Vanilla Date Flavored Black Tea with Coconut

Thanks Jillian!!!! :)

Everyone has been mentioning in their posts if they like dates or not so I will follow suit…I like ‘em just fine and dandy. I also LOVE coconut. I don’t know why I haven’t given this tea much thought. Hum…

But…here goes…I’m excited!!!! The aroma is really yummy…naturally sugary-sweet and it intrigues me.

It infuses on the verge of a dark brown. It almost smells a little like maple sugar post infusion…but it’s very true to the DATE.

The Coconut Slivers give it a shiny or oily look on top but it’s not distracting. I ran into the same thing with the other coconut one from 52 Teas and I liked that one fine.

This is very sweet and candy like. The aroma is FANTASTIC. It’s trying to be tricky…this tea. It’s telling me to sip more and more before typing. Well, I am doing both…a nice compromise. This is a really great flavored tea. BUT…and it’s NOT a bad BUT, BUT…you have to like dates. Since the date flavor is more IN YO FACE than the coconut I would say – you would have to like dates to try this BUT (oh no! Another BUT!?) BUT…I would think you would have to like coconut too…I am picking up the coconut more in the after taste and as it cools. So…if you like dates and coconut and a sweet surprise sort of tea or if you are looking for something that is REALLY different…give this a whirl. I am glad I did!

Oh! Did I mention…This smells AWESOME!? :P

I don’t know why I bought this. I don’t even like dates! O.o pokes tin
Processed dates, I can eat. Dates by themselves, no thank you. So why oh why is the first tea I see when first visiting 52teas.com a date flavoured one that makes me all yearning to try it? No, I don’t get it either.

The dry leaves have big pieces of coconut in them and they smell like… like… like… I don’t know actually. They have a VERY strong smell that’s making me sniff-taste the tin, and finally coming to the conclusion that the aroma that I’m picking up is coming from the label which I’ve cut off the pouch to label the tin with. The aroma is sticking to it so much that I can smell it as if it was right under my nose even though it’s lying an arm’s length away from me.
It smells sort of like perfume. Not artificial, just something that you could imagine being a note in a perfume. It’s got a sort of spicy-ish but not quite smell. It’s a sort of smell that’s easily recognisable, but I can’t really tell you what it smells like. Maybe this is just how dates smell? How should I know?

The brew is a dark amber colour and the aroma is the same as the leaves but a bit sweeter and has a note of raisins. That’s not surprising because dates have always sort of reminded me of giant raisins, only not as wrinkly.

Okay, the date flavoured tea for the person who doesn’t like dates. (WHAT was I THINKING???) Here goes!

It’s like… It tastes EXACTLY like it smells. It’s like liquid aroma with a dusty sort of note and weird aftertaste. I can’t really find the vanilla but I can definitely find a strong note of coconut. It sort of reminds me a bit of the honeysuckle flowers that I’ve got lying around that I’ve learned to be very careful with. I can drink it but… Another time I probably shouldn’t fall for a tea flavoured with something that I already KNOW I don’t like.

Srsly, what WAS I thinking? I hate to admit it, but this just didn’t work for me.

IF you like dates though, I feel pretty confident that you would like this a lot.

Unlike other people who have tried this tea, I love dates. I eat a date just before nearly every workout. My special fancy party food includes dates stuffed with marzipan (which is a challenge to get stuffed and on the table for guests without having them disappear in the meanwhile.) So I expected to like this tea.

There is a slightly odd perfume-like fragrance from this tea. It doesn’t smell like dates. It doesn’t really taste like dates to me either. It has a strong bitterness with that odd perfume-like note. Hmmmm. I don’t really care for it.

A huge THANK YOU to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a sampling of this tea – I’ve been wanting to try it… unfortunately I waited too long to order it and it sold out!

The aroma of the brewed tea is yummy. I can smell each of the ingredients. It’s rather a unique smell for a tea, because I don’t think I’ve ever tasted (or smelled) a date flavored tea.

The flavors are also all represented well in the sip. Very sweet. The black tea base is strong and slightly astringent, which I think that this tea needs because the ingredients are so sweet, that the astringency seems to cut through some of the sweetness just enough to make it not too sweet. (at least, not too sweet for this sweet tooth)

I really like the combination of flavors. Pleasantly fruity, sweet, and creamy. I’m really glad I got the opportunity to try it.

I got this in a tea trade with Angrboda and it came with a few other teas in a large envelop. As soon as I brought it in I was all sniff sniff “What is that strange smell?” When I opened the envelop the odor became almost overpowering and I had to hold it away from my face. Let’s clear a few things up, it isn’t a bad scent, it’s a very sweet, almost floral scent, – it’s just way too strong.

Angrboda had sent me two other teas and it took me awhile to figure out which one the smell was coming from, but I eventually I figured out that it was this one. In the end I had to stick it in another cupboard because otherwise the scent would have permeated all the teas in my cabinet. It’s sitting on a shelf keeping the mugs and dishes company right now. And even though it’s in a sealed ziplock bag I smell it every time I open the cupboard. 0_o

I worked up the courage to try some today – when I poured the water in the scent actually wasn’t as bad – or maybe my scent receptors are just becoming habituated. It dulled to something that smell strong, but not kick-you-in-the-face strong, and more tea-like.

The flavour is surprisingly non-perfumy, in fact the black tea base is probably the dominent flavour I’m picking up. It’s not bad, not too bitter or astringent. The coconut is fairly faint but I am picking up the fruity-sweet date flavour. I’m not a date-hater unlike the Angry Dane (hehe) and I’ll quite happily eat dates by themselves or in baking – actually I’m a fan of most dried fruits.

The way it seems to work is that first I get some sweetness on the tip of my tongue, then the Nilgiri tea, and then the date and coconut at the very end, almost as an aftertaste. The taste isn’t objectionable, but unfortunatly this tea loses points for its obnoxious smell.

Um. Hm.

Hm.

Well, I don’t DISLIKE this. I’m just not sure how great it is. This definitely does have a very strong taste of dates. I’ve never had dates that were not of the bacon-wrapped variety, but I now know exactly what they taste like sans bacon. I can taste a hint of coconut in the aftertaste, but no vanilla.

This is a very, very unique tea. I still am thinking on this.

The scent of the leaves was intriguing, you smelled some date, along with vanilla and coconut. The leaves were also blended with pieces of coconut, which I thought was a nice touch. The aroma of the brewed tea was nice. It was sweet and complex, you were smelling multiple things and they all smelled good together.

The taste of tea (brewed hot with sugar) displayed the complexity and intrigue of the smells going on. There was a date flavor that was very well blended with vanilla and black tea. However, I could not taste the coconut, it appeared slightly at the end as an aftertaste of the tea, but it was not as prominent as it was in smelling.

Overall, I enjoyed the tea, but few that I could not drink it more than a few more times.

This tea is the one that introduced me to 52 Teas, and that in itself is enough to make me like it. But it’s also a great cuppa that makes my whole office smell nice.

I made this decaf, as I did with Blueberry Bliss earlier this morning.