Saving/Retrieving Text from MySQL TEXT field

[majlumbo]

I have a MySQL database using UCS2_UNICODE_CI collation. I connect to it via Zeos 7.1.3a, within Delphi XE2 (x32)
Zeos is configured:
ClientCodePage := 'UTF8';
ControlsCodePage := cCP_UTF16;
AutoEncodingStrings := True;
etc...

I have no issues when I post/retrieve Text data from a blob field, I can post using the fieldname.ASSTRING and I retrieve in the select query via (Select (convert fieldname using UTF8) as ...), but if I post to a TEXT field, when I select the text within it, many of the characters are displayed with question marks (?).

Is there a way I can post / query TEXT fields to mimic the same behavior I get with BLOB fields?