Soursop frappes feature regularly on the menus of Vietnamese restaurants. And were it not for them, I’d likely have never come to know the fruit that is soursop. It’s such an exotic fruit in Sydney, that you’re not likely to find any in your local supermarket unless it happens to be a Vietnamese grocery store in south-west Sydney or Bankstown. So, to find this Governor’s Estate Soursop Green Tea on offer in almost all Coles supermarkets was a surprise. I can’t imagine half of Sydney is even aware of the existence of soursop.

The tea consisted of a tea bag containing green tea fannings blended with soursop flavour.

Steeping one 1.7 g tea bag in 150 mL of water at 75°C for 90 seconds, the infusion was a clear golden straw colour with a sweet soursop aroma. Served hot, delicate notes of soursop came through at the head of each sip with a gentle sweetness — sweet without being actually sweet — before lightly buttery notes of green tea came through in the body with no astringency and leaving a clean aftertaste.

When prepared by either steeping longer and/or in hotter water, the low quality of the green tea results in a prominent bitterness and astringency that overwhelms the delicate flavours of the green tea. Compared to the The Choc Pot Soursop Sencha, which is a looseleaf soursop flavoured green tea, this tea lacked dimension with the flavour of the soursop being markedly bright and the green tea lacking body.

This Governor’s Estate Soursop Green Tea contained 20 tea bags. It tea originated in Sri Lanka and was purchased in Sydney, Australia in 2015.