Coconut Macaroon

It’s amazing how much TEA can really turn my mood around!

This is the first of MANY from Compass Teas I will be writing about over the next few days/weeks! I’m so excited!

Dry this COMPLETELY smells like coconut and Macaroons! Awww-YEAH!

Once the water was added and had time to work it’s magic I sipped and sipped!

Yup! Crusty/Bakey/Cakey/Cookie with coconut and macaroon goodness! Nice taste-match! Really neat flavored black tea! YUMMO!

I prefer macarons over macaroons, to the point I have an irrational hatred for macaroons for when people spell macarons like macaroons.

But I do like coconut. A lot.

So this was okay at first without sugar. It smells really nutty. But what I think must be the base tea is giving it this smoky aftertaste. It’s not offputting enough for me to dump the cup, but it just really doesn’t match the sweet cookie thing this tea has going on otherwise. I added milk and sugar and it makes it more tolerable, as does letting it cool off a bit more.

I added way more sugar than I usually do, which makes this tea taste like I’m having dessert for breakfast.

Thanks, JoonSusanna!

This is the first tea that I’m trying from the Traveling Tea Box! It actually came on Saturday, but we had a friend staying with us over the weekend and I didn’t check the mail until late Sunday afternoon. Needless to say, I’ve been excitedly waiting and barely containing myself until everyone left and I had a quiet house all to myself to dig into this huge box of tea!

The dry leaf of this tea smells heavenly. I can detect a rich black tea smell with a lot of sweet and nutty baked cookie aromas swirling around. I followed the instructions on the package and only steeped this tea for two minutes, and am surprised at just how darkly colored the tea itself is. To me, the flavor is more malty and almost smokey black tea than anything else. I did add some milk and sugar, and it brought out a little more of the sweet coconut, but there is still a lingering smokiness. Even though I love coconut and macaroons, and this tea has only a faint hint of those two flavors, I am really enjoying this cup! The black tea base is really wonderful, and it takes milk well and becomes almost creamy. I’m glad this first tea from the Traveling Tea Box was a hit!

-Dry blend has medium black tea leaves and twigs.
-Dry leaves smell like rich black tea with a hint of sweet and nutty baked cookies. Tea liquor aroma is of black tea and sweet coconut.
-Tea liquor is a clear very dark brown color.
-Deep malty flavor with a lightly sweet finish. Very faint coconut aftertaste with some smokiness.
-Best with milk and sweetener.
-Good tea. Very light coconut cookie flavor. Strong black tea base takes milk and sugar well.

Backlog:

Yum! This is a tea that benefits from a few moments cooling time … to allow the flavors to develop. The coconut flavors are prominent, with a nice nutty undertone that doesn’t necessarily scream out to me that it’s a macadamia nut flavor but, it’s still quite a nice, warm, nutty flavor. The bake-y quality of the black tea lends a cookie-ish note to the cup and ties it all together. It’s really tasty.

Here’s my full-length review: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/03/08/coconut-macaroon-black-tea-blend-from-compass-teas/

My faith in Compass Teas is sadly fading…. not a big fan of this one. At least I can taste the coconut here, and it’s alright (whew, not rancid!), but it’s a very plain, boring tea, with a very unremarkable base that’s verging on astringency with even just a short 2-minute infusion. It’s not terrible, and if milk/sweetener didn’t cover up the mild coconut flavour, it might actually be good that way, but I’m not keen to have this one again.

Oops – forgot to thank JoonSusanna for passing some of this along :) Always curious to try, even if a tea doesn’t work for me!