Coconut Cacao

Full Review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ on the 22nd but here are my snippits:

Coconut Cacao from The Persimmon Tree is a lovely way to experience your daily pu erh intake! I love pu erh for its health benefits but I also simply love the deep flavors of pu erh itself. Some however do not care for pu erh let alone unadulterated pu erh so they may tend toward something like this to get their health benefits.

I will say that I am not too fond of the initial aroma of this tea in its dry form or its steeped form. I personally find the aroma a bit off putting however in talking to others, I seem to be the only one who is put off by the aroma. Its probably just me. I just thought it only fair to state this in my review. As for the taste however, its lovely!

The combination of chocolate and coconut into a pu erh base is genius! One reviewer on The Persimmon Tree website, and fellow Steepster, calls it their tea latte without milk! I have to agree, it is quite creamy, full, earthy without being too earthy, and just sinfully delicious. I don’t even find it too sweet either which shows what a masterful blend it is!

Another thing I respect about The Persimmon Tree is their committment to our environment. On their “About” page you will find the following:

We, at The Persimmon Tree®, contribute to the sustainability of our planet. Where possible, we use recycled and recyclable materials in our shipping supplies and printed materials. Using recycled products increases the demand for recycled material, which increases the rate of recyclability. Our passion is to instigate and experience positive change through the simple things, and we encourage our customers to do the same.

Thank you Dhart1214 for this sample tea

La la la la la….

What does one do when one does not care for a tea? One has to look for something that is good about the tea like a detective!

I’ll become… Miss Marple …The BBC Detective!

Miss Marple is in the kitchen with her pot of tea, flowery rose china cup (totally not me) which she takes on a tray (along with cream and castor sugar) to a table by the garden window.

The first pour is a nose scrunching audible, “Really, oh no! Something has to be done about this!” (The black thick tea was so strong and bitter it could have disintegrated a discarded murder weapon!)
“I’ll add some cream and castor sugar. Surely that will make this tea drinkable.” But alas, the tea was still sour and without a chocolate, coconut flavor at all.
“Drat it all! Whatever is the matter with this tea? Has it been meddled with?” Looking into the cup for a bit, you could see the process of deduction…the sleuth at work.
“I’ll dilute the tea!”
This proved to be the best answer to drinkability but just barely.

Miss Marple’s deduction was as follows:

Either there was something that went terribly wrong with the Puerh base which made the tea have an odd taste. Or,the flavoring went berserk taking on a persona that has nothing to do with coconut or cocoa. (It could also be a sinister plot.)

The case had to go into the file of unsolved mysteries!

I like a good mystery, and I’ll assume that I am the only one that had an off packet of this tea and leave it at that.

Coconut and chocolate is the flavor combination of the gods. Chocolate coconut pudding, chocolate coconut cheesecake, coconut cream pie with chocolate crust, and of course coconut & chocolate tea! I can’t believe that I passed up a sample of this on my first order, so I threw it in this time. I got a coupon for a free ounce of White Guava, but I felt guilty getting a free tea with free shipping and not actually, you know, buying anything, so I threw a handful of samples into my cart. Of course I just got ANOTHER coupon so now I want more samples… it’s an endless cycle.

This is a lovely, earthy tea that reminds me of a coffee latte. Then again, most flavored pu-erhs remind me of coffee if they have a “mocha” aspect. Or more accurately, chicory coffee, it’s got that same earthy acidity. Which this tea certainly does! Though it’s not a sweet and thick chocolate taste but the bittersweet richness you expect from cacao nibs. The coconut is warm and toasty, but less pronounced than I expected it to be. I think I like the coconut notes in their White Coconut Cream better but I like how the coconut melds with the flavors better in this blend. In either case, Persimmon Tree definitely knows how to do coconut right!

Azzrian Thanks, girl!

The Pu-erh is quite pleasant flavored this way! I do like that! The Coconut is a bit sweet, a little smooth, a little tropical – not over powering but decent. I do like that! The cacao…well, not too shabby but not awesome. It’s ok. The more I drink it – the more I think the level of flavor is pretty good…and not meant to be much more powerful than it is so it’s growing on me. Overall I DO like this flavor especially for a flavored pu-erh. I really think the coconut is the highlight for me, personally, tho!

First impression: this smells like vomit. Oh no. Rancid coconut? Why does coconut seem to go rancid so easily in some teas and not others?

Anyhow, going to give it a shot anyways…

Brewed up, nasty aroma is gone. WHEW. (Ok, the tea has totally cooled, so I can’t speak for when it’s hot.) And the flavour…. is actually better than I was expecting! Creamy, sweet-ish coconut on a pu’erh base. Unfortunately, I’m getting a hint of soapiness, which I’d attribute to the coconut perhaps going off. Seems to be a pretty big trend with coconut (i.e. soapiness, off-flavours).

If the slightly weird flavour/soapiness was not present, I’d have to say that this would pretty much rocket into first place in terms of coconutty blacks (counting pu’erh as a black here, obviously), as it’s not at all astringent/bitter and the base is quite nice and earthy, while the coconut is deliciously creamy. I just am having trouble getting past those off flavours :( Hopefully not all batches of this tea are like that (and I suspect not, which is why some people like this tea while others really don’t). Mediocre rating due to this issue, otherwise it would be in the 80s.

So it looks like I am the only person who doesnt like this tea. The dry notes smell terrible, and as they steep it smells like vomit (literally). Once it has steeped I do get a hint of a coconut and chocolate smell, but mostly just a really gross pukey smell. And once you sip it I get more of the same. I just can’t drink this. YUCK! Maybe there was something that happened to this sample but wow.
I won’t give this a numerical rating because it seems that something went wring with this one.

I am reviewing this tea thanks to a lovely sample sent to me from Awkward Soul! Thank you! When I first smelled the dry leaves, I thought they smelled a little soapy. But I love coconut, chocolate, and tea, and the thought of all three together made my head explode, so I thought I’d steep it anyway.

I’m glad I did! In the cup, this tea is very dark. The taste is smooth and rich and there is a creamy mouthfeel. You can definitely detect the chocolate; the coconut is more muted. I finished my cup several minutes ago and I still have a creamy aftertaste on my tongue.

I’m not experienced enough to figure out how pu-erh tea differs from regular black tea in taste, especially because I usually drink flavored teas and sweeten them. But I’m pretty sure that this would be a good introduction to pu-erh tea because it’s so smooth.

Geez… waiting for this to cool and the smell is driving me crazy(in a good way of course)! It smells soooo yummy.
This tea is very creamy.. At first it reminds me of coffee, it has a nice coconut/nutty flavor to it then runs into chocolatey nuttyness. The aftertaste kind of reminds me of a graham cracker.. or a marshmallow? I’m so confused. ANYWAYS this tea is fantastic whatever the aftertaste is.

I’ve noticed a lot of the reviews of this mention an odd smell before steeping. Mine, however, was all creamy coconut with a bit of an earthy smell. Maybe there was a bad batch going around at one point? As soon as the water hit the leaves, I got this really delicious smell of some kind of baking coconut cake amazingness. I drank this along with my Greek chicken salad. I really enjoy the way the flavors are mixing together here. The coconut isn’t super strong here, it’s more subtle and adding a creaminess to the puerh than being a BAMINYOURFACECOCONUT flavor.

This is my 4th tea from Persimmon Tree! These teas have been non-stop good! I am very excited to try this tea, I love Pu-erh teas – earthy yummyness!

OBSERVATIONS: Since all the Persimmon Tree teas I’ve tried have been in the mild, yet very flavorful range, I increased this tea to 2t (from 1.5t) for this infusion. Made a big difference I think!

DRY: Very creamy and chocolately. Big flakes of coconut in this tea!

STEEPED: In my steeper it looks a dark brown, poured into my cup the tea is BLACK. Smells like mouth watering chocolate and creamyness.

TASTE: Very creamy tea! Hints of chocolate and subtle earthy pu-erh in the background adding depth. The creamy coconut flavor coats the tongue and throat going down. No bitterness. The more I drink this tea, the more the creamyness comes out as coconutty. I tossed some lumps of rock sugar in and this tea tastes even more coconuty and desserty – like drinking a tea latte.

WHO’D INHALE THIS TEA AND NOT CARE THEY BURNT THEIR TONGUE: Dang, this one is hard. I guess the best would be to say for people who don’t mind coconut and tea latte lovers.

COMMENTS: This is the most creamy tea I ever drank (without adding milk)!
What sums up this tea: Tea Latte without milk or lots of sweetener. Also a big brain explosion on how this tea is so creamy tasting but is near pitch black, blindfolded I could almost think I added milk to it!

I love this tea and I know I need more of it!

However I’m eyeing Persimmon Trees “Coconut Creme” sample I have and wondering if it be similar (but in white tea) or with the fact it has the word “creme” in it, if it can top this Pu-erh Coconut Cacao. Stay tuned!

I think I got this sample from momo but I’m not entirely sure. I opened the envelope from her last week and then it got mixed with other stuff.

Anyway, I didn’t realize this was a pu-erh tea. Generally I do NOT like pu-erh teas, but I haven’t tried a flavoured one before now so this may be what the doctor ordered. Possibly a gateway drug into the world of pu-erh? I had another sample of this directly from The Persimmon Tree, but since I got this sample from my trader friend, I sent that one off to someone else. The sample I got was just enough for a normal sized pot for me, maybe a little weaker than it nominally would be, but that’s not a bad thing.

I’m drinking this now and while the coconut and cacao work well together and taste good, I’m still not liking the base tea very much. It adds a flavour to the taste and especially to the aftertaste that is musty and earthy and very pu-erh if that makes sense and it’s just not to my taste. It is an interesting tea though. Definitely weaker than I might be expecting otherwise but I’m pretty sure that I’m not going to finish this pot. Just had a big gulp and it made the pu-erh flavour worse.

Glad I got to try this but it just confirmed my feelings on pu-erh tea.

I’m leaving out a rating because since drinking this I have decided that I just do not like pu-erh teas at all, so I have a pretty biased opinion. I love coconut in a tea blend and based on the ingredients I had hoped to get a new favorite. Unfortunately upon even opening the sample package I thought the tea smelled, well, gross. I wanted to try it anyway, and brewed it up as instructed, but after a sip I couldn’t bring myself to finish the mug. Definitely not at all “my cup of tea.”