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“I love coconut and am always on the lookout for a nice coconut green tea. Key word being green. I’ve had a few coconut oolongs and pouchongs which are all fine and dandy, and some red rooibos...” Read full tasting note
“Bittersweet sip down. While this means I can go on and try something new (I don’t like having everything opened at once), I really enjoyed this iced. Coconut + green tea = Refreshment City. And the...” Read full tasting note
“I could have sworn that I wrote something about this tea already! Upon further inspection it appears I haven’t, even though I drank it about a week ago. Curious indeed. I don’t know why I would...” Read full tasting note
“I wanted a genmaicha today but I couldn’t find the one I was looking for… so this was my next choice! This blend is a typical green sencha with little specks of coconut in it. I waited for the...” Read full tasting note
The creamy richness of coconut milk on a dazzling and brisk Japanese Sencha base. A true customer favorite.
Price: $10 / 100g
http://zentealife.com
Company description not available.
I love coconut and am always on the lookout for a nice coconut green tea. Key word being green. I’ve had a few coconut oolongs and pouchongs which are all fine and dandy, and some red rooibos which aren’t for me, but I wanted a green tea. Now Teavana came out with a green coconut cream tea that’s exclusive to their website, you can’t get it in the store. I bought some thinking I was going to like it, I didn’t. It was sencha with coconut and white chocolate pieces…I don’t like white chocolate and I certainly don’t like it in my tea and it was too much and too creamy for me.
So, I go to Zen Tea and find this gorgeous little yixing teapot that grabs my heart and I don’t find too many teas that grab my attention. Then I see this coconut green tea, again coconut with sencha and figure why not. I thought of grabbing just a sample but did 50g instead. Glad I got 50g instead of a sample! The yixing pot is too cute at 3.72 oz which will be dedicated to dancongs.
And this tea is so simple and delicious! It’s a nice sencha base with dried coconut pieces and apparently some flavoring which I can only imagine to be more coconut. Upon opening the bag I smell the sweet grassy sencha and the sweet coconut. This coconut is different from oolong or pouchong in that it is much lighter. It reminds me of sweetened shredded coconut used for baking, the kind that I will sit down and eat straight out of the bag…I like coconut :) But the greatest thing about this tea is that it was green tea and coconut and that’s it, no extra anything! No pineapple, no lemongrass, no rhubarb, no mango, nothing! It’s great I love it! The sencha is the perfect base for the coconut and the neither the coconut nor the sencha overpowered the other, well balanced. If you like coconut and green tea go try some!
Pics of new yixing! You can see my cup of the coconut green tea on the table.
http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s410/feralanima/Yixingteapot005.jpg
http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s410/feralanima/Yixingteapot002.jpg
http://i1050.photobucket.com/albums/s410/feralanima/Yixingteapot003.jpg
I could have sworn that I wrote something about this tea already! Upon further inspection it appears I haven’t, even though I drank it about a week ago. Curious indeed. I don’t know why I would have put it off: this was really a great tea! I also got the Coconut Oolong from them, basically for the sake of comparing and contrasting two coconut teas. I love coconut and would really like to find one that 1) I love and 2) is affordable enough to make big pitchers of. Now, their Coconut Oolong was fantastic but first off too expensive for everyday use (not a fault, of course, oolongs just tend to be pricey!) and was also similar to a tea I already have (GMT’s Coconut Pouchong.)
Right at the start, this tea has a lot of the things I am looking for in a nice iced tropical blend. Reasonable price, actual coconut bits, and it smells great! Of course, the time for iced tea here has come and gone, in fact I’m sipping an iced green right now and shivering… yet I continue to drink, because I just love iced tea so much! I swear, it’ll be the dead of winter during one of those NY blackouts and I’ll be drinking iced tea while freezing my butt off under a pile of blankets.
Anyway, onto the tea! It’s definitely quite coconutty—not the same super strong upfront coconut as the oolong, a more delicate and somehow relaxed tea. It isn’t super fancy or frilly, it’s just a great everyday tea. Most of my absolute favorites are in the same category: as nice as it is to have fancy, special occasion teas I am very loyal to the ones I can have all the time and find myself reaching for over and over again. And this… yes, it definitely delivers on that front. It’s light, sweet, fresh coconut, with a strong but not overly dominant green base. Which is exactly what I was looking for! Sadly, I have to wait until it’s October to order any more tea since I have to use my debit card 10 times a month (or face the wrath of banking fees). But this and the Orange Grapefruit will definitely come home with me!
I wanted a genmaicha today but I couldn’t find the one I was looking for… so this was my next choice!
This blend is a typical green sencha with little specks of coconut in it. I waited for the water to cool a while and steeped for two minutes. Right away I could tell how sweet it would taste by the fragrance! It is so sweet and creamy. The coconut is perfect with the buttery sencha. I wouldn’t call the sencha “brisk” like the description does though. This is exactly the type of coconut I love. Smooth, silky, buttery sweet deliciousness!
I had bought only a sample to try couple of months ago and I ordered a 100gr tin quickly after. It’s definitely my favourite coconut tea, it mixes so well with the sencha. I much prefer this to their coconut oolong which seems to be one of their most popular tea though.
I just bought the sample too. But there is a few teaspoons. I have plenty of samples, so they last a whhiiillle. haha.
This is the third and final sample from Zen Tea in this round of tastings!
I requested this sample because a young man who works at the big tea company which shall not be named told me that this is one of his favorite teas. He really encouraged me to try it sometime. What better time than now when Zen is offering to let me pick a flavor to try?
I served this at tea party today as our final tea. The last tea is usually served after we have eaten all we are going to eat, so I often choose a flavored tea for that spot.
The dry leaf has an amazing coconut aroma. The wet leaves, when removed from the pot, scared me a little as they had a bitter smell. Nothing to worry, though, because the actual tea was sweet and smooth.
The coconut flavor is really dominant here and tastes very natural and pure. It is just like opening the bag of Baker’s Flake Coconut for the first time, and the smell of the sweet coconut rushes out.
There is nothing bitter or offensive in this anywhere.
Another great tea from Zen!
Another gorgeous tea from Zen.
Dry, this smells amazing! Granted, I absolutely LOVE coconut. I’ve been on a search for a Coconut green and I think this might be it! It’s just lovely – smooth, toasty coconut with a great sencha base. Mmmm, so good!
All of the Zen teas I’ve tried thus far have been hits, and writing a review seems to be difficult as I’m not wanting to stop sipping and put the cup down. So good.
TY out to Zen Tea for a sample of this!
I do like my coconut – especially these days since my husband and his family hate it, so I’m mysteriously drawn to coconut more and more.
I chose this Coconut green and their Coconut Oolong from Zen teas – see which one I like more!
DRY: Smells like coconut milk with a hint of grassyness. Interesting
STEEPED: Fragrant green, with a creamy smell. Golden green colour.
TASTE: Sweet coconut, like eating a fresh baby coconut – buttery, milky, naturally sweet. All this is balanced with a sencha base. No bitterness.
The flavor has no fancy frills – just coconut and sencha, no chocolate, pineapple or stevia. Actually, from all these Zen teas I’ve tried, they follow that theme – no frills or wild blends, simple flavoring, playing up the tea.
COMMENTS:
Very good! I like how balanced the coconut and sencha are. If you prefer a green over oolong, I’d give this tea a try.
Comparison
Coconut green = More balanced flavoring with coconut and sencha together
Coconut oolong = the coconut melds with the oolong, enhancing the creamy and sweet of the bao zhong, with a coconut finish.
Tough call, I’m leaning on Coconut oolong more as the whole experience is overall fantastic, but coconut green has a good balance I enjoy.
Sip down of a sample while trying to decide what to order from Zen … I’m terrible at decision making! I remembered that I had a couple of samples and thought I should try them again before I place my order, this was one of them. Thanks MissB for sharing this one!
I glanced at my tasting note for this one yesterday and I know my tastes have changed a bit about greens since the last time I had it so I was curious if I would feel the same about this one as I did before.
While hot, this one is still a little vegetal to me, but not unbearably so. After it cooled slightly, it was an enjoyable cup of coconut tea… slightly sweetened as always. I do find the aftertaste a bit drying.
I’m curious of those of you that have this and the oolong, which do you prefer. Is one more vegetal than the other? More coconut?
Flavors: Coconut
Opening this bag was quite a treat for me today. It smells like sweetened coconut, minus anything cloying…. just rich and creamy coconut. Steeped, it smells just as strongly, however you can also smell the faint grassiness of the tea, and they complement each other well.
Like many of the teas I’ve been drinking of late, this one is nice hot, however it’s much better warm and with just a touch of Truvia. The creaminess comes out even more, and the coconut is evermore present. It’s a light, refreshing and comforting sip. I’m not sure if I’ll ever order it again, as I like it however don’t love it, but it is quite enjoyable. If you’re a huge fan of coconut and green teas, this is a must-try.
I’m not a huge fan of coconut but I do really like this tea. The dry leaves are long, deep green, and very fresh looking. They are covered with a generous scattering of small flakes of coconut that are absorbing the colour of the sencha. The tea smells strongly of fresh coconut.
The brewed tea smells of a less sweet version of coconut squares, both sweet and of cooked fresh coconut. It brews to a deep yellow. The first flavour notes are a top note of nutty coconut meat, followed by a sweetness that hints of marzipan.
The Tea base is at first silky, with a flavour that adds to the teas sweetness and which is followed by a refreshing aftertaste and a tingling on the tongue. The flavour of the tea blends with the
coconut leaving just a hint of something savory and vegetal. This tea has a strong sweet coconut flavour.
During the second steep the coconut flavour is unchanged and present but the sweet green tea base is more present and softens the coconut and there is a faint bitterness and a hint of fresh green leafy vegetables. This tea holds up to around 5 steeps if one is careful with steeping time and brewing temperature.
This is a great tea for those who enjoy coconut and who value a well presented simplicity in there blends.
Cute yixing! Did you get any special cups to drink out of?
I did order the small flower pattern porcelain cup from Verdant the first day they started selling teawares. That should be shipped out the middle of this month. But aside from that I don’t have cups smaller than 5 oz yet. I’m working on it, my teaware collection is starting to grow!
since it’s going to be a dedicated yixing you could get yixing cups!
I could, but I really like the look of painted porcelain cups a lot. I don’t know if I really need to get a lot of cups though, it’s not like I have a lot of company, and what company I do get doesn’t really drink tea, and those that do just like their bigger cups. Essentially, it’s just going to be for me, we’ll see though, I have time to decide!
Sooo cute! I have a couple Yixing cups and I had to season them which was easy since the instructions are on Verdant and Youtube etc. If you don’t season them, the taste is ick! Clay! At least, I can smell the clay.
I get what you mean Zim. I’m a tea enthusiast but must people I know just give me a grin and a fake British accent when I tell them I love tea. LOL. But to each its own. I will get a Yixing cup but for all general Ripe Puerh.
Bonnie, this happened to be. Though is not the case for all Yixing, some ‘High Quality’ Yixing wears almost no scent whatsoever… but I can’t really afford those lol. But the taste part is true 100%. The pot takes 60% off the taste if you don’t season it. This was my mistake with my first pot. If you get a Yixing that has a heavy scent do one or two ‘washings’ which is just letting it sit on hot water and dry and then season like you would normally do.
Bonnie: The Verdant site has such a great video for seasoning yixing. I’ll definitely be looking at that while trying to do mine. Perhaps this weekend I’ll do it. Give myself a whole day to play around with it.
JC: I’m pretty certain my family and friends will just look at me weird at the small size of gongfu style brewing. Do you have a larger cup for your ripe puerhs or do you use a gaiwan and pour into the smaller yixing cups?
Yep, that’s what I did. Now they’re fine. I just use them with my Yixing thermos for pu and my purple clay gaiwan for pu.
I have several porcelain cups. a set of 6 1oz cups, two 4oz cups and normal cups for when I’m just in the mood for drinking tea and relaxing. For the ripe puerh I use the small ones when tasting the large ones when just drinking, but I saw a 4oz yixing cup that I’m interested in. It sounds great to have a cup that will season just as your yixing.
I might get a gaiwan and some 4oz yixing cups once I know what teas I’d like to dedicate them to. I wonder how people who have so many yixing items can remember which ones are dedicated to which teas?!
Curious, where did you acquire your porcelain and yixing cups JC?
Adorable pot! I love the teaware at Zen Tea. I have several things from them on my Christmas list!
the pot and the mugs are really cute
Several places. Some I’ve loved some not so much. I have the really small cups from a set that Silk Road teas used to sell (not so good, descent). I have the two larger Porcelain cups from Phoenix collection with I use most of the time. They are small enough to help me pace myself but large enough to keep the liquid warm while I write notes. And I have a ‘aroma set’ from Yunnan sourcing. These are all Chinese style saucer-cups. My normal cups I’ve bough from etsy directly from different artists. When I get home today I’ll send you a link with a picture of them so you have an idea. :)
Thank you ashmanra and Ysaurella! I like another 2 or 3 of their yixing teapots, but I’m starting with this one to see how I like it.
JC: I’ve seen the ones from Yunnan sourcing and the Phoenix collection, they didn’t wow me. I prefer the ones from JK tea,at least the porcelain cups and the unlined yixing cups, even if they are a little more expensive . I’ll have to check out Etsy and your pictures when you send them. Thank you for helping!
I know what you mean. I prefer simpler tea ware because I feel like for (at least tasting new teas). Colorful cups don’t let you enjoy the color of the tea itself. I know Phoenix collection has several painted porcelain cups but I haven’t seen them yet. Yunnan Sourcing has some beautiful saucer-cups that are painted or have calligraphy. But I’m not sure if you are looking for a cup meaning a tall one or a more traditional flatter/saucer-like one. If you are looking for taller then yes go for JK tea. Or search for artists, I have some cups and they are beautiful and basically unique since they are hand made and this doesn’t make them expensive at all. I have a few and all of them are under $20. My only recommendation is… get a glass pitcher! Nothing beats being able to see your tea in its natural state. :)
I definitely plan on getting a glass pitcher, especially if I’m going to get small cups. As for cups I was looking for the smaller ones, not the taller ones. I like the ones with small designs on them, not calligraphy or paisley style. I’m a little unfamiliar with etsy, never bought anything from there, what artists would you suggest?
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Hey Zim! Well etsy I recommend more for taller cups. I haven’t really found Chinese styled there. If you post a link of a cup that resembles what you like I can help you look.
For now http://www.redblossomtea.com/teaware/accessories.html (go the the tea accessory tab); http://www.yunnansourcing.com/store/category.php?id_category=19009153 ; http://purepuer.com/puer_tea/do/category/all_teaware (a bit pricey but some cups are at good price); http://esgreen.com/products-page/tea-cup-mug/ ; Hope this helps. I’d recommend looking at purepuerh, yunnan sourcing and esgreen.
The ones from esgreen are beautiful and just what I’m looking for! I’m not sure which I like more! Thank you for the help!
http://esgreen.com/products-page/tea-cup-mug/hand-painted-blue-and-white-porcelain-tea-cups-seasonal-flowers/#!prettyPhoto2611/0/
http://esgreen.com/products-page/tea-cup-mug/hand-painted-blue-and-white-porcelain-cupsx4-the-lotus-pool-by-moonlight/#!prettyPhoto2702/5/
I was looking through etsy earlier and found that if you type in sake cups that you will find some nice small cups you could use for tea.
I’m glad it was helpful. And great find with etsy. I’m looking in there myself. I’ve seen some beautiful cups. Esgreen has a blue/green celadon cup set and a ‘translucent’ porcelain cup set that I just go there, put the pictures and stare. (I must have you) I think. lol If I find anything else I’ll let you know.
Lol I’ve been staring at the porcelain-ware from esgreen too. I’m might ask for some for the holidays, but I’m undecided as to which ones I want!