewer than 20 samples and three 25 g bags. It’s also left me still never having visited the store, though their online customer service was really great. They were helpful by e-mail and my tea came very nicely packaged and quickly, with a 5% off coupon.
Anyway, this tea. I was going to save it until I finished the Tealish Coconut Bongo, I was. But when I opened my Tao package I lost all control and opened the packet for a sniff. It was so overwhelmingly aromatic that I immediately had to have some. I’d just boiled the Zojirushi so I went gong fu with this one, so it’s not really a direct comparison to the two previous coconut Oolongs I’ve had. But it’s enough to say that it is very similar. The same sweet, toasted coconut flavour on top of fresh green Oolong. These might be my two favourite flavours in the world, so I’m pretty ecstatic to see that there seems to be a coconut Oolong niche out there. I think I may become obsessed with trying every one I can.
The only thing striking me as any different about this tea, apart from its general awesomeness, is how vibrant the Oolong is. Green and (subtly) floral, and impossibly creamy and silky-smooth. It steeps a really bright yellow-green, and tastes incredibly fresh. I will have to try it Western-style soon.
