Coconut Pouchong

I’m on a lockdown until I have liberated at least five tins, I’ve decided. Or emptied one of the 52teas pouches as they are large enough to count equal to a tin, and also got through at least 10 of the smaller samples.

Starting now. So this is the first sample, nine to go. It was another one from the Doulton tea present. A prize-winner even. I have to say I’m a little sceptical. The 52teas coconut cream pie is really the only coconut tea that I really like. Often I find coconut becomes rather cloying and unpleasant. So yes, I have to admit that choosing this one now was a question of getting it over with… (Sorry, Doulton )

I smelled the leaves before brewing and they were definitely coconut-y, but there was also so,ething else. so,mething kind of more like hazelnut-y. That’s kind of interesting. After steeping it does smell of coconut, but mostly it smells like a green type oolong.

What a surprise to taste this! The coconut is definitely there, but it’s not the cloying super-sweetness that I have com,e to expect. It’s primarily the pouchong flavour here, and then the coconut is sort of lurking around the edges. I would never have guessed this but coconut and pouchong suit each other very nicely!

I’m shocked!

I decided to follow Steepster’s advice in pairing this with chocolate and it is quite yummy. The chocolate that I chose was a raw dark chocolate, and this was a good and bad choice … good in that I noticed much more of the depth of flavors and complexity of the raw chocolate, and the chocolate really enhances the coconut flavors nicely. Bad because the pairing also emphasized the lack of roasted flavor of the cacao and I found myself wanting that richness more with this pairing than I would have if I ate the chocolate alone.

A very yummy pouchong… this is definitely one of my faves from Golden Moon.

Waaaoooow!! Love this!!! Thank you to Amy Oh for sharing! :)
This is superb. Sweet and toasty, with a perfect amount of coconut. I’m on the second infusion now, which is, as usual for an oolong, better than the first.
I find this very similar to my Spice Exchange Coconut Oolong. I’d like to do a side by side to see how they compare. Going by memory, I think the first steeping of this is a bit toastier whereas the STE version is more “fresh” coconut, but negligibly so. This second steep seems less toasty, and a bit more like what I imagine coconut spun sugar would be like. Very sweet and satisfying.
It says that this is a green/oolong but to be honest I can’t really see any green here. It’s got the teensiest hint of scratchiness in my throat when hot, but that’s disappeared now that it’s cooled some. I’ll probably see more of that, and perhaps the green aspect, in later steeps.
I’m very much looking forward to seeing what comes out in a third and fourth steep. Thank you again Amy! xx

EDIT:
Well I made it to six steeps! and I was right, the coconut waned while the green perked up. It was quite lovely!

Golden Moon Sampler No. 5 of 31, selected at random.

Wow, back to back selection of the teas Ewa said she was dreading. [Twilight Zone Music]

I’m also dreading this one, not because I don’t like coconut, but because when I looked up Pouchong I learned that it is between a green tea and an oolong. I’ve only had one flavored oolong which was good, but I’ve never met a flavored green tea that I really really liked, with the exception of the Samovar Moorish Mint. I really wanted to like this one. It seems as though it has many fans, so I was hopeful as I started out.

The dry leaves are medium length, twisty, a dark to medium green with yellow highlights and smell like toasted coconut. It’s like someone put a maccaroon in this tea! (I heart maccaroons, so now I’m even more hopeful.) There is also a pronounced floral note. I looked at the ingredients to make sure there wasn’t a flower scent in there as well, but if there is it isn’t listed.

My first steep didn’t go particularly well. I decided to make this in a small teapot, and I thought I’d use just the amount of water that I’ve been using in my tastings of these samples — but that amount of water wasn’t sufficient to cover the leaves. So I had to add a bit more. I am concerned that it was too much. The liquor was a very pale yellowish color, almost colorless, and the aroma and flavor were buttery with a hint of coconut but not a great deal of depth to the flavor.

For the second steep, I used a Finum filter and steeped in the glass. This definitely made a difference in strength. The color was deeper; still pale, but very definitely yellow. The aroma was milky/buttery, floral and toasty/maccaroony.

The first, too-watery tasting made the buttery note primary, and a little on the weak side. But the second is much more satisfactory. Yes! I can taste coconut! It’s a mild, mellow flavor, but it is there. And now I’m kicking myself for not getting this right on the first steep as I can only imagine it should have been a far more accessible flavor the first time through.

I’m thinking I have to order more of this and keep working at it until I find the steeping sweet spot. If and when I do, I expect this will be extraordinary and deserve additional points.

I must thank Auggy, the wonderful “swapstress” for this generous sample. At first I was enthralled by the strong, true coconut aroma. I really don’t think I had had a flavored pouchong before so I carefully followed the instructions.

As others have written, this has a delightful buttery and biscuit-y quality. The coconut mingles delightfully with the pouchong like two sophisticates bantering intellectually at a cocktail party. Or tea party, I should say.

I’ve been holding off on buying this because I absolutely hate paying to ship a sample sized item. Then they had a free shipping thing and I went ahead and ordered a couple of samples from them. Next time I order from them, I’m getting a pouch of this. It’s fantastic!

I don’t think I’ve ever had pouchong unflavored, which is a shame because I happen to love green oolongs and I love how the base tea tastes in this. So buttery and green and slightly vegetal. Totally yum. And the flavor is absolutely coconut milk. Like someone toasted the coconut a bit before getting the milk from it. So luscious and decadent. I think this is the best coconut flavored tea I’ve ever had, and I"ve had lots! It’s so creamy! How do they do it? It’s also sweet. It makes me think of a coconut macaroon. And at the end, something a little like lemon rind.

I love the way the flavors blend with the tea base. I love the mouth feel. So tasty! There are few teas that I want to stock up on once I’ve had a taste of it, which is why I like to swap or get samples. This one, however, I will certainly be happy to make room for this to stay permanently.

I like the flavor of this tea a lot. It does not need sugar. It is fantastic hot and also delicious cold. This is a win-win tea. Today since the ground is covered with a foot and a half of snow, it is a hot tea.

The aroma of the tea is coconut, hands down. The flavor of the tea is coconut, carried by a green tea with a sweet almost minty after taste. It is absolutely wonderful. The first time I tried the tea, I knew I had to buy one of my own, and I did.

As a note: I tend to use a lot more leaves than I should, this is just a force of habit, but I think it makes multiple steeps of the tea better when you have more leaves.

I really really really love this tea.

Have had this for a while by now, but the first two testings made me feel like I was doing something wrong (did not like…at all). How could I not like a coconut tea, so loved by so many on Steepster?

Well, as the saying goes: third time is the charm. Tried to be brave and try it unsweetened (blech…nope). After adding about a tbsp. of honey, this turned nice … much more so as it cools. This coconut is very obvious, but so is the tea. Since most of you have tried this, I’ll just say: yummy.

p.s. Have any of you cold brewed this? If so, any hints?
Still need to try some resteepings, so depending on how many and how it turns out, maybe chilling after is better ??

I had a string of good news today and I also got to see my wonderful kitty who I have been apart from for a while, so I decided to reward myself with this tea! It is one of my absolute favorites so I try to savor it, but today was definitely a coconut day. I actually first got this in the little sampler on Golden Moon’s site—I ordered two teas and threw it in since it was free, and ended up buying all 3 of the ones they give you (though I got the Genmaicha Matcha from Den’s).

I had to brew this rather oddly as I’m at my house (my parents’ house I suppose, but it feels so odd to say that) and I have none of my tea aparattus. So this got brewed in a measuring cup and I totally messed up the ratios and steeped it for 6 minutes. Oh well, it still turned out fantastic because this tea is MAGIC. Seriously, tea of the gods here.

Pouchong/BaoZhong is by far my favorite “base” tea—it’s somewhere between a green and an oolong, and I could drink it every day and be happy. Sweet, light, floral, buttery, fragrant—everything I love! Add in the coconut flavoring that somehow tastes both creamy/raw and sweet/toasty and there’s really nothing better I can imagine.