Coconut Custard

This is a sample that I received from Auggy in swap, thanks Auggy! Being a rooibos, I probably wouldn’t have picked it up on my own, but I am really happy to get a chance to try it since I do love coconut. It is pretty to look at with the red rooibos and abundant coconut pieces. I sniffed it, and it smelled super coconutty with an aftscent of feet… Sweaty feet… Needless to say very confusing and unsettling. This didn’t stop me from continuing with my brew… The show must go on…

While it brewed the scent was creamy and coconut filled. The odd rancid scent was still there in the background. Now I start worrying… Is the tea going to taste like that? Oh dear…

First taste, unsweetened, was awful. It was pure rancid coconut. I sweetened it and it was bearable, but still had the rancid aftertaste. I added milk, still undrinkable. Since I was in my Mom’s company while I had my tae, I let her try it. She didn’t taste the stinky feet, but didn’t love it eather. I sadly ciuldn’t drink it and had to be dumped out.

While it was a disturbing tea experience, I am still happy I got to try it! Who knew that something that everyone loves I wouldn’t like at all… Oh well… There are still a bunch of things on my list to try! : )

I’ve got to thank Soccer Mom for sending me this tea. I have parted ways with Rooibos teas, but this steep was a timely admonition: I should not make sweeping categorical break-ups with all teas based on a rather small sampling.

Firstly, the coconut aroma is deeply enticing. Secondly, steeped, this is a smooth sweet coconut with no woody or sawdusty rooibos overtones. The aftertaste was excellent. I felt that I had been drinking a nice creamy coconut drink. No tell-tale woodiness! It was nice to have a tea-like beverage to drink in the evening. I may have to order this.

So here’s the infamous Coconut Custard everyone has been talking about lately! Thanks to SoccerMom I get to try it as well! Thanks SoccerMom!

Since all of the reviews for this have been so detailed and lengthy I am not sure if I will have anything new to add…but here are my findings!

It’s quite dark in color once infused and it seems 2 small slivers of coconut decided to dive into my cup! They must have wanted a morning swim! :) I’m fine with that…why not…it’s FRIDAY!!!!

It smells like coconut cookies, almost.

It’s VERY smooth and pretty darned-tasty! First I taste a hint of typical rooibos taste then it’s coconut and then a cookie or pastry type taste and then almost like a coconut/creamed cheese type breakfast danish and then pure coconut. The after taste is coconut and cookie and then creamy coconut…OH YEAH…there’s the custard! It seems from the first sip to the aftertaste this continues to morph, and morph, and morph…but I LIKE complexity. It sooooo works here! YAY!

Steep Information:
Amount: 3 heap tsp
Additives: none
Water: 22oz filtered, boiling
Tool: Cast Iron Teapot with Mesh basket strainer
Steep Time: a little over 5 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: Coconut, Nut, Sweet
Steeped Tea Smell: Nutty, Coconut, Sweet
Flavor: rooibos
Body: Medium
Aftertaste: coconut, and then COCONUT CUSTARD
Liquor: Deep dark orange red brown

Thanks to SoccerMom for turning me on to this tea.

First, you smell the tea as it comes up to your nose and you smell coconut custard.

MilitiaJim is flummoxed how something can smell like a texture, but it does.

Then you sip, at first I was sad, it was rooibos. Don’t get me wrong I love rooibos but I wanted coconut custard.

As I swallow the sip I start to taste coconut shell, then coconut.

Then I swallow and there is the coconut pie! Delicious.

Strange the flavor is all in the swallow.

Post-Steep Additives: pinch of German rock sugar
sweeter, yum!

Resteep: 7 min, weak, 10+ min, weak but drinkable

So yeah, I totally caved on the Steepster Select the other day. And hello fast shipping – my order got here today! Honestly, it was non-rooibos-loving Doulton’s review of this not-tea that made it first catch my eye, then Steepster Select and the forces of boredom shopping pushed me over the edge.

I’m so glad it did. Look, I wasn’t expecting much. It’s a rooibos. My greatest rooibos-related hope is that I can drink it without making an “eew, icky” face. But this stuff? This is good. Well, as long as you like coconut, which I totally do. The rooibos flavor is barely a hint and even that hint backs off to a mere wisp of wood as the tea cools a tad. Instead, this tea tastes of delightful coconut, lightly toasted to give it a bit of a crisp texture. In fact, it reminds me of the bestest coconut tea in ever and ever, SerendipiTEA’s Burroughs’ Brew. I taste no custard but the coconut is so yummy I just don’t care.

I’m so glad I caved on the Steepster Select and followed Doulton’s example like a little sheep. Because this is good stuff. Totally will be buying this again.

Okay, last time I tried this tea I was sick so I couldn’t review it properly. I have been asked by Lori what I thought about this tea (I could have sworn I had started a tasting note?) anyway Lori asked me just yesterday what I thought of this tea and I told her let me try it again (Even though I was sick the first time I tried it I thought it was good) so I wake up this morning to a 20% off coupon on Rooibos from Teas Etc.

What a timely coupon this rooibos is good!! While I don’t think … hmmm no I’ve never actually had coconut custard I have had many a coconut meringue pie and I would have to say this reminds me of coconut pie in that the rooibos plays back up and I would compare it to a crispy crust and the coconut flavoring is the coconut creme center NOM.

It’s good if you like coconut i’d recommend it and I know some of ya’ll are going to get a little mad but I like it better than GM’s Coconut Pouchong. Sorry but it’s just how I feel. :)

Gotta go and place my order at Tea’s Etc now!

Update: Okay so it’s no secret I love to have Teavana’s My Morning Mate almost every morning so today I added a little of Tea’s Etc Coconut Custard Rooibos and it only added to the smooth flavor of the mate I love to mix rooibos and mates!

Another sample from Rachel!!

Glancing through the tasting notes, I can’t help but think I’m missing something. It tastes…like rooibos. Plain, un-flavored rooibos. If I really try, it’s kinda sweet…but still more like plain rooibos to me.

It tastes like real coconut! The nuttiness from the rooibos really adds to the experience here. The rooibos is pretty strong tasting though.

It’s a great dessert tea.

My brain is too tired to write extended reviews these days, but I know when tea is awesome. Take my word on it. :)

I can’t remember if it was Soccermom or AmazonV who sent me a generous sample of this tea. Thank you so much for passing along some of this highly rated tea to me! I’m glad I finally had an evening which called for a rooibos.

The smell of this tea alone reminds me of warm summer evenings sipping pina coladas, rum and diets or any other sinful drink. So much coconut!

The taste is divine. I love how much coconut flavor shines through in this. It reminds me of my aunts coconut dream bars that she brought to my bridal shower last summer. Of coconut pudding. It is sweet. I think this is an excellent pairing for red rooibos. Must get more! (but must wait until May or later as I need space in the cupboard and room in the wallet).

Thanks to SoccerMom for this sample!

Absolutely delicious (you would hardly know you were drinking rooibos!) but I still love the toasty meaty coconut of my Organic Black with Coconut better, and kept on thinking about that tea the whole time I was sipping this one. I must be a one coconut kinda woman ;)

Not a huge coconut fan. Not a huge rooibos fan. Not a big fan of this tea. I’ll keep experimenting with temp/time to see if my mind gets changed. I just got an initial smell and taste of barley and that was it. A coconut barley. Maybe this is what the outside husk of the coconut would taste like if I gave it a lick? It’s just not doin’ it for me (and I really wish that it did!). M

Thanks so much to QueenofTarts for this tea which I did ask for in my recent swap with her!

I smelled this a bit after I finished brewing it and it smells like coconut. And dirty feet. This is the second red rooibos I’ve had that smells like feet. Feet and cough syrup with a bit of coconut essence, note this was my initial impression when plain. It was a little bit better when soymilk was added.

But man, I have to wonder am I doing something wrong here? I used about 1 tsb of leaf to 12 oz. of tea and steeped for 5 minutes. This is not my favorite. I have no idea why I like some red roobois blends much better than others. Other people seemed to love this one so I dunno… maybe it’s just me?? I thought the recent red roobois teas I had were better tho’.

I did go to the Teas Etc website and they recommend steeping at 180 F or so – I’ll have to try it again at a lower temp. I don’t really like giving a bad review to a tea. :(

I finally got this after waiting months for it to be back in stock, I really wanted this to be as good as everyone else raved about. Unfortunately, drinking it straight it tastes like just a plain sweet rooibos and only when I add agave (I have to add stuff) do I even get a hint of coconut. It maybe personal preference, may be that the re-blend isn’t as good as the original. I just don’t know. All I can say is that I was disappointed and hope that it wasn’t my expectations that caused this. I gave it a higher score just in case it was me and because it was ok with agave. On the upside my 3 yr old enjoys it with honey.

I drank a cup of this last night after dinner. Is this the best rooibos ever? It might be. This is so yummy. And, I only ordered 1 oz of this! :(

I was worried I wouldn’t like this because everytime I see coconut with tea, I think it is going to be like a pina colada. The thought of that makes my stomach turn. But, since I liked the Golden Moon Coconut Pouchong and everyone was giving this such good reviews, I had to try it.

This smells amazing. In the dry leaves, I smell coconut and some kind of liquor. When brewed, I taste coconut, vanilla, and a dash of cinnamon. It made me immediately think it was like a cookie in a cup. Then as I drank more, I started to get the ‘custard’. Sooo yummy. I was planning on making a cookie after tea (I have some frozen cookie dough balls in the freezer for emergencies), but after drinking the tea, I no longer even wanted the cookie. Great side effect.

If you are a rooibos drinker, run and order this.

~1.5 tsp to ~11 oz. I added the worlds smallest drop of agave nectar to this.

Man, everyone is so into this tea, I was really excited to be trying it because I am always on the lookout for kickass dessert teas. But…I have to say I’m pretty disappointed by it.

Now, full disclosure here, I do not actually like coconut all that much. I know, however, that in some forms of pastry it becomes quite nice (german chocolate cake y/y?) which is why I tend to give it the benefit of the doubt in tea, especially in dessert-y tea. Sometimes it works out well for me, as in 52teas’ coconut cream pie, and sometimes it does not. Like now.

I can only assume that my problem with this is that it is just too coconutty. I don’t know, I’m getting this odd sort of spicy aftertaste, I’m not really sure what’s going on, but I am not that enamored with it. Props to Teas, etc. for being able to give it a really coconutty texture though. Impressive.

I will tell you a secret though: pouring a bit of cognac in? smooths it right out, VERY tasty. Certain parties, * coughmybrothercough * have gone on record as saying that if you have to pour alcohol into it to make it good that means it’s not worth the effort, but I can tell you right now that it doesn’t actually work for EVERYTHING.

For the record, I do not pour cognac in everything just to see what will happen.

Just most things.

This is probably my new favorite rooibos! I love rooibos and I love sweet dessert teas… what a perfect combination this is! I don’t detect something that is pure coconut.. I’m just getting a creamy, almost honey-like sweetness instead. This is so smooth! The perfect balance between rooibos and sweetness. I don’t know how, but it’s quickly soared to the top of my list. Delicious! I won’t ever go without this blend in my cupboard.

Coconut macaroon! I usually drink my coconut teas iced. Each coconut flavored tea has a different style of coconut, from coconut milk to toasted coconut. This tea reminds me of the sweetened coconut you get in the baking supplies aisle at the grocery store. I didn’t pick up the custard in this tea. I personally wished there was more coconut! I have a little from my sample, I might have to add a little cream and drink warm to taste it as others recommend. Very good tea. Thank you AmazonV for the swap of this tea!

Oohhh thank you so much to Kristin for facilitating my tasting of this one while I’m trying to pare down my teas in anticipation of living in a DORM this summer. It’s delicious smelling, definitely reminiscent of a coconut dessert. When I put this one on to steep I had a massive headache that wouldn’t die, and I needed something to make me feel better. It actually took my headache away, no lie. Placebo effect, I’m sure.

When brewed, I find it hard to believe that this is a tea! It reminds me of the taste of the coconut milk powder that I ordered a long time ago, and stirred into a few teas before the powder somehow got “weird” in my humid kitchen. Also, I imagine this could be heavenly sweetened.

I’m not enraptured by this tea, per se, but I really do like it enough to buy it, particularly because all of the other coconut teas that I’ve tried that have tasted this strongly have ended up really greasy when brewed. I’m glad that the tea doesn’t look like an oil spill.

I feel thoroughly appreciative of all things modern right now as I sit and drink this indoors in the AC while it’s 91 degrees outside and humid. Having had the AC broken last week, I am willing to offer it whatever sacrifice it demands to keep it up and running. Sorry environment- my otherwise aggressive eco-hippiedom breaks down here.

I’ve discovered that I’m not much of a fan of rooibos or honeybush teas. They remind me so much of pipe tobacco! The scent and appearance is very pipe tobacco-ish. Which is not really a bad thing, I guess. It’s just not tea to me (I mean, I know it’s an herbal, but other herbals seem like tea to me—maybe it’s a “leaf” thing? Rooibos is not leafy).

This Coconut Custard Rooibos smells like vanilla-flavored pipe tobacco with coconut added. Very sweet, hay-like and faintly smoky. There is real shredded coconut in it. The tea is a deep orange-amber. And the taste is like a root-y, herbal coconut water. I like how naturally sweet this is. It’s actually quenching a dessert-craving I’ve been having tonight.

This was one of my first forays into rooibos/honeybush tea (the others being Very Vanilla and Honeybush) and it may be my last. Because, although they’re nice, I don’t like them enough to try more variations.

Like other flavored rooibos, it picks up tons of the smell but not as much of the flavor. The flavor is much more subtle where the smell reaches out and grabs you and says “COCONUT!” The tea is smooth and actually very good for a rooibos but i am disappointed the flavor didn’t show up like the smell did. The more i think about it though – this is the best rooibos i have had and the flavor is really staying with me.