Jun 20
Review: Zhi Tea Tropical Green
Green Tea, Iced Tea, Papaya Tea, Pineapple Tea, Sencha Tea, Zhi Tea Add commentsJamie’s Teaview Snapshot
 | "You will enjoy the riotous colors of numerous flower petals in reds, hot pink, bright orange and flaming yellows. Against the dark green and lightly shaggy sencha, they stand out like fireworks and chunks of organic papaya and pineapple round out the busy blend."
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This new tea blend from Zhi is a real beauty. I think you will enjoy the riotous colors of numerous flower petals in reds, hot pink, bright orange and flaming yellows. Against the dark green and lightly shaggy sencha, they stand out like fireworks and chunks of organic papaya and pineapple round out the busy blend. Quite celebratory to look at, it gives you a happy little feeling when you look at it, and the smell is tropical indeed; quite sweet and strong with pineapple and the heavier musk of papaya as an underlayment.For our afternoon tea, I used a tablespoon plus a teaspoon of the tea to 24 ounces of water that I brought close to a boil, around 180 or so. I steeped three minutes and poured out two cups of a brew colored like a russet apple and a distinctly tropical scent that was pleasantly subdued from the scent of the dry leaf.
The taste was quite mild after the strong scenting and might surprise you with how fresh and clear it tastes. My first sips don't yield a great deal of fruit taste, which seems incomprehensible, but as the tea cools just slightly, more and more comes through, till it tastes quite fruity to me. The sencha base is quite mild and complementary to the bolder fruit flavors, not really overpowered, but sort of what you'd expect to find in a tropical blend, just providing a backdrop.
You can really vary the juicy tropical nature of this tea tremendously by either sweetening it or not. The tea is quite sweet on its own and doesn't call for any if aren't inclined, but adding a little sweetener boosts the pineapple and papaya to a more over the top level that, again, you may or may not be inclined toward. The pineapple is really bold and the papaya is heavier but helps to build the overall sweetness. The tropical tastes linger in the mouth.
An unsweetened second infusion, to my tastes, was really pleasant. The green of the sencha takes the stage and the tropics back off a bit. The tea is extremely mild on the second infusions, but makes a pleasant tea for an early morning sip. I thought this was a nicely flavored green, and that's given that I'm really not a big fan of flavored greens, but in this case, the tropical twist seemed well matched with the sencha's mild, honest and grassy flavor. I appreciated the flexibility of the flavor and how it responded to sweetening or not. Zhi recommmends trying this tea iced, and I think that's what I'll do next...after all, summer's nearly here!
— To purchase Zhi Tea Tropical Green, or for more specific information on ingredients or the story behind this particular blend, click here to go directly to the manufacturer's web site.
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