House Blend

I seem to like this one more than most of the other reviewers, once again. I don’t even like pineapple, so go figure. I forgot this was a white tea. The water was a little hotter than I would have used if I had remembered. The coconut and pineapple blend so nicely, yet each is clearly tasted on its own. It would get an even higher rating if I could separate out the white tea in the sip.

Rabbit trail ahead: This is the first cup I prepared in my new den (the wife’s former junk room – she moved her stuff upstairs). I went to Walmart and bought a unit made of 4 stacking plastic drawer type bins. You have probably seen them, they stands about two feet tall (abt 2/3 m). Two drawers are about 8" tall and two are about 4". I put it in the den and filled it with my tea. I had to leave the tea bags and decaf out so it would fit. I also left out the teas that are two aromatic to be trusted with other teas. Oh, and like Bonnie, I have hardly bought anything in six months. I think maybe $10/month and that includes the stacking drawers.

Anyway, so I now have my main station with my kettle in the den. I also have a smaller station set up in the corner of the living room with all the bagged and evening decaf teas. I have a press and a Finum basket at each station. Pretty awesome.

I taste coconut!! and pineapple. The white tea part hovers around the edges. Not bad. Reminds me of pina colada, and now that I’ve read the other reviews… sun tan lotion. ha!
This would likely do well iced, I imagine. Maybe I’ll save it for summer. With a splash of rum or vodka… oh my goodness yes that will be good. I just hope I remember!
Many thanks to Sil for the most generous sample!

I think this is a tea that I probably shouldn’t like, but I do. I can’t help it. It reminds me of the Hawaiian Tropics suntan lotion in a dark brown bottle that I used to love when I was in high school. That stuff was so awesome smelling. This tea makes me want to get some.

Coconut is the main flavor here but there’s also a pina colada-y taste and a darker taste (which I’m guessing is the actual tea). It feels a little oily but not in a that-pizza-needs-to-be-blotted-off-nasty way but more of a spaghetti-sauces-made-with-oil-are-always-tastier kind of way.

So yeah, that sounds delightfully appetizing, right? Oil and suntan lotion. See what I mean when I say I don’t think I should like this? Because honestly, I don’t think it is a good tea, but the experience of drinking it, for me, is good. It reminds me of summers spent poolside, which, considering I have been accused by multiple people of being solar powered, is something that always make me happy. So for me this tea is like a summer vacation in a cup.

Thank you so much Tropical Tea Company for filling my order on the house once again.

I continued to have my problem of getting payment accepted today but I think this company just doesn’t really care if their mobile site’s payment system works. I bought 6 pints of ice cream delivered from a local company, plus a scoop of their ice cream for a kid at the children’s hospital for $15. Not bad.

One of their sorbets looks like it’s similar to this tea. Pineapple, coconut, but then with the addition of banana. I’m not going to order yet in hopes they add more flavors for delivery but yum.

This tea is also a lot like the White Coconut Creme but less rich. Probably because it’s not straight up coconut. That one makes me feel like I have coconut flakes all stuck on my gums. It’s also a lot like Tropicalia but with a tea base.

It’s not like super excellent white tea, it is/was $1 an ounce, but it’s not terrible whatsoever. If the pineapple and coconut were paints, the white tea is just the canvas.

Pretty good iced, I’ll have to try it hot too even though these flavors scream iced tea.

Figured I’d try this one even though i wasn’t expecting much with the coconut in it. The initial sips are quite nice but then it turns into a mildly bitter cup with a strange after taste. It might be worth checking out if you enjoy coconut but overall, no thanks from me! Thanks to Nicole for letting me try this!

I like this one quite a bit. I don’t think my palate is advanced enough to pick out the white tea, though, so to me it just tastes like a fruit tisane with more body than normal.

Smells amazing both dry and steeped. A lovely looking tea. Strong pineapple and coconut finally! The coconut is definitely present after the tea vanishes from my mouth. Pineapple taste is pretty strong in the liquid. There is a slight oiliness to the mouthfeel.

Mildly sweet but I can see how this could quickly become bitter without paying attention to the steeping. I could be wrong on that, though. After all, I didn’t know this was a white since it was thrown into my embarrassingly large purchase as a freebie. I thought it was a green and I probably used a higher temp water than generally advisable for a white? But it isn’t bitter.

This is going to be a nice dessert-y type of tea to keep on hand.

I thought this was a green tea. In all seriousness, I really did. It brews to a greenish y ellow color, and there is a great deal of particulate in with the fuzz (with some leniency for the fact that this was shipped to me, and may have been crushed a bit along the way).

It’s white tea? Really? I guess I can see that now that I know. Probably bai mu dan, which never makes me think ‘delicate’ as far as the white teas I’ve had go. It’s usually vegetal, slightly sweet, and a bit musty for reasons I have yet to isolate.

Anyway, so yes! Smells a bit like suntan lotion, with something faintly sour, also. Like maybe the bar of an all-inclusive hotel in Cozumel, where everybody’s been ordering pina coladas all day long in the hot sun, and there’s still puddles of it in the moat mats…or you can smell it through somebody’s pores, somebody who’s wearing Hawaiian Tropic lotion…or something. Something like that.

That doesn’t sound particularly alluring, does it? But it probably has shades of pleasantness, with the faintest a definite undercurrent of not-so-great to spoil its tropical-ness? If that’s how it sounds, then I’d say I’m hitting the mark, because that’s essentially what it’s like. On my first sip I made the ‘ew’ face, but then I took another one. And another one.

It’s drinkable primarily because the coconut taste — which really and truly is more like the tanning oil than any coconut I’ve ever opened and eaten — saves it. I always did like the smell of that stuff. I’m pretty sure I’ve never met anybody who didn’t like that smell, actually.

The rest of the tea is immediately forgettable. There might be pineapple in there somewhere, but I can’t imagine being bothered enough to try and enhance it somehow. I don’t know where the slight sourness is coming from, but I think it’s a dealbreaker for me.

Not a horrid cup, but not my cup — I’ve been too spoiled by the Coconut Pouchong to settle for less. Still glad for the chance to try it, though! Thanks Auggy!

I, too, received 1 sample thru the mail. And, I, too, could smell it thru the envelop. I also agree that it smells wonderful. The sample of loose leaf I received is much less than I usually steep in my large® cup here at the office…so I hope I can get the ‘full affect’. I’m infusing now…

The coconut scent mellows almost to nothing as it finishes the infusion. The liquid is that of an oolong and it is murky – has floaties!

This company donates money to children in under-developed counties providing clean drinking water – what a wonderful thing to do! For that alone, this rating will get an extra point or two.

As far at the House Blend is concerned…I must say…it’s not my favorite…it’s not very memorable. I can taste a little coconut and pineapple and white-tea like taste at the end but it’s not creamy and I can’t really taste the other flavors…maybe the floral as an after taste, maybe.

If I had more I might be able to tinker with it, however, but I don’t.

Okay. Doesn’t have the smoothness of an oolong. Doesn’t have the bite of a black. And it tastes like someone poured suntan lotion in it.

This is another tea that I really wanted to like because it just smelled so good when I opened the package. I’m not sure what it is about Tropical Tea Company, but the tea always seems a little off to me and it is more noticeable as the tea cools. My first sip was bitter, almost enough for me to put the cup down and walk away. I knew going in this was a white tea base and paid close attention to the time and temperature so that wasn’t the problem. I kept going and got a very creamy coconut taste and more bitter. The coconut managed to not be totally off putting, which is a plus, but I never tasted the pineapple.

This is the first cup of tea I’ve dumped out because it was just that bad and no amount of sugar was going to make it drinkable.