Tea Series Challenge: Day 11

Hello and Welcome to Day 11 of the Tea Series Challenge!

I am continuing with the vanilla theme, and chose Vanilla Peach for today.  A black tea, it is “Warm, indulgent and richly fragrant with tropical coconut.”

I actually am feeling pretty awake, but I felt like the sturdiness of black tea.  I also have a good amount to do today so a little extra oomph couldn’t hurt.  

I loosely timed the steep, which is to say that I forgot to time it and then panicked before figuring it had probably been 3-5 minutes.  My husband, who tends to have a better grasp on time, agreed.  So it’s probably fine.

Alright, ratings time:  

Appearance/Color

As befits a black tea it is a dark brown.  There might be hints of red but it’s hard to tell in a dim west-facing room in the morning.

Aroma

Vanilla mostly, maybe with a bit of peach and coconut.  It smells good and I’m not smelling anything that isn’t in the name or description.  So far so good in terms of my expectations.

Flavor

The flavor mostly lives up to the promise of the aroma.  It’s a bit bitter, but that’s my inexact steep time probably.  It is also very coconutty, which I’m not overly sure about.  The vanilla and peach are there (it’s definitely tropical-ish) but it gets a bit buried by the sheer force of the coconut.

Body or Mouthfeel

It’s fine.  A bit thin, not as smooth as some of the herbal or even green teas.

Astringency/Structure

A bit bitter, but again that’s likely my fault.  A bit bright as well, which might be the vanilla and peach.

Aftertaste/Finish

Coconut.  Just coconut.

Conclusion

Whether I have liked or felt kind of blah about the teas thus far, they have always been well-balanced.  I don’t feel that way about this one because the coconut is so heavy-handed.  Maybe it would have been different if I had only steeped it for exactly 3 minutes, but I doubt it.  I think, rather than affecting the balance, that would have just made the whole flavor less.  It also would have taken away the bitterness, one hopes, so that could help as well.  I’ll finish it but, for the first time in this series, I’m not really looking forward to it.