243 Tasting Notes
For some 15 (or more) years of my life, my wonderful neighbor went to Germany to visit her children for the spring months. While she was gone, we watched her home, brought in the mail and other things for her. She would always return with a box of Lebkuchen as a note of gratitude. What is Lebkuchen you ask? A wonderful German gingerbread cookie, rich and moist in texture with notes of cinnamon, nutmeg and orange.
This tea mirrors those cookies. Brewed hot with no additives. It is rich, full-bodied, earthy and sweet. It blends the same ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus flavors of the cookie, though they may not be present in the tea, it is wonderful. The spices blend in perfect harmony with a note of chocolate to deliver a naturally sweet and truly delicious treat.
Highly recommended.Preparation
Having only put a small dent in my Golden Moon Tea sampler, I figured it was time to really get to work on here. I must confess, that though I will try anything and usually do not have any trepidations about anything, I was a little nervous trying this. You should be happy to know, that my concern was unfounded!
The leaves smell sweet yet earthy. I brewed it hot, with no additives. The aroma of the brew smells fantastic: earthy and woodsy and like early spring when you are getting all sorts of fresh nature smells that you haven’t smelled in a long while because of winter. I’m rambling, but the scent is so difficult to describe. The taste somehow combines all of these different fragrant notes into a flavor: it is earthy with a little smoke and a little sweet.
Overall, this tea played to the senses, fantastic aroma both brewed and dry and delicious flavor.
Preparation
I’m still amazed by steeping times in this range. I’m so scarred from my 1st pu erh experience seeing steeping times like this actually make me shudder. It’s funny how reading something can trigger a physical reaction. I had the same trepidations w/ retrying pu erh. While our preparations are vastly different, I’m glad you had success as I did!=D
Yay! Thanks! I think it’s probably because it wasn’t one of the cakes of tea compacted with things I don’t want to think about. I think because GM sells it loose and already cleaned, if you will, that you can steep it for that long.
My 1st experience was loose as well. Steeping that long brings back memories from my aunt’s farm. I just can’t handle that so I prefer shorter steeps.
Ah, I know what you mean, I’m sorry you had a bad one, which one was it (?) so I know to stay away!
It was Adagio’s Pu erh Dante, but steeped using Carolyn’s preparation instructions it was actually VERY good- I’ll never go back to steeping it like a black tea again:)
hmm, i considered picking it up after i enjoyed the chocolate pu-erh so much, but when i realized it was in this GM sample, i decided to try it and see if i liked it first, so they’re not all great apparently
I absolutely love this tea. It smells smoky and woodsy, like a campfire or fireplace on a cold winter night. The tea flavor is different though: there is a sweetness upfront, which melds into a piney-woodsy flavor. This is definitely a love it or leave it tea.
This was drank hot with no additives.
Preparation
The smell of the dried leaves is spicy, but by this time, the batch I have is a few months old, so maybe it has calmed down a bit. It’s a black tea with additional spice and from my experience, I know that I will like this much more if I understeep. I brewed for three minutes instead of the usual five. The liquor is still very dark. The aroma is spiced black tea. As a precautionary measure, I add a pinch of rock sugar.
This is not bad. It is definitely spiced, ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, the tea is a light black, not too strong in anyway. I believe the only way I do enjoy this at all is because I underbrewed it.
I think the best way to describe this tea is “gentle”.
The leaves smell of vanilla and black tea. The brewed tea (hot with no additives) smell again like vanilla with a hint of flora aroma. The taste is “gentle”. There is a slight vanilla flavor to the otherwise naturally sweet black tea. It is not overpowering, it is not artificial, it is not overly sweet (with nothing added) and it is not bitter, but the flavor is there, just slightly, again, “gentle”.
I think I wanted something more out of this tea, I wanted it to be slightly more vanilla or a stronger black with less vanilla, something stronger than gentle. Oh well.
Preparation
Today called for a Matcha Smoothie.
Ingredients: Matcha from Teavana, milk (skim or 1%), Splenda/Sugar to taste, Dole Frozen Unsweetened Mixed Berries (strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries), Blender.
Recipe: I put in a 1/4 cup of the frozen mixed berries, 1/4 tsp Splenda, 4 ounces skim milk (cold), 4 ounces cold water, 1/4 tsp Matcha powder in the Magic Bullet blender cup, mixed for about a minute.
Makes a thick, frothy smoothie, tasted like ripe mixed berries and matcha. Fantastic.
Ah, you should have posted this yesterday! I tried to make a blackberry matcha milk smoothie, and it came out horrible. Will try this out today, although I’m out of blackberries now :(
Aww, I’m sorry, but for today, here are a few cheats here for you: use frozen berries because then you don’t need ice and it turns out creamy and cold, don’t use all milk, it makes it too thick, also you usually need to add sweetener because most frozen berries lose their sugar and require added sugar/sweetener to taste right. Sorry about your lack of berries, but if you don’t mind the mix definitely look for the Dole Frozen Mix (its by desserts in the frozen section) and makes the smoothie process a lot easier.
Yeah, I think that was one of my mistakes – I used fresh berries and milk, the only things I had on hand. I tried adding some fresh strawberries too, but it didn’t help. Boo. So now I wasted some yummy fresh berries, too. :(
Ummm, did you strain the berries o.O I never have luck with frozen blackberries or raspberries. The seeds make it difficult for me to drink. I just stick with strawberries and bananas. Next time I’ll try adding some matcha.
Ricky, I had an awful blackberry seed experience yesterday. Maybe frozen berries have fewer seeds?
Oh wait, nevermind. You said you used frozen and there were seeds. I tried fresh yesterday, and there were seeds too :(
Well, I always freeze all my ingredients. I’m lazy and I don’t really use them for a long time. I think I still have frozen strawberries tucked deep within my freezer.
i had a few blackberry seeds, none of the other posed any problems though. the mix i bought had such distinct pieces that if the seeds really did bother me, i would just not use the blackberries next time since they are so easy to pull out. however, i am sure there were seeds and i did not notice any more than one or two.
It might be because I’m using fresh berries and throwing them into the freezer and yours is premixed?
Yea, the berries are premixed, if not for extreme convenience it also saves money. The blended bag is 12 ounces and $4.00 where fresh berries vary depending on season and can cost the same as that.
When it gets warmer, I think I might just do that instead of buying fresh berries. I didn’t think about that.
Yea, especially because I, too, am lazy and this way if it takes me a week or two (or longer) to use all the berries, at least they are frozen and won’t go bad
For some reason, I legitimately thought this was coconut and mint. Apparently I did not read any descriptions whatsoever, just thought that it would be good. I guess I assumed it would be “choco” or “cocoa” if it meant chocolate, but you know what happens when you assume.
The tea leaves are long, soft and green. I say soft, because when pulling a pinch out of the tin, they almost feel damp, but on further inspection, it is just the leaves and the tiny cilia that grew on the green tea before it was harvested. Sorry for the science. Anyway, the tea smells minty and the faint odor of cooking chocolate, the bittersweet and milk chocolate blends you buy in quarter-size flat disks to melt to make confectionery treats covered in chocolate, hopefully you know what I am talking about.
The brewed tea smells like a decent blend, there is the green tea odor and then it smells like Junior Mints candy. The hot tea (hot with no sugar added) tastes like green tea with some chocolate and then the refreshing, minty, sweet-breath feel after you swallow the tea. As it cools, it loses all of these flavors and turns bitter, as if you over-steeped a green tea and allowed chocolate to burn in the bottom with little to no mint at all.
This unfortunate turn of events as the tea cools leads me to my usual conclusions. Either one, this brew probably would do better with a little bit of sugar, it does not need sweetness added, but I think that it would subdue the bitterness in the end. Or two, this has to go into a tea cozy or on a warmer or only be made in small amounts so as to always have it hot.
Overall, it was not bad, I enjoyed it while it was hot. Will try my own advice and let you know!
Preparation
I know what you mean about the name! I’ve emailed them and brought it up in live chat but they refuse to change it.
haha, i figured they would be stubborn about it, so be it, now we know :)
I almost passed it up cuz I thought it was coconut. SO glad I didn’t!
I’m not in disappointed that it is not coconut, I just thought it was. How do you take it?
As I do all my teas (reserve chai), clean. I haven’t tried it cold though. Maybe this summer. Even though it is a green tea, I’d like to try a bit of white chocolate creamer in it. Which is funny cuz I can’t even bring myself to put milk in my Kashmiri chai lol.
Cinoi, I always thought it was coconut too! I think they should add an “a” to the name, so it’s Cocoamint instead of Cocomint…pronounced the same, but you can tell it’s chocolate not coconut!
I think I would have loved it if it was coconut and mint, but argh, I couldn’t stand it. It’s most unfortunately, but hey, at least my friend loved it.
I’m so glad I was not alone in thinking it was coconut :) I would have loved coconut and mint too, but I think with some tweaks, this tea can be very good.
Cinoi, your description begins exactly as my experience did and like the rest of you, I expected coconut and mint. I thought it was an odd combination but hey, gotta try everything once!
I kept seeing an “H” in the name once I had smelled & tasted it. I agree, very strange way to name a chocolate mint tea.
Tried this again this morning, brewed very quickly, about two minutes and added a few crystals of Rock Sugar. Still not where I want to be with this tea, still a little too bitter, still no notes of peach or cucumber. Going to have to keep playing with brew times and additives to get this right I think.
I know green and black blends can be very good, I am just hoping I can get this one to be where I really truly enjoy it.
Preparation
The dried leaves are long, pretty oolong. They smell like a sweetened oolong with a light floral note. As the leaves infuse in the hot water, the fan out and release a light golden honey colored liquor. The aroma is intoxicating: sweet and slightly floral. I brewed this for the full three minutes with no sugar or any other additives. The taste mirrors the aroma, it is slightly sweet and difficult to describe. It is not a sugary sweet, it is not a honey sweet, and it is not a fruit sweet, it is a natural tea sweetness.
Absolutely delicious, unfortunately insanely expensive. I would say that it is an absolute must-try, as in it is worth the price.
I’m drinking this tomorrow! Jillian surprised me w/ a bag=D
OoOoOo, enjoy! It is fantastic! I have only steeped this is small doses though. 1 minute was good. 2 minutes was good. 3 minutes was good. Never more than that though (especially with the collective pu-erh fears).
In reply to your statement “It blends the same ginger, cinnamon, nutmeg, citrus flavors of the cookie, though they may not be present in the tea, it is wonderful.” they actually are all there, except for the ginger.:) Really? 3 min max? That’s completely different from the way I tried it the 1st time I had it. I went the full 5 min.
Hahah! I rarely if ever read descriptions of teas, I just try them and see if I can figure out what is in it. :) Did you overpower any of the flavors? I sipped one brewed at five minutes, I thought it was too dark and lost all subtlety of the spices. I shall have to brew a full 5 mins and see!
No, not really. Then again I didn’t really want the spices other than to add to the complexities of the chocolate. It is after all, not a chocolate chai or chocolate spice pu erh. It’s a personal annoyance of mine when a tea is labeled as x flavor but then they add all these other things to it. I steeped it in 8oz last time, but tomorrow I’m going to make it even more concentrated by only steeping it in 6oz. I’m contemplating adding milk, but that may be a pu erh crime in China or something LOL:)
Haha, I’m not sure if adding milk to a pu-erh is a crime, but if it is, I’m sure adding chocolate is too!
Naw, not a crime. Golden moon has a pu-erh chai =]
Yeah, I’ve been thinking about that one Ricky and I’m not sure how to hand that one… I can’t bring myself to add milk to Kashmiri chais either.
For me it was a different sort of cookie, but other than that I agree with everything here. Everything. Right down to the very last period.
:D I’m rationing the rest of the bags of this, but I am going to try some varied steepings, especially the most recent one from @Cofftea, but I think honestly, my rating on this has risen to 99.
Cinoi, really the only reason this one isn’t 100 is because it has other ingredients in it besides chocolate and pu erh. Chocolate Pu Erh ice cream?
I can’t give things 100, that would mean I would never get sick of it, or ever want anything else :) And, mouth = watering at the thought of chocolate pu-erh ice cream.
100 means I not only crave it, but I get REALLY cranky when I run out. And by REALLY cranky I mean like pitch a fit and cry lol. Oh I wish I was exaggerating…
Understandable, 93 to me means scour and search to get some before impending blizzard snows you in the house with none. Then while rationing my two tea bags because none of the five stores I braved had any, I will creep the rating up because I savored them so much more. Probably going to have to do this challenge thing, I mean, two weeks of chocolate pu-erh, I can’t see any flaw in this plan.
Especially when you get 2 boxes @ 75% off plus more free… I mean free and discounted tea? OK I’m way too good at rationalizing things lol.
it barely even tastes like a pu-erh… yes I picked up a box from whole foods today… sooo yummy
I bought 2 online today!=D
WOW! WHERE?
www.numitea.com- they also have a loose version.
Cofftea did you order loose or bagged? I am interested in how the loose compares.
Unfortunately the sale was on bagged only. Next time I will get bagged though.
oops, I mean loose leaf.
I knew what you meant :D would love to hear how the loose is, see if it is any stronger