Coconut Oolong

Thank you Zen Tea for this lovely sample! A nice sized sample to boot!
I love coconut oolongs, pouchongs, etc when they are made well and this one sure is!
The coconut flavor is perfect and NOT artificial at all!
LOVELY oolong base tea!
Sweet and floral and vegetal and a wonderful after taste!
Look for a detailed review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ coming soon!

Getting back to my Zen Tea samples…this one I’ve been thinking about since I got it, for some reason I just never wanted it. Totally kicking myself over that.

There are plenty of coconut oolongs out there, but even after just one cup, I feel like this one is my favorite. I like that it is really reminiscent of coconut milk and cake. Can you imagine a tres leches cake made with coconut milk? Coconut milk, cream of coconut, and idk what else, maybe you’d be set for life with just dos leches cake with coconut. That’s what I think of this.

It’s sweet, buttery, creamy, cakey, and most importantly it tastes like coconut milk. It’s not super coconut tasting, which I like because the oolong still shines through.

This is another I will definitely have to give a try cold brewed, because it’ll probably be amazing.

Thank you SO much Zen Tea for this amazing sample!

Coconut Oolong, where have you been all my life? This is a seriously amazing oolong, it’s delicate but full of coconut flavour – CREAMY and slightly floral while being naturally sweet.
Milky and buttery – the dry smell almost reminded me of buttered popcorn.

Resteeping and putting in the fridge for a delicious iced tea, I can’t wait!

This will definitely be a cupboard staple when I have the means.

I’m finally getting down to this. I have some cold brewing in the fridge, but for now, I’ve only experienced this hot.

The dry leaf smells like milky, creamy coconut. Toasted coconut. My mom commented that it smells good enough to eat, like baked goods. Macaroons maybe?

The taste is quite pleasant. A little more floral than expected, but the coconut is there. I wouldn’t be surprised if the coconut comes out even more in the cold brew. I think I may prefer DT’s version though. It’s more coconutty. I’m a coconut fiend so I always appreciate more. I see it’s not on their site anymore but I wonder if some stores still carry it.

I’m watching International Househunters right now, and they’re showing Kongsberg, Norway! Love this show. It’s a wonderful way to see the world. Paired with this tea, it’s a relaxing morning.

Cavocorax sent me a parcel about a week ago that included this amazing tea! Thank you- I’ve been eying this for some time now. My roommate can attest to the amount of squeeing that went on when I opened this up. Love the evasive coconut smell- it even took over my room for a few days. :)

I couldn’t help but hold this up to the Coconut Pouchong from Golden Moon Tea, which is one of my favourite teas. Despite my love for that pouchong, and unfortunately for Golden Moon, I can’t afford the $15 addition for shipping it literally a few hours across the boarder. until I manage to make my way down to Seattle and pick this up in person I’ll need a substitute- and I think I’ve found it in this oolong!

It’s straight up coconut and floral green oolong. This comes off as more roasted nutty, and dessert-like than the other pouchong; I read Kittena’s note about this tasting more “flavoured”, which I feel puts it nicely. It’s not exactly the same but It’s now a staple! It’s one of the few oolong teas I make potfuls of!

This is pretty good! Very much like Golden Moon’s Coconut Pouchong, although it tastes a little more “flavoured”. Basically, you can taste the delicious pouchong base with toasty notes of coconut and as it says in the description, a nice hit of floral from the base tea as well. IMO it’s a bit less subtle than Coconut Pouchong, but perhaps I used more leaf here. My mom likes coconut pouchong (but I didn’t really want to leave my whole package here), and she seems to like this one as well, so I’m leaving the rest of my pouch here.

Thanks to Zen Tea for this sample! It’s nice to know that I can get a good coconut oolong from a Canadian company!

Thank you to Zen Tea for the nice sized sample!

I’m no oolong expert, but this oolong is very nice. I haven’t had too many other coconut flavored oolongs, but this does compare to Mandarin Silk from Persimmon Tree Tea.

This flavor is smooth, very rich, and definitely coconut-y, but not overly so. This is a great oolong for people, like me, who might be a little underwhelmed with oolongs and want a little kick. It’s still a delicious treat even without any sweetener in it!

My samples from Zen Tea came in yesterday, and man do they all smell good! I have two cold brews to try today, with this one being first. I was the most excited about this one, I even asked for the Green Coconut as well to compare the two. GMT’s Coconut Pouchong is one of my favorite teas, and I was hoping this one would be similar since they have the same base & flavoring combo.

The coconut flavor here is SO good! Kind of toasty bake-y, but also with some fresh coconut sweetness. It’s a nice combo, and really natural tasting. Fake coconut is… blargh, reminds me of suntan lotion, but thankfully this tea doesn’t remind me of a day at the beach. Well, maybe a tropical beach, sitting on a little foldy chair while sipping a drink from a coconut. Mm yeah, this is a vacation drink for sure! Some teas really transport you by association, kind of a mental vacation. And this, well, it’s so relaxing and refreshing, makes me feel like it’s still summer.

The Bao Zhong is lovely too, lightly floral and a little creamy. A perfect compliment to the succulent coconut! This obviously reminds me a LOT of GMT’s Coconut Pouchong, in fact I like it just as much. Coconut + oolong is a winning combination for sure!

This one has me baffled. I love coconut. I love oolong. I love coconut and oolong together. I just don’t much care for this one. I have read the other reviews and it seems everyone else has loved this tea. I must conclude then, that it is just me. Strange. I was very impressed with the previous 5 teas I have tasted from Zen Tea. Not so much with this one. To me, the dry leaf smells of coconut liquor (alcohol). The wet leaf smells pineapple and the mug smells like gym socks. When the cup cools, it does get creamy and the aftertaste is nice, like a floral tiguanyin. I just can’t get passed the smell. Do read the other reviews, as apparently I just don’t get it.

Another great tea from Zen, many thanks for the sample!

I love coconut as well as oolongs, so this was a big hit. The coconut flavoring is very similar to the Coconut Sencha that Zen also offers, but less toasty and more creamy – partially the oolong base I would imagine.

I’m on my 5th steeping and the coconut flavor has just started to fade. Impressive!

I’m torn between the Green Sencha and the Oolong to be honest. I think I might prefer the creamy nature of Oolong a little over the Sencha, but it’s a close call. Hmmm…I might just have bite the bullet and order both!

AAERRRRGGGGGGGGGGHHHH!
So mad right now! I was going to do a side by side tasting of Zen Tea’s Coconut Green and Coconut Oolong.. and a huge ugly a$$ fly fell into my cup of coconut green before I could taste both teas together! EWWW! I was almost tempted to scoop out the fly and drink, but decided against it. Eww. Cry.

I chose this Coconut green and their Coconut Oolong from Zen teas – see which one I like more!

DRY: Sweet, natural coconut smell, with a hint of smokey.
STEEPED: Milky coconut, light gold tea.

TASTE: Lightly floral, vegetal and creamy oolong, sweeter from the coconut with a really good coconut aftertaste. The coconut here is very natural tasting – I can almost sense the texture of the coconut flesh while I sip. Creamy taste lingers in my mouth.

Second infusion, I cannot get any coconut flavor but the oolong is still good – sweet, lightly floral and bright. I’d drink this second infusion on its own! No astringency.

COMMENTS: This oolong is pretty solid – a great combo with the bao zhong. The second infusion is pretty good too, despite lacking coconut.

Comparison (copy n pasted to Coconut Green)
Coconut green = More balanced flavoring with coconut and sencha together
Coconut oolong = the coconut melds with the oolong, enhancing the creamy and sweet of the bao zhong, with a coconut finish.

Tough call, I’m leaning on Coconut oolong more as the whole experience is overall fantastic, but coconut green has a really good flavoring as well.

This smells like coconut candy. Which is amazing right now because I seriously need something sweet and relaxing.
Actually… it really smells like buttery coconut shrimp. Which sounds weird but is, again, amazing. I seriously love oolongs.
I was a little disappointed with the flavor – it was kind of thin. I added a little extra leaves anyway so I think I would need to brew this longer, closer to three minutes to really get the flavor – I was missing the lilac notes too.
It does smell amazing though.

I’m still waiting for my Della Terra Teas order from Black Friday (#sadness) full of dessert blacks, and a few rooibos/honeybush samples, but my Zen Tea order came today!

After trying my oolong samples from Tea from Taiwan, I knew I wanted to try more oolongs so when Zen Tea started their 50% off sale (on Friday) I had to somehow justify ordering some. :P Good thing I did as a lot of the teas are sold out already! :O I got a lot for $21 (with shipping).

I picked up:
Oolongs – Coconut (50g), Monkey-Picked (20g) and Iron Goddess Mercy (20g).
Pu-erh – Loose. (20g) (Just so I could see what Pu-erh is.)
White – Toffee Dream. (50g) (Again because I don’t know what White Tea is like – I had it in DavidsTeas Cookie Dough but it was hidden?)
Rooibos – Raspberry Vanilla! (70g) (I had this as a sample first. I’m gifting 50g of this.)
Black – Assam Mangalam Second Flush FTGFOP1 (20g)(Because I haven’t had Assam and this one was highly rated. Maybe I’ll learn the difference between all these blacks)

The actual review is here. :P
With all these new teas, it was hard to decide which one to try. I’m happy I started with this one though. IT SMELLS SO GOOD.

I’ve had oolong enough now to recognize its characteristics better: with each sip I am getting toasty coconut notes, mixed in with the buttery / floral oolong. The coconut isn’t as strong as the initial smell would have me believe, but this is actually a good thing as I was worried the oolong would be overwhelmed and it isn’t. It seems like every oolong I try has complex flavors – this one is no different. Each sip is just a little different. AMAZING. The aftertaste is nice and creamy too. I will resteep it later!

I think it’s real coconut flavour too!

A big THANK YOU to Zen Tea for this delicious sample. It’s so smooth and the coconut flavor is like drinking milk from a fresh coconut. The oolong is mild and allows the coconut to really shine. This is a tea I want to have around at all times. Looking forward to re-steeping it for another yummy cup! Hoping it motivates me to get my much needed house cleaning done.

OK, now I know what people mean when they say a tea is buttery! I love coconut so I kinda had to buy this tea. (AND cavocorax sent me a sample but I ended up buying my own before it got here.. haha.) But I think if I had waited I wouldn’t have bought this. Not yet, anyway. The smell of oolong (?) is nauseating. :s I really didn’t want to try this tea once smelling it after steeping! I put it down and learned some crochet and forgot about til just now… but it’s better than it smells, for sure! I …actually like it. SURPRISED. But the smell is still turning my stomach, so I don’t know how eager I’ll be to make this again. Holding off rating for now, maybe oolong just isn’t for me? Will have to do a plain one soon to compare (since the long life oolong from David’s Tea also went so horribly wrong for me – although I was WAY more careful about temperature and steep time for this one)…. #adventuresinteatime

A review of Coconut Oolong (Oolong tea flavoured) by Zen Tea

Date: 10/10/2012
Company: Zen Tea
Tea Name: Coconut Oolong
Tea Type/Varietal: Oolong
Region: China
Steeping Vessel/Amt. Leaf: cup/ leaf
Plucking Season:
Liquor Color: light brownish / amber
Leaf Characteristics: tea leaves appeared to be withered then fried perhaps when I open the tea packet. It smells strongly of the coconut.

1. Steepings: 2 steeps, 1st steep was too strong 2nd not too bad; so longer steeps might dilute the tea’s strong aroma. It is not jasmine but exudes like a jasmine tea with coconut.

1st Steeping:
Water temperature: 175 Fahrenheit
Time: 3 minutes

Note: I took one teaspoon of the leaves and put this in my cup and poured the water that began boiling and let to cool into the cup over the leaves and left to steep for a few minutes. After the set time, I strain out the tea leaves and pour the tea into another cup and the color is light brown and smells strongly of coconuts. I find this a bit over powering because I tend to not like coconut. When I taste the tea it is very sweet as if sugar is present but I have not added a thing to it.

2nd Steeping:
Water temperature: 190 Fahrenheit
Time: 3 minutes

Note: I decided to boil the water longer and using the same tea leaves I pour the water over the tea leaves in my cup and left to steep for 3 minutes. I want less of the coconut this time; or I am hoping to not smell it as much. With the first cup of tea I had I thought I smelled something like vanilla but it may have been the lilac, but I am not sure. There is a faint scent underneath the coconut which makes me think of vanilla bean.

The teas’ aroma is lightly coconut and floral like with sweetness to it as well that permeates the air. It is like candy / sugary. I don’t smell the coconut as much now; it is not as annoying I should say.

I will have to leave this oolong alone for a while. I am happy to review oolong teas but this one seems a bit too strong in aroma.

Thank you Zen Tea for this large sample! I opened the package and smelled it- STRONG coconut! That made me a little worried this would be very artificial tasting. I followed their directions of 1 tsp of tea per cup , and steeped for 3 minutes. I am very pleased with how it turned out! The coconut is present but isn’t nasty artificial tasting, and the oolong base is creamy. The only thing that would make this better is if it had real coconut in it, but I think this as good as a coconut tea can get without it! It’s quite good!

I was so excited for my samples from Zen Tea – and surprised that they arrived so quickly! The Coconut Oolong was the first one I opened, and I was very happy with the toasted coconut scent that hit my nose!

Once brewed, the toastiness definitely remained, but I’m not so sure about a real presence of coconut flavour. This tea is good enough that it really doesn’t matter – I loved it anyway. It was comforting and just what I was looking for. I appreciated that it wasn’t an artificial tasting coconut tea. I will probably order more of this with my next order.

It’s been a while since I’ve drank any oolong, and this wasn’t a bad way to get back into it. The coconut smell is rather strong from the dry leaves and stays present once steeped. It brews to a pale golden color with a very, very buttery mouthfeel. Seriously, this is one of the most buttery teas I’ve tasted. There’s a bit of a vegetal aftertaste. This one won’t win over anyone who isn’t a fan of oolong, but it’s not bad to have in your cabinet. I think I’m going to ice my next cup and see how that turns out.

I have had this tea many times now and it has become one of my favorites and one I will always keep on hand. I have it while I work and steep it many times and the taste changes each time but continues to be wonderful! coconut flavor but not overwhelming or artificial, I find it calming and soothing to me.