Yay for coconut! I luf coconut. And I luf pouchong. So when I saw this tea, I knew I had to try it. I actually got this from the Spice & Tea Exchange in the Stockyards when my SIL and her boy were visiting but, after doing some digging, figured out that they source their teas from Rishi. So I’m putting it here.
The smell of the leaf is delightful – creamy, buttery, coconut. Totally delicious. Though, hmm, the liquor smells less creamy, decadent inner coconut and more dark, fiber-y outer coconut. But it’s still coconut so that’s good, right?
The taste is more in line with the smell of the dry leaf, which is good. It’s a little thin feeling which makes me feel like the flavor is too mild, but it really isn’t. But at the same time, there is something… sad about the flavor. Perhaps it is at the beginning of the swallow (vs. just when I’m holding the tea in my mouth): where I want pouchong thick, rich happiness, I get… water. Almost metallic water? Then there is a nice coconut-ish musky aftertaste that I enjoy but my brain keeps saying, “But the water/metal taste at the end of the sip is sad! Yummy coconut aftertaste can’t make up for metal-sip!”
As the tea cools, I’m getting more pouchong taste (and I wish my Mac would stop autocorrecting pouchong to pouching) with an undercurrent of mild, unsweetened coconut. Honestly, I’m liking that more than when the tea was warmer, but I still am getting a weird little dull metallic note when I swallow. It’s distracting.
I want to like this, I really do. But that taste that pops up when I swallow just makes me sad. This tea makes me sad. Sad Auggy. :(
The second steep (3:30) is better. Or at least not as sad. The metallic sharpness has moved to a flash right at the end of the swallow (instead of the beginning, which was more distracting) and is much quieter. However the coconut flavor is quieter, too, and the pouchong tastes boiled/wilted. So the tea no longer makes me sad but it’s not all that great.
Sigh. At least the leaf smells awesome. (And go me, back into Steepster for the second day and already I’m bucking the trends since it seems everyone else adores this tea… Maybe when straight from Rishi this tea is happier? Let’s blame the Spice and Tea Exchange, okay?)
