Coconut Pouchong

Ahh…I just got signed up for all my fall classes! I finally got into Field Botany! I’ve been wanting to take this class since I found out it counted towards a general level science credit. I am so excited! We get to have a plant collection. :3
For some reason today all of my teas smell amazing; no matter how much I disliked them in the past. I guess my abstaining from them has made them more attractive. This is a pretty decent coconut pouchong. The leaves are beautiful, the liquor is full flavored, and the flavor is pretty much on the spot. I mainly give it a lower rating because I find all of Adagio’s flavored oolongs to be a tid bit more oily than I’d like and it simply cannot compare to other renditions of the tea. This is a great tea for anyone first getting into tea and exploring if they enjoy oolongs.

I do not want to write a full review here, from my previous posts on the tea, you should know how I feel about it, but I wanted to add a very interesting note to it.

I brewed a full 16 ounces of this wonderful tea this morning at 5:45am Eastern. Drove to work taking a few sips at best, then proceeded to be swamped at work until about now (I am still swamped, I am on lunch break) but now, at 1:48pm Eastern, this tea STILL tastes as good as it did at 6am, the only difference is that the tea is now cold. The tea is still light, slightly sweet and delicious and taking this kind of abuse from me and still being delicious means I HAVE to update my rating.

Previous rating: 74

As promised, I ordered another sample tin of this to have around. Very tasty stuff – interesting to see how it compares to Orchid Oolong, which I’ve been drinking a lot more of since I last drank this. You can definitely notice the difference that the orchid makes in OO.

Started off the day with this one. 1 cup tea 1 cup frozen strawberries. Blend…quite the treat :)

The dry leaves of this are fragrant with the smell of coconut; that smell translates well into the aroma of the liquor but not into the taste. The leaves of this oolong unfurl during the steeping, but despite their size remain on the milder side of teas.

The color is a light, transparent green,and the aroma is full of the scent of coconut. The coconut flavor never really comes out even after an extended brewing; though coconut is a rather mild taste, and may not be strong enough to make itself present against the tea. This may be the reason the blender chose such a mild tea.

Nevertheless, the smell of coconut is strong and present. If you don’t mind the lack of flavor, you will find the coconut filling your nose with each sip (drink it while its hot to get the full scent). This will not satisfy coconut lovers, but it makes a good effort.

Having just tested Adagio’s Coconut (black tea), this is as good of a time as any to test this one. The aroma in the bag is more green leaves, less coconut, but it’s there. Brewing this up, the leaves really expand and are very pretty.

Sniffing the brewed tea, where did the coconut go? I smell melted butter. There’s no coconut taste either… ok, maybe a teensy tiny little bit in the aftertaste. The tea itself (if not expecting coconut, ha) is pleasant enough. At least it’s not bitter! Not tasting buttery (like it smells). This might be one that can grow on me, so it goes into my “try again later” pile (which is growing rapidly). If you’re expecting a strong coconut flavor, you will be disappointed. If you want a pleasant, light green tea, this may fit the bill.

ETA: I got busy with something else, and this tea cooled down completely in the cup. Now the coconut is showing up more, which is causing me to up the rating a bit. Will want to try this cold again.

Had this with breakfast this morning :-)

I received this tea from Cofftea in our “Pay It Forward” Karma Tea Swap and I was thrilled with every cup from my first teapot to a fourth forgotten resteep. The delightful coconut scent came through the envelope even before I opened it. To clarify, this is not an overly sweet coconut flavor; if it is flavored oil, it is used beautifully sparingly, if real coco. maybe it was toasted? The first cup has the lovely Coco. scent again and the color is a deceptive brown rather than green or yellow. But when I tasted it, the green tea came through more strongly and almost drowned out the light Coco. taste at the end. In fact, my first thought on the first swig (sorry aficionados—I rarely sip) was >Bang< “This has an acrid taste” with a quick follow of coco. taste. It may be due to the high water temperature that I used. This did not continue into any following cups from this pot or any following resteeps.
As they unfurled, the leaves were lovely, wide, and green. Most of them were full leaves that flitted and floated while I filled my steeping pot. My tea spent around 4 minutes or so in this pot until I filtered and filled my fat brown stoneware two-cup teapot. It probably would hold more if I used cups instead of mugs.
The rest of the pot was much smoother, giving me nutty oolong flavor with additional coconut scent and taste. Even as the pot cooled I enjoyed the tea.
The next three pots were very nice as well, the tea becoming more and more the background flavor, while the coconut came forward. The fourth pot provided the sweetest cuppa I have ever had black. It was completely cold because I forgot the steeped tea sitting and poured a cup before I left for an appointment. This was just like having a bite of coconut macaroon in liquid form, sweet and light and lovely. The tea will be very nice this summer over ice as well.

Looking back over this rating, I apologize for all the superlatives. I was very pleased with this oolong—I used find them a hit- or miss proposition.

Now this is what I’m talking about!

This has the beautiful smooth mouthfeel of pouchong with the lovely sweetness of coconut. This tea has what the plain, bland pouchong was missing: flavor!

The aftertaste is literally mouthwatering. After every swig (yes, swig. I can’t just sip this, it’s too good!), my mouth waters and begs for more. The more I drink it, the more complexities of this tea come across.

Big beautiful leaves open fully with just one infusion. The liquor is a gorgeous shade of pale yellow.

It has a slight astringency in the after-aftertaste. It’s not immediately apparent and could probably be diminished by steeping this in less than boiling water. But every time I smell the luscious, subtle coconut aroma, I just want to keep drinking it!

This tea is delicious and exactly what I was looking for! It’s still a very light oolong and more reminiscent of a flavored white tea due to the lacking vegetal “oolong” quality.

But the coconut is very well executed in this tea. It’s not overwhelming and still allows the subtleties of the pouchong to shine through.

And I don’t know what it is, but this tea puts me on point. I always set my timer and leave the kitchen while the tea steeps. But with this tea, I walked back in the room right before the timer went off! Whether I set the clock for two minutes or six, I walked in at the perfect time, every time! Maybe I’m the only one who thinks this is cool…

Coconut and pouchong just fit. This tea’s perfect!

First infusion was boiling water for 3 minutes. Second infusion was 190 degrees for 8 minutes.

EDIT: For whatever reason, this tea is just awful now. It almost tastes spoiled. Rating is sinking like a stone, from 80 to 47 to 12. I just can’t make myself drink this anymore. Yuck. I guess I thought it was fantastic when all I was drinking was bland oolongs. But I strongly don’t recommend this now.

First tasting and 5 minute steep (scared of bitterness like a wild child). In my opinion this tea barely gets by calling itself coconut. Such a itsy bitsy hint of coconut that you must call it a coco speck! The tea really reminds me more of a jasmine orchid flavor but it isn’t cloying or overly perfumy which makes me really nauseated in some tea brands. Like sitting in group of 7th grade girls after they’ve hit the perfume counter if you know what I mean. Bottom line is this is drinkable but not what I wanted. Not a heavenly coconut. I will not repurchase.