Coconut Assam

My grocery store recently revamped their tea section and part of that revamping including selling new vendors, Zhi Tea being one of them. I was looking to see if I could find one of the yummy-sounding unflavored teas Zhi offers but it looks like my grocery store is just offering a selection of their flavored blends. Somehow, I will manage to cope. Coconut will help in the coping process.

I’m a bit mixed on this tea. First off, it smells awesome. Honest-to-goodness coconut with a touch of bakey. The steeping tea smells even better than the dry leaves – musty/sweet coconut. It makes my mouth water. Though after smelling the steeping leaves, going back to smell the dry leaves makes me notice something unpleasant in the smell, something almost fake or plastic. Maybe it is the coconut flavoring or maybe I’m smelling the packaging. I’m going to ignore it for now and just smell the steeping tea.

Once I get the tea into my cup, the coconut smell is milder than it was in the steeping leaves, but it’s still quite nice. I do so love coconut. (Though I rarely eat it because I can’t get behind the texture. Yuck.) Still, quite lovely. But it’s the taste of this tea that has me a little torn.

First off, let me explain. I used to log every single cup of tea that I drank. I can be a little too structured with things like that. But then Steepster slowed down to a snail’s pace and logging was too frustrating so I went away for a while (all or nothing, you know). Now I’m trying a little moderation – logging teas to review them but not being obsessive about it. So this is not the first time I’ve had this cup since I purchased it, it’s just the first time I’m posting (and being coherent) with my thoughts on it.

The first time I had this, it was more Assam with a coconut aftertaste. The Assam was nice – honeyed, bakey, a little starchy – but the coconut felt a bit lacking. This time, however, there is coconut all through the sip, from beginning to end. Good, strong, lovely coconut. I can taste the Assam underneath the coconut, but it doesn’t seem as nice as before. Starchy, malty and maybe slightly sweet. But sometimes I also get flashes of… watery. And strong prickles of astringency that weren’t there before. And the honeyed note is all but gone, replace (or overwhelmed) by a faint tartness that doesn’t quite enter into Bitter-land but definitely has been planning a trip there.

So it seems like my choices for this tea are either 1) delicious, smooth and sweet Assam with a disappointingly faint aftertaste of coconut or 2) strong, full coconut flavor with a rough and unpleasant Assam. I’m not sure how one tea gives two such different cups when brewed the same way both times. Ideally, I’d like the sweet and smooth Assam note to be coupled with a beginning-to-end coconut note. Maybe the third time will be the charm. Or else my next cup will be faint coconut aftertaste coupled with a rough and watery Assam.

So see? Torn. It’s a bit too roulette wheel for my tastes but the potential for awesomeness is there. But this is either inconsistent or picky. And since both attributes make me grumpy when I find them in tea, I suppose I’ll be sticking to SerendipiTEA’s Burroughs’ Brew for my coconut tea cravings.

Tea of the morning….

I recently ordered from Zhi to stock up on Gong Fu Black, and this was a 20 g free sample. Smell is of coconut, and the steeped tea is rather smooth, slightly malty, lightly coconutty. There is a good balance between the base and flavor. Even though this one is also slightly buttery, it is much more subtle in flavor than something like David’s Buttered Rum. I would call it more sophisticated. I do think this will be up for condsideration the next time I order at Zhi, but it is not the kind of tea you plan an order around, if that makes sense.

24 oz teapot, 6 actual tsp tea, freshly boiled water, 3 minutes. Lightly sweetened. Second steep at 5 minutes was just as good as the first.

Thanks to a deal from a year or so ago, I have a ton of 2oz bags of this. Luckily it works out since this tends to be a tea I can reach for when I’m not sure what I want.
I finally brought a bag in to work today and enjoyed a cup this morning

Grabbed a small package of this while visiting relatives in Texas – haven’t seen it anywhere around home.

I really, really want to like coconut tea. I love the smell of them but it always seems like once they are brewed they remind me of suntan lotion.

This doesn’t remind me as much of it. But I still won’t be making it part of my normal stock. Of the coconut teas I have tried, this is probably one of the better. The coconut tastes less fake than others and it has more coconut taste than others as well. The coconut didn’t overwhelm the tea but at the same time I’m not sure I could tell you much about the tea itself.

Sipdown! (33 | 442)

I don’t know why I ordered so many coconut teas from Zhi Tea. Clearly I was in a coconutty mood when I browsed their website, even though I don’t tend to love coconut-focused teas…

This one is decent. The coconut is quite strong, but also a bit creamy and almost buttery. It doesn’t taste terribly artificial either, reminding me a bit of canned coconut cream. The Assam base is present but I wouldn’t call it strong. It’s also a bit nondescript, lacking the nice malty and raisin notes of a flavorful Assam.

It’s a good tea, but not a great one. I’m sure someone who really loves coconut would like it more than I do, and it would probably be nice with milk and sugar as well.

GCTTB

Well, this is a pretty nice assam. Smooth and malty. Is there coconut? Not really. It is a little creamy and slightly sweet so perhaps that is where the coconut comes in but I find myself searching for the coconut flavor. If this were simply an assam tea it would be a nice option but I find myself wanting more from a tea that has coconut in its name. Thank you Mookit for adding it to the box. It was a fun tea to try :)

GCTTB Round 6

Cold Brew!

Originally when I was looking through things in the box to try I skipped past this one, but then putting things back in the box I gave it a second glance and I’m really glad I did because this cold brew was absolutely phenomenal!

The coconut notes were just so rich and had the perfect level of sweetness and freshness! It really, really strongly reminded me of coconut macaroons. Like, instantly I was able to place that sweet confectionery treat and it was so satisfying! Buttery, creamy, and with vanilla undertones. I wanted to dunk it into milk; but of course I was drinking a tea and not eating cookies, so that wasn’t totally feasible.

Excellent though! Truly excellent.

Another Zhi tea sample I got for Xmas! I’m always impressed with a tea that I can enjoy without any additives. A lot of the time with blacks they have to bitter of a bite, especially malty breakfast teas that I have been loving on so much lately, so I adjust them with cream and sweetener. This tea however is super smooth and creamy on it’s own. The assam and coconut merge so well together that it is hard to tell the two apart. Most coconut teas that I have encountered are green unless it is a mix of many flavors that uses coconut to add something, not be the focal point of the tea. I am enjoying this enough to debate if it should be a staple in my collection, but coconut has tendency to go bad faster than I can finish a bag, so maybe sample sizes are a better route for this. Hmmmm….. tea things to ponder.

This is a pretty solid, if not remarkable, tea. All the elements are there. A nice coconut flavor. The Assam gives it a good background to work with. The bitterness factor is low to none if you steep it correctly. I bet I could make this really pop with a splash of some coconut coffee creamer. I can almost hear some of you gasping and clutching at your pearls. I get it. I often like my tea unadulterated as well. I could make an exception for this tea though.

This tea really surprised me with the delicate coconut flavour. I had enjoyed plain assam before so I knew that it had the potential to be good, but I wasn’t expecting to really enjoy this tea on my first try. I did put a little bit too much leaf, leading to slight bitterness, but overall this will be one of my new go-to teas for the morning or during that afternoon slump. The body is really smooth and the coconut adds a nice kick of tropical sweetness. Smells very pleasantly too!