Coconut Oolong

The David’s Tea store today was crazy busy or else I would have lingered and smelled a bunch of flavors, but today I was on a mission: try a tea that wasn’t a brewed flavor of the day. More than once the staff at this David’s Tea have been drinking Coconut Oolong as they work and have suggested I try it. So today was the day; I got this flavor brewed fresh and hot at double steepage and poured over ice.

Perhaps I’m just a noob but I don’t quite understand why some oolongs are so much lighter and greener than others, both in leaf and in brew color. This one was very green, and brewed up a pale yellow green. I’m not usually a huge fan of tropical flavors but the coconut in this added mostly butter cream flavors and toasted, nutty notes along with the rich mineral taste of the oolong, and even some vegetal, floral notes on the aftertaste. I can see why this is a favorite with David’s Tea employees. I enjoyed this flavor quite a bit and was glad to get a tea from David’s that wasn’t all rainbow pompoms and sugar-flavors. I’ll have to venture away from their flashy, popular blends and give more of their core teas a try, because this was delicious. Well-balanced but attention-grabbing; creamy, nutty, complex.

This may sound strange, but the scent/taste of this tea reminds me of… milk. I don’t get much coconut out of this. The minute I smelled it, I thought, “hmm. smells like milk.” When I tasted it, it was like just drinking a hot cup of milk lol! With a slight taste of oolong. Yeah, not a fan of this one. But you get a lot for 30 grams!!

I was super confident that I was going to like this tea….and I didn’t. I mean, come on, I love coconut and oolong! The smell was not good. I’m not a huge fan of the smell of lemon grass and in this tea it came across as extremely unappetizing. The coconut flavor was good; it came through strong at the beginning of the sip and the lemongrass flavor wasn’t as strong as the smell had led me to believe it was going to be. However, the lemongrass lingered and lingered and lingered at the end of each sip. I even felt like the smell was following me around the lab. There was an oily feel that this tea left in my mouth that I was not a fan of in the slightest. Thank you Virginia for sending me a sample of this because there’s an excellent chance I would have bought some of this and then been stuck with a tea I don’t like!

So long coconut oolong! I cold brewed the last bit of this, and I can’t really say that I will miss it. It’s good, but not my favorite.

I decided to pick up this tea because I am a huge fan of coconut. I opened the 50g bag up and honestly, it made me gag a little. The smells is almost rotten lemons. I thought “oh well! The smell won’t affect the taste!” Boy, was I wrong. I can taste no coconut what-so-ever and it just tastes like it smells… I tried this tea mulitple times; hot with milk, with out milk, with lots/little sugar/agave/honey and cold milk, with out milk, with lots/little sugar/agave/honey. This tea just isn’t for me.

A cold-brewed cup of this is quite refreshing for this afternoon.

Sipdown (167/171)!

So Monday I bought just enough of this to do one cold brew to see whether or not this one was “for me” and could work as a cold brewed Coconut Grove replacement. I set up said Trial Cold Brew yesterday and about 18ish hours later here we are ready to go!

I’ve been sipping on it all morning actually, just getting a a good feel for it and enjoying it for the most part. I must say, the coconut in this almost takes on a pastry or baking like quality which, again, is different from the coconut flavour I experience with Coconut Grove – and not totally was I was looking and hoping for. It’s not necessarily a negative; I like that this is buttery and pastry like because I usually like that quality in general with my tea but it still doesn’t feel complete.

Something that is a bit of a negative is the lemongrass. Lemongrass is a commonly used tea ingredient that I still haven’t really made my mind up about yet: sometimes I enjoy it and sometimes I really don’t. Unfortunately this is one of those times: it’s distracting here and I feel it detracts from the overall taste of the tea, especially in the aftertaste. My understanding is that the old formula for this blend didn’t include lemongrass; I think I’d be interested in trying that formula. I wonder why they added it to the new revised one?

So not a replacement, probably not a repurchase… But glad I tried it!

DavidsTea Tea of the Month for April 2014. Goes well with a bit of honey but any other sweetener will overpower its delicate notes. Coconut adds natural sweetness with hints of lemongrass; tastes like the tropics. Well-balanced.

I was in line at David’s Tea and they were handing this out to sample. I’m usually not a huge fan of coconut – I always find it so overpowering. I was very happy to find this was not the case. You do get a hit of coconut but the oolong makes it pretty refreshing. Overall, a very nice tea for a sunny day.

Really glad I was badgered into trying this. Didn’t for some reason last year, thankfully it has come back.

Right into it. Owlie was impressed. Got this as a tea to go, no latte, no fuss. Just straight tea. And man was it torturous waiting for it to steep enough. Oh my god… All I could smell was coconut wafting up.

Buttery coconut. Buttery, leafy, coconut. I dont know why chocolate is listed as a flavour, I’m not getting any chocolate whatsoever out of this one. It seems like it would be good iced. Probably a phenomenal latte. Making a note to pick up some of it next time I go…