From the queue, written March 21st 2014
This is from the EU TTB, round 2.
Once upon a time, I had a green-type oolong with lemon flavouring. I decided then that this was a right nommy tea and that lemon and greenish oolongs were flavours that were very suited for each other indeed. Like I think orange and puerh is. Or rooibos and nuts.
Now, in the TTB I saw this, also a green-type oolong, and I reckon that pineapple, it being a tart, fresh flavour, must have the same sort of excellent matchability with oolong that lemon does.
So why does my cup now smell strongly of coconut? If I sit and quietly breathe into the cup for a while I’m getting lots of sharp pineapple as well, but on the surface it’s totally coconut-y. I don’t know what I think of this. I don’t know if it’s the pineapple which at first sniff gives off a coconut-y vibe or if I suspect coconut flavouring has also been added to this in some way. I think I’m mostly leaning towards the former. After all pineapple and coconut are things that often occur together in foods, so one could easily bring associations to the other.
I can also, to my delight, actually smell oolong in this! I had a Lupicia tea recently with grapefruit on, I believe, a green base, where I was a little sad that I couldn’t detect any tea in it at all. I don’t think I’m going to have that problem here. It has that very typical green oolong aroma, which is leafy, a bit floral and with some twinges of earthiness and wood to it.
It tastes primarily like coconut too. If I hadn’t been told what it was, I would have guessed coconut flavoured oolong. There’s a smidge of pineapple-y notes in the aftertaste, but I really do feel like it’s mostly just coconut. It’s a pleasant tea, but rather disappointing, because it’s not supposed to be coconut. I’m feeling a little pineapple-deprived.
Still, though, as I expected, I can actually taste the oolong, so that bit makes me happy. Again, it’s a sort of default green-type oolong here, and a not too floral one which is even better.
As it cools the pineapple becomes a little more apparent, but it’s still very coconut-y. At this point you cannot convince me that there is no coconut-flavouring added to this. Why did they do that?
I like this a lot. I think I would have liked it better had it actually done what it says on the box.
