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Trying this out with my new gaiwan. Flavor still doesn’t have the depth I was hoping for but it is concentrated enough that I can taste something very much pineapple-y.
Gotta add, as it cooled a bit, it became quite enjoyable. By far the best cup of this I’ve had.
Used more leaf to see if I could make this tea rise above mediocre. The flavor now has more depth. I still don’t taste pineapple notes, but there is a sweet, almost citrus-y flavor to it that layers on top of the normal green oolong flavor. Could still be improved but is nicely drinkable.
I’ve posted about this tea before, but it was at the beginning of my fascination with loose leaf. Sadly, a lot of teas that I loved at the beginning of my introduction to loose leaf have suffered as I delved more into the fancy-schmancy teas. Just as bagged tea used to be fine in my cup, so did almost any flavored tea. Now? It’s a different story.
Thankfully, this tea is one that holds up well. It’s a different drinking experience now compared to two years ago, though. When I first had this, I pretty much put sugar and milk in with any flavored black tea. Now that I no longer have to fill a travel mug and deal with a morning commute, though, it’s a rare day that I put in any additives. With sugar and milk, this was a creamy, sweet, dessert-like coconut concoction. Let me tell ya, it was pretty good.
But straight? Well, I think I might enjoy it more. The coconut flavor is more honest-to-goodness coconut instead of dessert coconut. There’s even a slightly musky under note that makes me think of fresh coconut. The tea taste isn’t overly strong – the coconut is definitely the star – but it’s not like it is hiding. Just like it acknowledges that the reason it exists is to give the coconut a place to shine. Mild with a little prickle of dryness (but not to the point of calling it astringency) the tea gives a good, faintly woodsy backdrop to the honest coconut flavor.
Coconut always makes me think tropical thoughts. Slightly different coconuts (sweet, musky, dry, toasted) all give me slightly different tropical thoughts. This one has evolved from toasted coconut on the road to Hana in Maui (when it is sweetened and creamed) to sitting on the mostly empty Kailua beach, feeling the silky sand under my hands and quietly watching a little puff of cloud go by in a bright blue sky.
My tastes have also evolved. I find flavored teas almost all too strongly-flavored for my tastes, especially when comparing it to a good cup of Dragon Ball black tea with a bit of unsweetened creamer or a straight up green or puerh. Perhaps flavored teas are teas with training wheels?
I would totally agree with that. It seems most “normal” flavored teas are rather harsh and overwhelming to me now but they did make a good gateway drug, leading me to the super flavorful unflavored teas and to the more delicate flavored teas. So I suppose they get credit for that!
The scent is great! You can pick up a little bit of this and a little bit of that but nothing is too overbearing to be totally identifiable! Almost like a pleasant mystery. The taste is certainly a bold black tea taste. I’m thinking about reserving this as my Morning Tea for at least the next week! Nice blend!
