314 Tasting Notes
Hmm….
Smells a little berry-ish, dry.
The taste is like Thomas Sampson’s second cousin—twice removed.
This a very mild black tea. Very easy to drink. No astringency. No bitterness.
Soft and agreeable, I think.
Slighty sweet toward the end.
There’s not much to say, I guess. It’s a likeable tea, but not memorable, at least for me.
I’m still blown away by the scent and flavor of this tea. Tonight, I’m detecting more of a smoky, woodsy element to the hazelnuts. And the texture seems richer and thicker—again, remniscent of coffee. This reminds me of long study nights at the local coffeehouse. It has a “bohemian” aura.
The cocoa is more bitter than normal and a bit chalky…so I lowered my score a little. Maybe there are differences with each tea bag. I wonder how the loose leaf compares?
It may be sacrilege to add anything to a premium matcha like this, but I added some cream anyway and it was delicious! :)
Nah, while matcha is perfect alone- I flavor mine often.:)
Thanks Cofftea! And I bet this would be amazing with strawberry milk added! But I know matcha purists would cringe! :)
Can totally dig the strawberry flavor, but I’m not a fan of milk/creamer in my matcha- but since you are, I bet that’d be killer for ya:)
This is like a fresh green coconut husk in tea form! The combination of the slightly bitter, astringent green tea leaves and sweet coconut milk flavoring is spectacular! I’m very much reminded of tropical islands. For me, tropical islands are all about the coconut trees, coconut milk, palm trees, banana leaves, bamboo and teakwood—and, somehow, I’m reminded of it all when I drink this tea. It’s very good.
So far, I’m loving my GM samples—thanks Golden Moon! I definitely need to order a full tin soon.
I don’t care for coconut, but coconut husk sounds interesting!
Yes, it’s a very fresh, young coconut—with a bit of woodsy-green taste. When I tasted this, I immediately thought of a coconut husk! One that has just been freshly opened to drink from. Very refreshing!
Steeping parameters? It was delicious the first time around and the second time it was okay.
I’m not a stickler for steeping, really. But I would say I steeped this for about 8 minutes in boiled water. I’m on my second steeping now and it’s even milder (obviously). Maybe it would be better, like the directions say, with milk and sugar added?
Woah…. eight minutes!?!? And only mild? I thought it became a strong ceylon after four/five minutes.
Yeah, eight minutes..I know it’s kinda overboard…but I forgot about it because I was busy reading about pu-erhs on the Bana Tea site.
Eight minutes is many minutes. I was wondering about the astringency you found in the pouchong…I’m guessing the water was much hotter than 175, and the steep time longer than 3!
I know that the steeping time was longer than 3 minutes for the Coconut Pouchong. So I’m not sure why the astringency is absent for this. An anomaly, I guess?
Astringency in greens usually occurs from over steeping and using really hot water. I think the recommended of Coconut Pouchong is like 185-195F?
Hmm….I will try understeeping it in the future—but even with the astringency, I loved the pouchong! It was my first pouchong, so definitely want to try others!
Wait—I guess “pouchongs” are another word for “oolongs”? In that case, it was actually my third oolong (first being the Ginseng Oolong from Teas Etc and then the Sugar Caramel Oolong). I think I love oolongs in general! ;)