Coconut green

I love coconut and am always on the lookout for a nice coconut green tea. Key word being green. I’ve had a few coconut oolongs and pouchongs which are all fine and dandy, and some red rooibos which aren’t for me, but I wanted a green tea. Now Teavana came out with a green coconut cream tea that’s exclusive to their website, you can’t get it in the store. I bought some thinking I was going to like it, I didn’t. It was sencha with coconut and white chocolate pieces…I don’t like white chocolate and I certainly don’t like it in my tea and it was too much and too creamy for me.

So, I go to Zen Tea and find this gorgeous little yixing teapot that grabs my heart and I don’t find too many teas that grab my attention. Then I see this coconut green tea, again coconut with sencha and figure why not. I thought of grabbing just a sample but did 50g instead. Glad I got 50g instead of a sample! The yixing pot is too cute at 3.72 oz which will be dedicated to dancongs.

And this tea is so simple and delicious! It’s a nice sencha base with dried coconut pieces and apparently some flavoring which I can only imagine to be more coconut. Upon opening the bag I smell the sweet grassy sencha and the sweet coconut. This coconut is different from oolong or pouchong in that it is much lighter. It reminds me of sweetened shredded coconut used for baking, the kind that I will sit down and eat straight out of the bag…I like coconut :) But the greatest thing about this tea is that it was green tea and coconut and that’s it, no extra anything! No pineapple, no lemongrass, no rhubarb, no mango, nothing! It’s great I love it! The sencha is the perfect base for the coconut and the neither the coconut nor the sencha overpowered the other, well balanced. If you like coconut and green tea go try some!

Pics of new yixing! You can see my cup of the coconut green tea on the table.

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I could have sworn that I wrote something about this tea already! Upon further inspection it appears I haven’t, even though I drank it about a week ago. Curious indeed. I don’t know why I would have put it off: this was really a great tea! I also got the Coconut Oolong from them, basically for the sake of comparing and contrasting two coconut teas. I love coconut and would really like to find one that 1) I love and 2) is affordable enough to make big pitchers of. Now, their Coconut Oolong was fantastic but first off too expensive for everyday use (not a fault, of course, oolongs just tend to be pricey!) and was also similar to a tea I already have (GMT’s Coconut Pouchong.)

Right at the start, this tea has a lot of the things I am looking for in a nice iced tropical blend. Reasonable price, actual coconut bits, and it smells great! Of course, the time for iced tea here has come and gone, in fact I’m sipping an iced green right now and shivering… yet I continue to drink, because I just love iced tea so much! I swear, it’ll be the dead of winter during one of those NY blackouts and I’ll be drinking iced tea while freezing my butt off under a pile of blankets.

Anyway, onto the tea! It’s definitely quite coconutty—not the same super strong upfront coconut as the oolong, a more delicate and somehow relaxed tea. It isn’t super fancy or frilly, it’s just a great everyday tea. Most of my absolute favorites are in the same category: as nice as it is to have fancy, special occasion teas I am very loyal to the ones I can have all the time and find myself reaching for over and over again. And this… yes, it definitely delivers on that front. It’s light, sweet, fresh coconut, with a strong but not overly dominant green base. Which is exactly what I was looking for! Sadly, I have to wait until it’s October to order any more tea since I have to use my debit card 10 times a month (or face the wrath of banking fees). But this and the Orange Grapefruit will definitely come home with me!

Mmmm, coconut. I just couldn’t resist. The dry leaf smells like creamy, creamy coconut. Straight up, simple yet that’s how it sometimes should be.

I’ve only had this iced so far. In fact, I’m on my third jug, cold brewed, and I’m super happy with this. The base is mellow and refreshing, and the coconut tastes like freshly shredded coconut. Wonderful choice for the hot weather.

Definitely my favourite Zen Tea so far. I’m curious about the oolong, but will maybe wait a few more days before trying it.

This is the third and final sample from Zen Tea in this round of tastings!

I requested this sample because a young man who works at the big tea company which shall not be named told me that this is one of his favorite teas. He really encouraged me to try it sometime. What better time than now when Zen is offering to let me pick a flavor to try?

I served this at tea party today as our final tea. The last tea is usually served after we have eaten all we are going to eat, so I often choose a flavored tea for that spot.

The dry leaf has an amazing coconut aroma. The wet leaves, when removed from the pot, scared me a little as they had a bitter smell. Nothing to worry, though, because the actual tea was sweet and smooth.

The coconut flavor is really dominant here and tastes very natural and pure. It is just like opening the bag of Baker’s Flake Coconut for the first time, and the smell of the sweet coconut rushes out.
There is nothing bitter or offensive in this anywhere.

Another great tea from Zen!

Another gorgeous tea from Zen.

Dry, this smells amazing! Granted, I absolutely LOVE coconut. I’ve been on a search for a Coconut green and I think this might be it! It’s just lovely – smooth, toasty coconut with a great sencha base. Mmmm, so good!

All of the Zen teas I’ve tried thus far have been hits, and writing a review seems to be difficult as I’m not wanting to stop sipping and put the cup down. So good.

TY out to Zen Tea for a sample of this!

I do like my coconut – especially these days since my husband and his family hate it, so I’m mysteriously drawn to coconut more and more.

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

DRY: Smells like coconut milk with a hint of grassyness. Interesting

STEEPED: Fragrant green, with a creamy smell. Golden green colour.

TASTE: Sweet coconut, like eating a fresh baby coconut – buttery, milky, naturally sweet. All this is balanced with a sencha base. No bitterness.

The flavor has no fancy frills – just coconut and sencha, no chocolate, pineapple or stevia. Actually, from all these Zen teas I’ve tried, they follow that theme – no frills or wild blends, simple flavoring, playing up the tea.

COMMENTS:
Very good! I like how balanced the coconut and sencha are. If you prefer a green over oolong, I’d give this tea a try.

Comparison
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 good balance I enjoy.

I’m not a huge fan of coconut but I do really like this tea. The dry leaves are long, deep green, and very fresh looking. They are covered with a generous scattering of small flakes of coconut that are absorbing the colour of the sencha. The tea smells strongly of fresh coconut.

The brewed tea smells of a less sweet version of coconut squares, both sweet and of cooked fresh coconut. It brews to a deep yellow. The first flavour notes are a top note of nutty coconut meat, followed by a sweetness that hints of marzipan.

The Tea base is at first silky, with a flavour that adds to the teas sweetness and which is followed by a refreshing aftertaste and a tingling on the tongue. The flavour of the tea blends with the
coconut leaving just a hint of something savory and vegetal. This tea has a strong sweet coconut flavour.

During the second steep the coconut flavour is unchanged and present but the sweet green tea base is more present and softens the coconut and there is a faint bitterness and a hint of fresh green leafy vegetables. This tea holds up to around 5 steeps if one is careful with steeping time and brewing temperature.

This is a great tea for those who enjoy coconut and who value a well presented simplicity in there blends.

I’m alternating sips of Coconut Green with sips of Coconut Oolong (also by Zen Tea). The tea itself is definitely more prominent in the Coconut Green. Coconut is there, too, but very lightly. This could be partly due to my steeping, however, as they recommend 85C, and I let the water cool to about 70C (I forgot about it) before steeping. It might have a stronger flavour if I used a higher temp. I’ll try that next time.

It’s good, but I think I prefer the Oolong a bit more.

ETA: I just mixed the two types together in my cup, and I really like the mix. They seem to balance each other out well. I’ll try steeping them together next time.