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Golden Moon Sampler Tea #14:
Usual morning (messy), usual method of grabbing first black tea I see. I really like the leaves, all curling around each other, there was just something playful about them. I probably didn’t let it steep long enough, but as I grabbed it on my way out the door it had a pleasant enough golden brown color that eased my worries about ending up with lightly tea flavored water.

Hey so, where does the stress go when you say Darjeeling? DARjeeling? DarJEEling? DarjeeLING? I wanna say it’s the first, but a part of my brain urges me toward the second. Damn you ingrained habits from speaking Polish with your insistence that stress should always be on the next to last syllable!

Anyway, on to the actual taste. This seems pretty mellow as Darjeelings go. Very low (pretty much none really) astringency, an overriding, if somewhat diffident, tea-ness, and a vague sense of fruit and nut in the aftertaste. I am willing to agree that the fruit in question is a grape of some kind, but I couldn’t do so with conviction. I think I kind of like this sort of more laid back Darjeeling…but not enough to spend my hard-earned monies on.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #13:
Today’s blind grab got me this, and I decided since it was a green, or at least more green than black, to make use of the Vaguely Asian™ teacup that came with the lid I bought for my teapot. The other option for making use of this cup is to figure out how to make chawan mushi, or Japanese savory egg custard served in teacup-sized portions, but that would A. involve finding fish paste somewhere and B. involve learning how to steam things. Thus, tea it is!

I’m glad that I decided to use the cup because it let me see the lovely golden color of the tea. Regardless of anything else, it is quite pretty. I admit to never having gunpowder before (or at least not consciously) so I have no idea how it’s supposed to taste. I guess the name is kind of a clue? I didn’t really get much (or any) kind of a smokiness from it, maybe the tiniest undertone but it tends to be subsumed by the general grassiness of the tea itself, finishing off on a decidedly sweet green note. The more I drink of it, though, the more of the smokiness I’m noticing, undoubtedly due to the fact that I am growing used to the other aspects of the flavor, but it remains noticeable only in the periphery of the sip.

Having spent the majority of my time drinking this in search of that elusive smokiness, I confess that I am not really sure whether or not I like this. Certainly it’s quite sippable, but is it a thing I want to sip on a daily basis? Is this another one of those teas that’s too subtle for me? And should it, as a gunpowder, even be subtle? Perhaps I should get a sample of the Adagio gunpowder, since some of the other reviews indicate that it is more straightforward.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #12:
This was the first black tea I saw this morning, therefore making it my morning tea, despite the fact that it’s an afternoon tea. I’m glad that I did though, because MAN does this tea pack a punch. For once I was actually paying attention to steeping times, but even then it brewed up really really dark reddish, like a deep maroon. Very attractive. I’m afraid I didn’t really pay much attention to the leaves, but I recall them being lighter in color, so I wasn’t really expecting something quite so dark.

As I said, or at least implied, this tea has a lot of personality. It basically smacks you upside the head and goes I AM TEA DRINK ME NAO (OR ELSE). The taste is mildly astringent compounded by an underlying spiciness, but not as much as I get from your average darjeeling, and there’s definitely something else there. Floral notes perhaps? Definitely not honey. Or perhaps I only THINK it’s not honey because I don’t like honey but I do like this! That’s right, let’s turn this review into a meditation on human psychology.

Or not.

Suffice to say that this tea impressed me quite a bit this morning – a good way to start a Monday, even if I did drink it at the wrong time of day.

Edit: Whooooo tasting note number 50! I celebrate by having some tea!

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #11:
So as you can see, fate totally rewarded my acceptance of the organic green tea, by giving me Vanilla Jasmine to try! Straight out of the packet, it smelled just like vanilla ice cream – which is actually a different scent than what I associate with just straight vanilla, so already it was giving me the idea of creaminess.

Although I paid enough attention to it to give it a normal steeping time, I was promptly distracted until it had cooled to basically a lukewarm temperature, so I have no idea if the temperature actually makes much of a difference. I know that I liked what I tasted. The vanilla flavoring gave it a creamy taste and texture and really complemented the flowery jasmine quite well. Once again, a very smooth, and super tasty blend was created.

I let my second cup steep longer, and this time the jasmine is definitely overshadowing the vanilla, which really only shows up in the aftertaste. It’s still tasty, but I definitely enjoyed the first steeping more.

All in all, I enjoyed it a lot, but I’m not sure if it’s enough to warrant buying more. I mean, I enjoy flavored teas a lot, but when I want to get more of something, it’s gotta be something that I want to drink often, and I’m really not sure how often I’ll really be in the mood for vanilla jasmine. This kind of floweriness is something I can see enjoying once in every great while, especially after the novelty and yaynewtea! excitement wears off.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #10:
So I decided to let fate decide this afternoon’s tea, and this is what I came up with. Now, usually, when I submit myself to fate, I acknowledge that it has the final word on things, but this time, I was all like “what no, I want something NIFTY!” So I decided to pretend that the first random grab hadn’t happened and try again. Whereupon I grabbed it AGAIN. and then AGAIN. Ok fine, fate. Clearly you want me to drink the organic green tea.

I believe I’ve already mentioned that I am not particularly well-versed in green teas so I didn’t expect to have much to say, but this tea actually has more character than I gave it credit for. I mean, it’s quite light, that’s true, but it does have that note of sweetness that, yes, could very well be candied pineapple. It’s not as vegetal/grassy as some green teas that I’ve tried, and I agree with some of the other reviews that it would make an awesome cold drink for hot weather. Very interesting – think I’ll take TeaEqualsBliss’s advice and oversteep the next cup, see what happens.

Tried a second steeping with milk in it. Sadly, the milk has been infected by the vague kimchee smell of everything else in the fridge >.< But I can get the sense of what it would taste like without it – very nice! Such a gentle nostalgic taste. I definitely want to try the stovetop method now!

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #9:

Well, went to the thrift store today and spent an enjoyable half hour trying out different lids. I had some initial problems since A. it had to fit, B. I would prefer it look nice or at least amusing. For example, I was mightily tempted by a lid that was shaped like a cat’s head. Sadly, it did not fit. I eventually found a Vaguely Asian™ lid from a teacup set for five bucks that actually fits quite well, so looks like I’m going to have to call off construction on the time machine.

Now let’s talk about chai. The coffee shop at the Borders near where I used to live was, when the store first opened, NOT a Starbucks. I know, right? A chain bookstore with a non-starbucks coffee shop? Inconceivable! But it’s true! Once upon a time, it wasn’t a Starbucks and it had the best chai lattes ever. It was just the right amount of spice to tea, a modicum of milk and well…these days I’d probably find it too sweet, but this was 10 years ago, so I was still sweetening my tea.

Then they got bought by Starbucks and switched over to Tazo and well…their chai is…unsatisfactory. The spices overwhelm everything and give it a really quite unpleasant taste. But we are not talking about that chai today, we are talking about this chai, and this chai, tastes like what I vaguely recall that other chai tasted like. Well balanced, smooth, and not too heavy. I kind of want to try it in all the different ways other people are drinking it. Which I suppose means I need to buy more…

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #8:

A little story before I start. I was at the university book store trying (and failing) to buy my textbooks (they were out), when I noticed that one of the more prominent displays was a big table full of teapots and various kinds of Republic of Tea teas. Is tea in or something? Is it the trendy new hipster thing? Looks like it might be!

Anyway, I decided to check out the teapots, but they were BLAH – boring, mass-produced, and generally not anywhere NEAR Ivan’s league. Here’s hoping today’s trip to the thrift store gets me some results.

Before going OUT THERE (where the nasty evil sun is), I had to bolster myself with some nice sippable tea. I was kind of wary to try this because from the reviews it seems extremely polarizing – you either love it or you hate it, but I decided to take the plunge.

This tea smells exactly like it’s name, the two scents of honey and pear seem to be in a fight for dominance with now one, now the other achieving it. The actual tea came out more pear than anything else, which is good because I am not that huge of a fan of honey. Now the package says that this is a mixture of black tea and bee pollen, which I guess is where the floral undertaste I am getting comes in. The black tea is noticeably present, tempering the pear-ness, and the honey comes in at the end, mostly along with the floral taste.

All in all, the tea itself tastes quite nice, but it leaves a dry taste in my mouth that I don’t find particularly comfortable. I prefer not to need to go drink a glass of water after finishing my tea.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #7:
Grabbed this for my morning tea. Late as usual, steeped for like, a minute because I had no time! Surprisingly, despite the short steeping time it had some taste! I was quite shocked. And kind of impressed. Good job English Breakfast!
It tasted quite good, too. Will have to do a longer steeping later to see how it turns out.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #6:
After running around campus all day handing out conference fliers, I was really in the mood for something refreshing, but I also wanted to try something completely new and interesting. Green and black tea with mint and vanilla? Sounds like a winner to me! Provided it pulls it off, of course.

This tea is wonderful! I’m not sure I can do a description of the taste justice, but it starts with a core of mint that seems surrounded by a layer of vanilla, surrounded by a hint of black tea, finishing off with the taste of green. At least, I think that’s what I got out of it. I finished the cup in the space of about three minutes, so I can’t really be sure. The mixture of black and green makes this tea light and ensures that the two flavors, which are usually quite overpowering enough on their own don’t dominate the tea – I think the green especially serves to smooth everything out.

I still have some left over in the teapot and I am really tempted to chill it and see what it tastes like iced. Unfortunately, we recently had a pretty nasty kimchee (one of my roommates is Korean) spill in the fridge, so that is probably a bad idea. Maybe I’ll just leave it overnight? It does get pretty chilly at night here.

Definitely need more of this.