White Ambrosia

Okay, so I liked the smell of this one dry- bright and citrusy, with a hint of coconut. But brewed, I keep thinking of soap. Coconut can do that for me, and the coconut seems to be the dominant note here. The citrus has faded a bit, and I can’t taste much of the tea at all.

As much as it might sound otherwise, I’m actually enjoying this one somewhat. It’s not particularly interesting, or something I’d re-buy, but it’s pleasant enough. I’ve had a stuffy head from a cold for a while, so it’s nice to begin to taste subtle things again.

If you’re into coconut, do check this one out- it manages not to be greasy or fake tasting. Alas, if I had a spare orange sitting around I’d squeeze a little orange juice into it.

The first few things I notice upon opening the tin is a waft of vanilla and a lot a tea dust. There is so much tea dust in there it is ridiculous, just about the entire inside if the tin is covered, some is even clumped, it’s very off-putting. But I take careful sniffs, don’t want any dust up the nose, and it’s predominately vanilla. There is a decent white tea base and coconut, other than dust it doesn’t seem too bad. I brew it up and the white tea is there, the vanilla is definitely there, the coconut is there but less so. Some reviews said they had fruit in theirs, I am not picking up any fruit smells or tastes whatsoever aside from coconut but that is more creamy here. Aside from the massive quantities of dust, this tea isn’t too bad.

There is a strong potpourri scent when opening the bag of leaves, followed by a sweet hint of coconut. The potpourri is a little annoying, as it can give me headaches, so I can briefly take this scent.

The leaves are a nice mixture of bright and dark greens with deep red petals. There is a very detailed texture, with full leaves, curled and uncurled, and stems.

Steeping gives a deep and clean golden color, with a better sweeter coconut aroma.

The flavor is all white tea. The coconut is a subtle touch, the safflower very difficult to detect. But, it all blends extremely well with the white tea, which is beautifully dark and clean, with a slight astringency.

The aroma of the dry leaves left me worried this would be wholly floral, but upon brewing, the coconut scent had assured me that this is a quality white tea blend.

You know what, I don’t dislike this. I find it a little dusty-tasting as I often do Pai Mu Tan/Bai Mu Dan, and I find the coconut a tad soapy. But even then, the vanilla and coconut are harmonized enough that it’s not awful. It’s really flavourful but, despite the vanilla/coconut combo, not terribly sweet. It’s interesting.

I received a box of this tea as a gift and I was quite taken with both the presentation (tall, pyramid shaped “bags” with a little wire leaf on top) as well as with the taste—sweet and mellow—a perfect winter evening tea. At $40 a box, I wouldn’t purchase it again myself as there are even more enjoyable teas in this range, but another box would be a welcome gift.

I was really excited to try this tea, as I have a love for white teas that is unfulfilled much of the time. Tea Forte’s website says that this tea is supposed to have vanilla, coconut, and fruit flavours. To start with, I am already a bit apprehensive about the coconut, since the last Tea Forte tea that I tried with coconut ended up with the coconut taste and smell fading away quickly.
Upon opening the tea bag container, I could smell the vanilla a lot. The coconut was very prominent in the scent, though the underlying hints of fruit (mango especially) definitely came through.
The website recommends steeping 2-4 minutes, so I decided to go for a happy medium of 3 for this first steep, in a single Tea Forte Cafe Cup.
While the tea was steeping, I thought I would inspect the packaging. Inside the cardboard tea bag container, I found a lot of tea dust. The leaves in the pyramid bag had sadly looked a bit crushed and small. I also found a couple pieces of tan fuzz in the container, which was weird.
Mmm, the smell of this tea is a delicious medley of fruit and vanilla and…barely any coconut. The taste of this tea is very fruity, but not so much that it overpowers the white tea aspect. Vanilla tones float along and mingle wonderfully with the fruit, and comprise much of the aftertaste. In fact, the fruit flavour is reminiscent of a tropical trail mix of dried fruit. One can taste the coconut, but it is not prominent at all now.
Truly, it is a delicious tea. I’m not disappointed at all. The smell is sweeter than the taste. As my friend who tried this tea with me said, “You smell the flavours more than you taste the flavours.”
This tea would taste excellent iced. It is certainly something I would recommend, especially for lovers of fruity teas. On my personal enjoyment scale, I’m going to give it an 80/100. That fuzz was just really strange…

Ok, another tea by DAVIDsTEA… oops sorry, it is by Tea Forte! Now all teas that contain coconut remind me of DAVIDsTEA because they are using too much coconut in their blends!!!

As I don’t like coconut (apparently, the excessive use of coconut by DAVIDsTEA has strengthened my aversion…), it’s natural that I don’t enjoy this tea very much. The sharp smell of coconut isn’t very pleasant and appears synthetic to me. I think it’s a waste to use “rarest Pai Mu Tan” as the tea base because coconut is so dominant that I can’t taste the white tea at all. Disappointing.

I think there must be a couple of different presentations of this tea, since one of the other tasting notes mentioned a tea bag, and I have a loose tea.

The tea smells very nice – strong coconut and vanilla scents. after steeping, the tea has a very pleasant flavour, with the same coconut and vanilla coming through fairly strongly. I do agree with one of the other comments that indicates that the other flavours were strong enough to mostly overwhelm the ‘white tea’ flavour in this. It’s still a very pleasant drink, though.

I drink my tea straight, no milk, no sugar, no honey, and this was a bit too much for me, the coconut was a tad bit over powering, if I had wanted a pinata colada I would have went to a bar.

It appears everyone else either loves it or hates it. I however find it only comme ci comme ça. The predominant flavour is defenitly coconut and the white tea and safflower blend together nicely but are still discernible. I had to leave it to brew for around 8-12 mins as I find it’s a tad weak for my liking, I like it when I’m packed a solid punch! After that wait time the coconut was obviously stronger and I began to enjoy it more and more with every sip. A fairly nice tea.

…Okay so I just don’t like coconut. I’m biased.
The coconut tasted rather artificial, and it was overpowering despite being the aftertaste. I couldn’t really detect much else besides the coconut and the tea itself

Tried this a while back and thought it sounded amazing! But… I couldn’t even finish my tiny little first teacup. It may be because I don’t drink tea with milk or sugar and prefer a natural tea flavor. This has an overpowering coconut flavor. If you don’t actually like tea, you might like this, but otherwise…

The description of this tea sounded wonderful. From the package:
“A fine white tea seamlessly melded with vanilla and slices of coconut.”

Unfortunately, the execution is pretty weak. The little pyramid teabag is cute, but I’m not convinced it helps the tea steep any better than a regular tea bag. The brew itself has no flavor, and I can’t even smell the white tea, let alone taste it. It’s like drinking slightly dirty water – doesn’t taste pure, but it doesn’t have any discernable flavor. There’s a heavy aftertaste of coconut and cheap vanilla.

I guess if you’re aiming for a ‘seamless’ integration of flavor elements, this achieves the goal because no individual note can be detected in the tea. But man! The aftertaste feels very heavy and sticky in my mouth. It’s almost gross.

Brewed 3 min. No additives. Hot.
This is very well blended but I do not agree that it is so seemless you can not pick out the individual flavors. Which I wouldn’t consider a great compliment anyway. There is a citrus vein through the flavor of the tea that is effectively mellowed by the coconut and vanilla. The resultant effect is a smooth naturally sweet tea with a shimmer of citrus.
My only complaint is that the flavor is masking the tea. I can’t find a substantial under current of tea leaf flavor at all through the 3 flavoring agents.
But still. Mild. Not at all unpleasant but If they didn’t say this was a white tea I might have assumed a weak steeped herbal infusion.

Prior to steeping this smells like flowers and coconut. The coloring is that of a darker white tea or maybe even looking more like a steeped Oolong (color wise). During and after steep you can smell the white tea scent more with a hint of coconut and earthy or floral smell. The taste is unique. It’s sweet but flavorful eventho it’s hard to pick out the different flavors as they blend perfectly with each other. The Coconut is NOT overpowering at all…what a delightful blend. I really like this. I wonder how it does on the resteep? Might have to try that later.