Coconut Banana Cream Pie Hojicha

thank you Amanda for including this one in your envelope of tea samples sale! I immediately wanted to try this one because it is a hojicha and just look at that picture for this tea! I don’t think I’ve ever had a coconut banana creme pie before, but it looks good. I THINK this is the only 52 Teas that is made from a hojicha base. I had my first hojicha a couple months ago and I was automatically hooked. I love the toasty flavor and I much prefer the roasted green tea over the usual green tea. This one is GOOD. I had a big chunk of banana in my infuser and after steeping, it looks like a ripe banana is sitting in there. Many nice coconut chunks too. I think hojicha just lends itself to a bakey dessert flavor. I love that the banana and coconut flavors are pretty evenly matched, much like the picture of that pie. I do wish there were a bit more flavor, but I’m very happy with this one! Because this is a hojicha, it is worth it to me! The second steep had just as much flavor, but that’s because I stoked it. Why aren’t there more 52 teas hojichas? Hmm.. Also, what is with all the coconut teas I’ve been drinking lately?

I was very disapointed when I missed out on the inital VIT teas so a big thank you to Amy Oh for giving me a sample. The hojicha gave this tea a really interesting baked flavour that was still smooth and almost creamy in nature. It mixed well with the banana flavour which tasted quite genuine, and while the coconut was more of an afterthought it worked well with the whole blend too.

This sounded so delicious as I was perusing old 52teas blends here on Steepster that I put it on my shopping list. Lucky for me Amanda still had some in her cupboard and sent me a sample!

I really love the toastiness that hojicha has and this particular blend did not disappoint. The coconut and banana were there, but I found it behind the roastiness of the base. Would have liked it to have been the other way around, but it was tasty nonetheless.

I did resteep the leaves and still found plenty of toastiness in the leaves, but the coconut and banana flavors left the scene. I’m sure I could still get a third cup of tea out of the hojicha if I really wanted to milk this tea for all it was worth, but I’m plenty pleased with the two steeps I had.

I’m starting to wonder what this would be like as a hot tea latte… Sweet, hot, toasty goodness, I bet!

Side note: I really love the huge coconut shavings that Frank uses in his coconut-flavored teas. A true testament to quality over quantity!

I’d snatch this one up if it were reblended!

This just arrived today with my second order of Cinnamon Roll Honeybush (yes, I am a fan!)

I was not expecting to like this much at all but I wanted to give it a try. I was pleasantly surprised! I don’t normally like banana in tea but this is very tasty. The coconut is more of a back-note and they both complement the mellow, roasted quality of the hojicha pretty well. These flavors are pronounced but they are not nauseating or artifical tasting, both of which can be an issue with flavored tea. There is a slight “cream” feel to this but I did cheat and punch it up some by adding vanilla soymilk to it also. Here is a nice afternoon or evening dessert tea which is also light in caffeine. I got two steeps out of this and they were both yummy. :)

I had planned on trying this tea today … and as it turns out it was the last tea of last month’s shipment … err, that is, teas blended in September but were shipped all at once to me in October as part of the monthly subscription plan. I finally decided that I had to start subscribing, because I ended up ordering every week anyway. This way, my paypal account has time to breathe in between payments … so long as Frank behaves himself and doesn’t make any of those surprise mid-week VIT blends (or 12 days of xmas sampler boxes)

So, anyway, this is the last of my September teas to try from Frank, and wouldn’t you know that the mail arrived a very short time ago and brought my October package. Yay! More tea!

This is pretty tasty, but I really expected to like it more than I do. I love Frank’s banana blends (and I’m very happy he is on a banana kick lately). Don’t get me wrong, I like this a lot and it definitely delivers what it promises … it tastes like coconut and banana, and these two are pretty evenly balanced. I think I need to let it cool a few more minutes to see if I can taste more of the creamy pie taste, which is what I think I’m missing.

Until then, I’ll hold off on rating it.

Edited about 10 minutes later: Ahh… there it is. I can now taste the cream pie flavors. The hōjicha is light and toasty. This is really good.

Er… I just realized that I buggered this one up! I definitely steeped it in boiling water (or whatever temperature boiling water drops to when poured into a mug), because for some reason I had black tea on the brain. Surprisingly though, I thought it was just fine in spite of that. Just a touch of astringency at the end of the sip, and really, it was hardly noticeable and not bothersome. Anyways, I guess I’ll try it again at the proper temperature in the future!

The dry leaf smells like creamy banana coconut with what smells to me like a black tea base. Steeped, I’m getting a baked goods-banana scent, which is good.

Trying this one hot, I thought it tasted much like Monkey Fart (the banana is the same), but as it cooled I enjoyed it more. I’m not entirely sure that it tastes like banana cream pie to me… but I’m actually not certain that I’ve ever even had banana cream pie, so that probably wouldn’t be a fair judgment! I drank it during a seminar though, so can’t recall everything I tasted, but it looks like another tea that I’m happy to have tried but fine with not having again once my sample is gone. (Btw, thanks to LiberTEAS for this sample!)

(The second infusion seems to be reasonably tasty too, although it has yet to cool enough for me to get the full range of flavours. Worth that second cup though, I think!)

Steep Information:
Amount: 2tsp
Water: 500ml 175°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 2 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: coconut, runts banana
Steeped Tea Smell: vegetal, barky, roasty
Flavor: coconut, roasty, vegetal, hints of runts banana
Body: Full
Aftertaste: astringent, roasty
Liquor: translucent dark brown-red

meh…I wanted more banana and coconut, it’s hints of favor in a roasty vegetal brew.

Post-Steep Additives: sugar
brings out the coconut flavor

It’s an OK cup, but I really haven’t been fond of any hojicha teas.

Blog: http://amazonv.net/2011/12/52teas-loose-leaf-hojicha-tea-coconut.html

Again, this is a tea where I just want to smell the dry leaf all day long. Ohhhhmygod.

I love this combination of flavors. I taste everything, starting with toasty green tea and then coconut, all the way to the creamy banana flavor that lingers after each sip. This is so good.

Yum!

I almost ran in anticipation to my mailbox after my late night biological anthropology class. I knew that the chances of this being there would be pretty high. Lo and behold!!! Tea time! This is just the kind of un-winding I need after two and a half hours of learning about apes.
First off, I was trying to be very careful about the steep temperature on this one. But I think I over dosed on the amount of leaves. I thought I had grabbed my 1/2 tsp. but I had my 1 tsp spoon in hand. So the 2 scoops was probably much much more than what I needed.
The first thing I noticed was that the steeped smell when I first added the leaves was almost reminiscent of coffee. The dry smell was very much banana. The color of this first brew was very dark, most likely due to my over use of leaves. (I’m planning on steeping them for a 2nd infusion later) The flavor is very different than what I first expected while reading about Hojicha. It’s very mild on the palate. Heavier than green tea, but lighter than black. I noticed it has less of a lingering “thickness” than a black would have. The flavor is very, very exceptional. I love it. The banana is awesome. I’m missing some of the coconut but there is another layer of something almost creamy that is lurking beneath the surface in this cup. There is a slight back of the throat note of vegetal flavor that I’m getting that isn’t my favorite, but again, this may be because of my over abundance of leaves!
So until next time, this has been a very nice cup of tea. 52 teas has yet to disappointing me with a blend. This is my 3rd sampling of their selection and it makes me wish for a bigger tea allowance!