Coconut Cream Pie

It’s been so long since I’ve had any tea!!!!!! After holiday travels to distant lands, battles with various viruses/viri, and a good heaping of “damn those people on Steepster really love their tea and while their love of tea makes Steepster possible it also makes me quite busy,” I just haven’t found myself with a nice warm cuppa in hand in quite some time.

Luckily, my gf saw our feature of 52Teas’ Coconut Cream Pie and knowing how much I love that sh** (even though we just had Strawberry Rhubarb pie) she sneakily got a pouch for us to enjoy. Now on to the tea!

I opened the pouch and was pleased to see plenty of large coconut shavings mixed throughout. The black tea seemed like a pretty good quality, albeit a little on the smaller side (I’m assuming because of the plastic pouch it travels in). What surprised me the most is the very noticeable mint smell coming out of the bag. I read the other reviews of this and nowhere do I see mention of mint, but I get a ton of that…I think it’s a natural part of the coconut (or maybe I’m just coco-nuts) – sorry.

The brew has a nice darkish browny amber-likey color a you definitely get that punch of coconut and that mint thing I mentioned. Sip time :)

Ok, I feel this is more of a coconut tea than a coconut cream pie tea. There are some more subtle cream/dairy undertones that compliment the natural flavor of the black tea, but I’m still feeling like it’s not quite a slice of coconut cream pie. Great coconut flavor though (if you’re into that, def give this a try)! I’m still getting that after-dinner mint-iness a little, which surprises me but isn’t unpleasant.

Overall, a great experience, good flavor, nice to sip. Not quite a coconut cream pie flavor explosion in your mouth, but I see the potential. I’ll definitely be trying this again soon and I will most certainly be attempting their tea latte recipe with this -it’s supposed to deliver the greatest pie flavor you can get. (speaking of that…if a certain someone happens to be reading this and they are planning to stop at the store on the way home, it would be pretty cool of them to pick up 3 (14oz) cans of fat free sweetened condensed milk :)

I am glad I am sitting at home with a hot cup of tea. I had a very productive day that was as tiring as it was productive. I am happy to be unwinding and digesting everything that happened. Today I received my order from 52teas that made me smile quite a bit. Then a bit after that I received an e-mail from a friend of mine who has a 1 year old son asking me to be his godmother at his baptism! I was honored and very happy to be asked. While not very religious and not particularly fond of kinds, I do really love this kid. So, I had multiple reasons to continue smiling throughout my busy day.  

Now I am unwinding with a cup of this tea, which dry smells like what I would imagine clouds would smell like if they were made out of coconut. You can smell the cream and the coconut perfectly. I actually had to sigh when I first sniffed it. It has large coconut bits in it that make it beautiful to look at. 

Once steeped, the dark brew still smells distinctively of coconut and cream, though a little bit more subdued than the dry tea. Unsweetened it was a little bit too astringent for my taste, but it was still delightfully creamy. Sweetened the coconut flavor really stood out and the astringency was covered up nicely. I made a second cup and added my homemade latte mix to it. Yum… it was like a creamy coconut milkshake! It reminded me of a coconut cream cake y Mom made me as a little girl. Wow… A guilty pleasure tea. Perfect to relax after a tiring but great day. : ) 

Thanks to Amanda for this sample!

This smells delicous. I love coconut

This tea is nice and smooth coconut with some vanilla cream shining through. The black base is there, but not overpowering. I am not really getting any pie crust taste, but that is ok, because the filling is so great!

I would definitely re-buy this. Oh man, how did I get hooked to 52teas so easily??!

Thank you Kittenna for this sample. I have wanted to try this forever.
I think this would be so good with Frank’s new black base!
It is very good as is however.
I do find I enjoy it more as it cools so I think I am going to let this get to room temp then put in the fridge and see how it tastes cold.
There is such a nice creaminess to this tea but I am a little surprised there is not more of a coconut flavor.
It may be my palate though so letting it cool and having it iced might help.
Will make more notes later. :)

I’m going to have to try this again. I ate a few pieces of chocolate and then drank it, and then went back to it hoping the chocolate aftertaste would have subsided, but I wasn’t nearly as enamoured with this as everyone else. Actually, I haven’t been enamoured with any 52 Teas blend so far. I have a theory that maybe packaging, presentation and promotion (and reputation) do a lot to affect someone’s rating of a tea, even inadvertently. If this was called ‘Coconut Garbage Flakes’, and blended by a mean jerk instead of a cool everyman’s nerd kind of guy, maybe everyone else would feel the same about it as I do. Not that it tastes like garbage, I was just giving an example of crappy marketing. Don’t get me wrong, it’s alright, but I notice a weird chemical taste to it, in the back of my mouth. And when I stick my nose in my cup and inhale, it smells like cat pee.

Sorry guys, I said it. I’ve wanted to love every one of Frank’s teas that I’ve tried (via swap) but I’ve been disappointed so far. Marshmallw Treat Genmaicha was good in the end, after I compared it to a straight genmaicha. But still left something to be desired.

After drinking Davidstea’s Coconut Oolong, I’m on the hunt for an equally amazing black coconut tea, and I don’t think this is it.

That being said it is possible that the chocolate seriously ruined my taste so I will try again before rating this, because I don’t want to be unfair. And I don’t want any hate mail either!! I will happily eat my words if I’m way off here, because I wanted to love this!

Thanks to Emilie for the sample of this (no, really!)

(boiling, 3 min)

Edited to add

Yeah… no. Tried it again last night, hoping for the best and it’s just…yucky. That sums it up. Still smells like cat pee once brewed. No coconut taste that I can notice. I feel like there’s something wrong with me because everyone seems to love every 52Teas blend ever, except me. I dumped the rest of this out, because you know why? Because my newest DellaTerra order arrived yesterday – NO BRAINER. I would love to find a 52teas blend to love. Le Sigh.

Thank gawd for swaps!!

Edited again

I want to add that there’s a possibility the batch I tried may not have been fresh and possibly even starting to change tastes on account of age, so the tea company shouldn’t be blamed for that. However I have no way of knowing so my rating stands. If I ever try this again from someone else I will let you know if it tasted better!

Yum! This one is very simple. Creamy coconut with a mellow soft base. The sweetness isn’t a forward kicker except around the finish, which is soft like whip cream. As I get closer to the bottom of my cup that coconut whip cream sensation magnifies…Parks and Rec/Leslie amount of whip cream! It’s very rich and I’m impressed that I didn’t have to add milk to get that!

This tea gets even better as it cools. I may need to pick up more in the summer. The only thing left to do is compare it to my Fantasy Island from David’s Tea and the coconut tea from NM Tea co that arrived at my parents place a few days after I left for school… bummer!

Whee, 100 tasting notes. I sort of felt like I ought to have a really rarified tea for my 100th, but then I had one of those mornings where everything that happens seems custom-designed to frustrate and annoy. I couldn’t help but to reach for something sweet.

I’ve been awfully lazy about tasting notes lately. In point of fact, I have none for this tea, but my pouch of it is very nearly empty now, which saddens me. I didn’t expect to like it as much as I have.

There’s not too much that I can add here that other people haven’t already. The shavings of coconut are large; the vanilla is very subtle. The black tea holds up well to both. While it’s a decent tea without any additives, making it like a chai on the stovetop — sans sweeteners, but with a very generous spoonfull or two of sweetened condensed milk added along with regular milk — makes for a completely decadent treat.

I wouldn’t say that it’s a substitute for pie, of course…or even that it tastes exactly like coconut cream pie, when consumed hot…but the results are so delicious that this hardly matters, in my opinion. Thinking about it, I wonder if the viscosity and sweetness when served iced would make the difference?

Regardless…this was just the cup of tea that I needed for drowning a very cranky start to the day. It’s not an ‘every day’ tea for me…but it’s quite nice to have it on hand, and I think I can probably find a regular spot for it in my cabinet.

Drank this on the way to Toronto to meet up with Indigobloom!

Can’t remember details, but 3 minutes didn’t bring out enough black tea flavour, but the coconut was AMAZING. Started by drinking the second infusion, which was ok, and the first was like coconut heaven. More detailed notes to come next time I drink this.

I had tea fail this morning.

I had picked up a small packet of those powdered sugar doughnuts on my way home from work yesterday as a treat for this morning (I had barely survived my first week of the Summer Reading Program). I had actually forgotten about them until after I had started steeping this tea. So I had several very yummy sips and then started in on the mini-doughnuts. It tasted great, but on the third mini-doughnut the pairing suddenly became a bad one. My super-yummy tea morphed into (parents, cover your children’s eyes) CHICKEN BROTH!

::bursts into tears::

I went and brushed my teeth knowing that the mint toothpaste would also be a bad tea combo, but I felt that it was the lesser of two evils. I made it through the very cooled first steep and had high hopes for the second. I can sense how yummy this tea is, but I keep getting flashes of “chicken broth.” Thus I shall hold off on giving this tea an official rating. Based on the first few marvelous sips I’d say that this tea’s baseline rating for myself is probably 85.

I am so glad to finally try this tea. I received it several weeks ago, while I was in the midst of my various infections, and didn’t want to try it until my taste buds were working a bit better. This tea has been one of the ones that I’ve been so eager to try, because I had read so many positive reviews about it here on Steepster … I just couldn’t wait to try it for myself.

YUM! The black tea base is solid but does not overwhelm the other flavors. The coconut is strong, and I can taste the vanilla also. It tastes just like the filling of a coconut cream pie. The one thing that is missing here is the crust… but because this tea is so delicious, I can’t really complain.

Another winning tea from 52Teas. What are you working on next, Frank?

I hate to say it, but this just didn’t really float my boat, although I began to like it better as it cooled off, so I’m thinking I might try it as an iced tea, or maybe as a latte with Almond milk next time.

Holy crap!! This tea is EXCELLENT! I guess I wasn’t expecting much from a coconut tea, but this is truly incredible! It tastes strongly of coconut and vanilla, as described. But the black tea base lends a chocolaty flavor too. Yum! I especially recommend adding some sweetener. Wow!! Pie indeed!

Too bad it doesn’t hold up to a second infusion very well. But the first cup is well worth buying a package anyway! Thanks sooooo much to Kittenna for giving me a sample. I’ve only wanted to try this for over a year. :)

Thank you Kristaleyn for this sample! what a deeelish tea :)
I have to agree, the black tea part comes out a little weak, and that was with a 5 min steep. It was about to get bitter so I had to take out the tea basket.
That said, the coconut part is great!! just love it!
With some milk n sugar, I do get a cream pie sortof texture. Yumm!!
I’d consider buying this, if I could figure out how to make the base stronger.

Quick note:

Tastes like sweet young coconut shavings (it’s called “macapuno” in the Philippines).
I’m not getting much of the “pie” part.
I would love more pie crust, cream and custard, please.
Maybe I should try this as a latte.
Otherwise, it’s an excellent coconut-flavored black. Very satisfyingly coconutty.

Thanks to Liberteas for the generous sample!!

Wow, this really is as good as they say it is! Jillian, thanks for sparing me some. It is soooooo good. I definitely have to get some of this soon. I like it plain and I really like it with sugar and a spash of cream. It really does taste like a creamy coconut pie. This was the best dessert tea!

A big thank you to Ricky, for sending me some of this tea!

I used to hate coconut, but ever since trying Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong I’ve been feeling braver about it. So, of course the first tea I picked out of Ricky’s lovely package is this one. I usually prepare teas I’m tasting for the first time without additives like milk and sugar, and at the recommended steeping parameters. Instead, I made this with milk and sweetener, as multiple people mentioned how it tasted better as a latte.

The dry tea has a very light smell, at least compared to the Coconut Pouchong. Steeped up, it’s delicious. Creamy, and just slightly coconutty—but that’s fine with me. Unfortunately, I only had Splenda in my apartment, so it’s giving the tea a kind of funky taste (I can’t stand Splenda anymore, for some reason!) but otherwise, this is a lovely dessert tea. It’s very basic, but I like basic. I’m pretty sure once I make room in my tea chest for more, I’ll be ordering a package of this for myself.

Used 1.5 tablespoons of dry leaf for 400 ml of water.

Brewed tea has a primarily black tea aroma with a hint of creamy coconut smell. Detecting a definite sweetness in the scent.

On the sip I’m getting an apricot flavour with trailing black tea flavour. Mild coconut in the after-taste. Maybe this tea was sitting too closely to the Brandied Apricot Upside Down Honeybush blend. Overall, the flavour seems to be that of a plain black tea but it was a quality black tea so I still was able to enjoy this infusion!

I’ll hold off from giving a rating for now.

Thank you Kittenna for sharing this with me!!

A HUGE thank you to Amanda… she had an envelope of tea sale and now I get to try a ton of little samplings of teas I otherwise wouldn’t get to try — especially the 52 teas I’ve wanted to try for a while! Awesome!

First up is this one. I figured if this one was good, they must all be. Sometimes coconut tea is hit or miss for me. Sometimes the coconut tastes very chemically to me and really ruins the tea. This one is GOOD. The coconut actually tastes like a perfect coconut… definitely what coconut teas should taste like! The scent reminds me of suntan lotion! There were a couple big coconut chips. The flavor was a bit bakey, like a pie would be, but I really wish there was more flavor overall. The black tea base is perfect and sweet on its own. It highlights the flavor while not being too strong. It never got astringent at all, but that might be because I sipped it down before it got anywhere near cool!

Backlogging.

For the third tea of Christmas, Frank gave to us Coconut Cream Pie.

I clipped open my sample packet and instantly smelled coconut again without even having to put my nose down to the packet. I had just mentioned in my Pina Colada Honeybush tealog that that tisane made me want to try the Coconut Cream Pie and low and behold, here it is.

Like the Pina Colada Honeybush, the Coconut Cream Pie has large shavings of coconut against a background of black tea and smells delish — a strong coconutty, creamy scent. Steeped up, it’s a medium brown and smells like warm creamy coconut. It tastes strongly coconutty with a good sense of creaminess. Between this tea and the Pina Colada Honeybush, Frank has that flavor down pat. And yum, is this a good tea too. I definitely like it and look forward to drinking it again. But it is no Pina Colada Honeybush, which I have been thinking about drinking again since I had it. But I seem to be oddly hoarding it for later, not wanting to have no more of it yet. I am starting to wonder if all the rest of the samples will pale in comparison to that tisane, which isn’t really an apt thing to say because neither of these teas paled at all. They were quite good. Just not Pina Colada Honeybush good. It might have been a flaw to make that the first sample.

Back to the Coconut Cream Pie. (Sorry that I could not help making the comparisons.) So yeah. Chris and I went to one of our favorite restaurants (local, fresh, Southern food – http://www.ilovetheglassonion.com/dailymenu) for a rather late brunch (fried quail, biscuit and gravy, and eggs for me; pork belly, biscuit with honey, eggs, and sausage for Chris) on Sunday and they had coconut cream pie on the desert board (it changes weekly) and I really wanted to have some after having had this tea, but I was so full and couldn’t. We’ve been obsessed with fried chicken Tuesdays this month so you know where I’ll be early tomorrow night (yes, they actually run out of the fried chicken, it is that good) and hopefully the coconut cream pie will be there still. I’ll keep you posted.

Oh, I almost forgot to mention. I did do a second steep, which I was sure would be too weak to drink, and it was. But it turns out, even warm essence of Coconut Cream Pie is worth drinking.

I rated this tea a 74, which is right in the middle of my good range (70-80).

2nd steep: 7 min.

I woke up in the mood for coconut and remembered that Jillian sent me a sample of this. 52 Teas isn’t joking when it comes to their coconut. Man, those coconut shavings are GIANORMOUS! The smell of the dry leaf is just wonderful. I was slightly tempted to eat one of the pieces of coconut…but I refrained this time. The tea was very smooth and flavorful. I noticed on the package that this tea included vanilla flavoring, but I did not taste any. Perhaps the vanilla flavor would be more prominent in the latte version. The oil from the coconut formed little globules on the surface of the tea. Mmmm! I wanted to try this tea with milk and sugar or perhaps whip up their latte recipe, but after quickly drinking my 1st cup (a true sign I enjoyed it), I found the tea to be a little weak. I don’t know if it would hold up to the milk and sugar…or the latte for that matter. Without the milk and sugar, I think this is just a regular coconut flavored tea, albeit a decent one. I promise to try it one day, but for now, straight up is just fine and dandy.