Many years ago, I tried Bird & Blend’s Peppermint Cream Milk Oolong and it was one of my favourite tea I tried from the company! Therefore, when I saw this similar blend, it seemed like it would be another tasty treat!
Description: “Creamy, hand-rolled little pearls of loveliness that have been partly oxidised and lightly-roasted blended with dried coconut flakes!“
Instructions: 1 teaspoon | 80° water | 3 mins | no milk | Mixologist tip – you can re-steep this one up to 7 times!
Review: The dry blend had a strong coconut smell, followed by the grassy and milky quality of the milk oolong. The blend was made of dark green oolong pearls and coconut flakes. When I was on the Bird and Blend website, I noticed a “tip” from the company that said that the blend could be re-steeped up to 7 times. So, that is what I tried.
Infusion 1 (3 minutes): Once the water hit the blend, there was a strong milk oolong smell. The liquor brewed into a pale cloudy tan yellow. The taste was lightly coconut-ish with a milk oolong quality: milky, vegetal, and floral. It left the back of the throat dry. When cooled, the liquor had a strong milk oolong taste.
Infusion 2 (3 minutes and 30 seconds): The liquor was less cloudy but still yellow pale in colour. It had a stronger coconut and milk oolong taste and like Infusion 1, the oolong taste was stronger when cooled. The leaves had mostly unfurled by this point.
Infusion 3 (4 minutes): The liquor remained a pale colour and the grassy notes of milk oolong were all that reminded as the flavour was starting to wane.
Infusion 4 (4 minutes and 30 seconds): The liquor was paler and still smelled like milk oolong and was mildly grassy and was drying at the back of the throat.
Infusion 5 (5 minutes): The liquor was clear and the taste was delicate.
Infusion 6 (5 minutes and 30 seconds): The liquor was transparent and there was no real remaining taste.
Infusion 7 (6 minutes): Similar to Infusion 6.
The wet leaves were a mix of broken leaves and full leaves with coconut flakes. The blend did not have much of a smell after 7 infusions.
Despite trying this tea multiple times, I found the flavour really started to wane after Infusion 4. Throughout the re-steeping of the blend, the coconut taste became fainter and fainter. I liked the milk oolong taste, which had a nice vegetal, grassy, and floral range. However, I found the coconut smell was much stronger than how it tasted when brewed and I was hoping for a strong flavour. I am unsure if it was my batch or if the coconut is generally more delicate in this blend. While the blend wasn’t bad, it just wasn’t what I was hoping for seeing coconut was the first word in the name of the blend (2/5 rating).
- Type: Oolong tea
- Origin: Unknown
- Caffeine: Unknown
- Ingredients: Taiwanese milk oolong, coconut flakes, desiccated coconut
- Company: Bird & Blend Co.
The question of the post: What tea would you pair with coconut?
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