Tropical Explosion White Tea

52teas order arrived today. Well, it arrived thursday, actually, but I couldn’t pick it up until today because the post office is closed when I come home from work.

I’ve been looking forward to this order. Having this tropical blend again. I’ve said it many times before, but it was a total ambush. I just thought I’d give it a go because I was ordering a few other fruity blends at the time, and it turned out that of that order this one was actually my favourite. I definitely think this is my very favourite 52teas blend.

And now I have it again! I will savour this pouch. Or maybe just yum it all up in a couple of weeks. :)

And now while in preparations to have this one, the TeaSpring order arrives! With Tan Yang Te Ji in it! ARGH! Tea angst! What to have first???

I’m sticking to this one first though, mostly because I’ve already got half a post ready for it. (Yes, I do this. I start writing the post before I make the tea. That way I can concentrate about the tea while drinking it instead of writing all this boring intro stuff.)

Yummmm fruit in my mouth! The coconut is really standing out today and with the other fruits underneath. You take one little sip and the flavour expaaaaaaaaaaaaands.

Explosion? Oh yes. ♥

Tan Yang Te Ji will have to wait a little while longer. Now that I’ve actually made the cup, that’s not quite as difficult anymore. Because this is awesomely awesome, and I’m shifting the rating up a good bit more, based on the way I hugged the pouch (yes really) when I unpacked it.

used 2 tsp for 8 oz as directed. Dry blend smells like all good tropical things. Couldn’t taste much when hot – expcept my tongue kept detecting a hint of “mint” even though I don’t think there’s any in there.

Chilled the mug and came back to it later. This time the coconut jumped right out, but the rest of the fruits seemed muddled. And I was still getting a hint of mint. Then again, papaya is a weird flavor for me. I think this is a good tea, from everybody’s notes. I just need to play with it more, and try to make sense of what my tongue is telling me. Sometimes my taste buds just have an off day, and I think this was one of those times, so I’m holding off rating.

Thanks to Jillian for giving me enough for one small pot worth!

I didn’t even know this blend existed, but I surely would have bought it up if I noticed it on sale! The dry leaves do not smell appealing – this could be because of the age of the tea, but it kind of smells strange!

No worries, as soon as it started to brew the strange smell went away. I brewed at 165 for 2 minutes since I was making a pot, and I have never made a whole pot of white tea before! The whole idea of using a pot is still taking some getting used to – I’m a one cup gal!

Anyways, I added a tiny dab agave and took a sip. Yummy white base! A creamy and nutty bai mu dan, with a hint of pineapple and coconut – definitely papaya and a little bit of banana for body.

It’d a mild cup, but just what I need right now to calm down my guilt for not taking another shift tonight after I already worked this morning. I’m just that sort of person though, I would have felt guilty if I couldn’t work it, and resentful if I had to work it haha! boop. tea!

So, I had to order the final installment of the trilogy of white teas that 52Teas released during the week of February 24. The other two were pretty darned good, so I figured I had to give this one a go too.

Wow! It looks like I have a new favorite in this trilogy!

This is delicious! Fruity, sweet, and light tasting. The coconut is the most prominent flavor for me, but I can also taste the pineapple, as well as a bit of banana in the background. It is so yummy! Like a tropical fruit salad! YUM!

This is a fun tea-I can taste the pineapple, banana, and coconut. Wonderful iced. Oddly with the melange of flavors, it was a mild tasting tea

How come I never blogged about this tea before? Well I can remedy that now at least. I love tropical fruits particularly mangos – my dream tea is probably some weird, Frankenstein-ian mix of chocolate, cherry and mango.

The coconut scent was quite powerful at first, but as the tea steaped the scent of the fruits gradually seep in. Coconut was also the flavour that I first picked up on in each sip, but it didn’t diminish the other flavours that followed – a mix that managed to be more than just ‘generic tropical fruit flavour’. I could definitely pick out pinapple and papaya, though I wasn’t sure about the mango. Either way I found it to be totally exotic and delectable. _

Thank you LiberTEAS for sending me a sample of Tropical Explosion.

The coconut and pineapple are the strongest notes. They balance well with the white tea, creating a blend that isn’t very sweet, but still decidedly fruity. There’s a bit of a mint effect from the tea, that refreshed/clean/slightly tingling feeling? I wonder what causes that. (At first I thought I was crazy, but it looks like JaneFan tasted it too.)

I don’t usually go for a lot of tropical fruit flavors, so this isn’t a blend I would have picked out myself. I’m so glad I got a chance to try it, and just might have to order more in the future!

Now that my sense of smell is back, I’ve decided to finally try some of this tea. It’s been tempting me since it arrived in the mail a few weeks ago!—My first purchase from 52teas!

The smell before steeping was very very fruity, almost reminded me of the smell of coconut rum, or pina colada. After steeping, it still has a strong smell of fruit, but it smells a little weird, almost like butter or lotion-y.

Anyway, here goes. oh…my…god. This is amazing. It’s delicate just like white tea should be, but at the same time has such sweetness from all the fruity flavors in it. In no way are the many fruits overpowering the white tea, which I feel is what most flavored white tea blends tend to do. It’s hard for me to pick out specific flavors, but I’m definitely tasting hints of coconut, papaya, and pineapple as I sip on this drink.

It really does live up to its name and description… It’s like a tropical explosion in your mouth! (…thats what she said) But really—this is such a great tea, and I knew just by reading the description that I would love it since I love flavored white tea, and most of the fruits included in it that it was calling out to me saying “buy me!”, and what a great purchase it was ! :)

This just came in the mail today and I was so excited to try it. I always brew a first cup according to the directions it comes with and this tea said to brew between 150-160—I’ve never brewed anything that cool before…It smells wonderful but the taste is barely there. I"m going to let it cool more and hope the flavor develops some. Next time I’m going to brew it at around 170-175 the way I normally do a white. I’m really hoping the taste will live up to the smell!

On a side note-is there a trick to knowing what number rating you’re leaving? I just have faces and have to guess. I want this to have a 70-75 but have no idea how to do that.