SOKO Tea House

Another Sipdown (oops, lost count, LOL)
This one is from Sil, who got it from OMGsrsly. Thanks girls!

Not a bad Keemun, I’d describe it as earthy, almost peat like.

This is amazing! Thank you so much OMGSrsly for sending me a little bit of this! I think this is possibly THE BEST coconut oolong tea I’ve ever had the pleasure to drink.

It’s creamy, almost buttery, with lots of coconut notes on a backdrop of fresh oolong.

Wow.

Thank you. I love how freakin’ generous people on Steepster are!
And now I’m at 149. :( But I will be sure to re-steep this baby!

Gave this to my parents today and made a pot for the family to share. It was quite tasty. It says 2 tsp per cup, but I used 4 tsp for a 3 mug tea pot, and it was good. Steeped twice. Left the second steep for about 20 minutes before I finished it, even. Still good.

I prefer teavivre’s keemuns, but this is pretty darn tasty! Mom likes it too. :)

Randomly grabbed this from a bunch of samples that OMGsrsly and I met up to swap with just before the holidays. Thank you again for your generosity!

Really earthy smell to this, even brewed. Almost like mushroom soil, if that makes any sense. It’s a bold, strong pu-erh, and I’m confused as to whether or not I like it. I’m drinking it straight, with zero sweeteners, and am wondering if a touch of orange zest and some Truvia might make me love it more. Keeping the rating off for now, until I get a better understanding of how I feel.

I may have over steeped this one but it was not a cup of tea for me. I’ve had more delicious yunnan’s out there so this would not be on my list of things to pick up. However! As always, thanks for helping me in my quest to try all the teas omgsrsly :)

sipdown! (174) i WAS doing well and then the BBB Box showed up this morning so now i’m back up to 174 with only 8 days left to get down to 150! This was from omgsrsly and a tasty keemun at that. it won’t replace my favourite from teavivre but it was a great cup to have!

Another tea from omgsrsly I was hoping for good things from this keemun since i do love a good keemun. However, this one comes across as a little wimpy imo. I’ve got more to play with, so i’ll see if playing around with the tea helps. I like keemuns when they’re bolder and make me pay attention. this one seemed content to just hang out :) still not a bad cup though!

Ohhhhh yum. Had to pull this out since Fjellrev posted about a coconut oolong.

Normally I like this one with milk, but I’m all out. Instead I added a tiny bit of sugar. It’s like the filling of a Bounty bar. Delicious sweet coconut candy, and the oolong base is lovely as well. Floral, a little green, somewhat oolongy. :D

I have one more serving of this left. Definitely will need to get out to SOKO in the new year to stock up on my couple favourites from them!

(I’ll probably get another steep out of the leaves as well. They’re huge and delightful!)

Let it be known that pale yellow oolongs do not look appetizing when you add milk.

And why would I be adding milk to this?

Well, duh. Coconut latte. The milk dulls the delightful florally creaminess of the oolong a bit, but the coconut is just SO GOOD.

Just maybe don’t brew it in a clear glass.

So busy at work = not drinking much tea, but definitely double-fisting the coffee. (Gosh that sounds bad.)

Now that I’m home for the weekend, I’m making burgers with cream sauce and steamed spinach for dinner, and this coconutty oolong caught my eye.

It’s so good. It’s weird, because often I think, “Coconut? Nah. Too overdone.” But then I have this tea and I forget about all the other teas that coconut is in. It’s that good. :)

Hi tea frens. I’m back, at least for a couple days.

OMG, this is so good. I even added some cream to make it even more decadent. The oolong is fresh and green and reminds me of lilacs. The coconut is beautiful and toasted, like a coconut macaroon. Excellent as a latte if you’re not lazy like I am (heating milk is too much bother!), excellent plain, excellent with sweetener.

Yep.

And SOKO just posted a picture with it in their clearance basket. I really, REALLY hope this is sticking around. It’s the best coconut oolong I’ve tried! (I am not a fan of the changes to the DavidsTea one, and also mine went rancid last summer. Zen Tea has a pretty good one, but the oolong isn’t as nice.)

Beautiful Fresh, floral green oolong, rich toasted coconut, not an oily mess.

Seriously the best coconut oolong I’ve tried.

Om nom nom. Made a couple pots of this while a friend was over tonight. So delicious. We had it with a little soy creamer.

I only got 25g, and I seriously regret it. MOAR TEA!

I have a migraine, so this will be short.

This is so good. If you’re in the Metro Vancouver area, and you like coconut, go get this. Do it. They have a 25g minimum.

I enjoyed this one this morning, and so did my mom. :) I steeped mine a little too long and it got a bit astringent/tannic, but it was still quite tasty. I’ll have to get some more at some point since I do like it. I think I prefer the puerh I picked up, though.

My mom decided to keep this tea too. Yeesh!

I had a big mug of this unsweetened after an amazing ham dinner tonight. Yum!! I overstepped it but it was still full of earthy sweet goodness. And my tummy is feeling better now. :)

Looks like cedar bark. Smells like the forest.

Tastes like the forest, too. My mom might go for this one if I can convince her to rinse it and do multiple steeps. Maybe.

I actually quite like it. Damp coastal rainforesty goodness. I added a touch of honey since I stuck it in a travel mug (I’m meeting a friend! I want tea!), just to prevent it from tasting like metallic dirt. Hopefully I get a chance to do a steeping session at my parents this weekend!

1 1/2 tsp per 6oz gravity brew teapot.
10 second rinse
First steep, 30 seconds

This one smells woodsy.

Now, many a puerh smells earthy, deep, like decaying logs, but this one REALLY smells woodsy. Like fresh peat, or a damp forest.

It brewed lighter than other puerhs, and the leaves don’t look like they were ever compressed. The taste is definitely lighter, not as deep and earthy. Again, light, woodsy—reminds me of the oakyness you can get in some ceylons. Almost mineral. I think that’s where the “vegetal” description comes from. Makes me think of bark.

Pretty standard, for a Mi Lan varietal, I think (though honestly I wouldn’t take my word on that—I’ve only tried about three); dark, roasty honey, sometimes sharp (though I wouldn’t say astringent or bitter).

I’d almost say it makes me think more of chestnut than honey.

Of course, most of this is from memory because my tastebuds still seem to be dead. I don’t know. Last cup of this, would like to get more though I’m leaning more towards trying other varietals, and getting a xhi lan.

I didn’t pay too much attention to this cup, so I’ll do a more detailed note later.

What I can say though, is this: It’s mint. Not vanilla. There’ a bit of a vanilla taste in there as well (and you can see pieces of vanilla bean in the tea), but, as I was warned when buying it, it’s most prominently mint.

Also the base seems more like a black than a puehr. I only steeped it at three minutes (they recommend five), but… It LOOKS like a puehr dried (but steeped quite light), but doesn’t have the token smell.

The dry leaf includes vanilla bean and some curled green leaves of mint (I assume; looks like it).

Nice cup so far, though. Will put off rating it for another day.

I got this to go at some point, but didn’t pay much attention to it while I was drinking it (I was cramming for my exams at the time); I do remember remarking to myself that it was darker than milk oolongs that I’ve tried, and nuttier (I didn’t actually think it WAS a milk oolong, as I hadn’t seen the dried leaf, and it was less ‘green’ tasting).

SOKO’s recently decided to phase out a few of their lesser-selling teas, and so they packaged them up in increments of 100g, for 50% off (as well as a bunch of old teaware); I decided to pick this up because I remembered liking it (although I was hesitant about committing to 100g, but what the heck, I bought 100g from Tea Desire the other day too, since they’re shutting down and had pre packaged teas for 50% off as well).

I decided I’ve been good lately. Been working hard on a giant cupboard-purge. Got from 59 teas down to 34! (Give or take; bought from tea desire, finished another, bought Creamy Oolong—34 now). Finishing off all the teas that have sat at the back of my cupboard going stale. Teas I ignored because I got them and decided I didn’t like them (seems hypocritical that while I’m doing this I’m also committing to 4oz of two teas I don’t know if I’ll love either).

Dry this smelled deliciously of cream. Almost vanilla-like. Quite rich. Steeped, the liquor is a pale gold, and smells… of butter. It was slightly off-putting. From here I’ve assumed that this is probably of the human-intervention, intentionally flavoured milk oolong. Not the natural kind.

It doesn’t TASTE artificial, or like any cream or milk has been added. It’s not foggy, just a pretty clear gold. The leaves were a dark green, rolled. The liquid tastes bakey, not green, faintly nutty and with hints of a sweet cream. The site describes it as tasting of orchid, which I think seems apt. It’s a not-quite-there vanilla that’s more floral. Almost buttery feel and taste, but luckily not as literal as in the sense of the smell.

I definitely like it. For now. Hoping I don’t regret one-hundred grams. It’s been a while since I’ve bought that much of one tea.

I’d like to compare this to the greener milk oolong I have on-hand from Teavivre. Since that one’s definitely unflavoured. I’ll keep that post for my teatra.de blog.