Golden Moon Tea

Smells of earth and cinnamon. By scent I can’t yet tell if that is a good thing.

As hinted by it’s name, it’s not a traditional chai, so I taste the pu-erh predominantly, and the cinnamon is less a flavor than a sensation. A warmth in the throat, following the earth. It does not have the complex spicing of most chai’s, using pu-erh, cinnamon chips, cardamom and “spice oil”. It says it has a smooth citrus bouquet – which I can detect in the unbrewed leaf, but not in the infusion itself. It’s… Ok… If I think if it from a chai perspective it’s not very complex. If I think of it from a pu-erh with cinnamon, it’s fairly decent.

Drunk plain.

Second cup – with a pinch of sugar. It brings out the cinnamon more, yet subdues the pu-erh.

Interesting, but don’t know if I’d buy this. I’ve had better pu-erh’s and better chai’s, and don’t feel the two combined necessarily make up for the other’s weaknesses.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #26
Like…well several other people, I am not a huge fan of licorice, so this was not a tea that I was looking forward to. The tea itself has giant honking pieces of star anise in it, and smells VERY strongly of licorice. Not reassuring! Proximity-to-slow-cooker induced sauerkraut smell would actually be an improvement.

The first cup (the shortest steeping), however, was pleasantly not licorice/anisey at all. So that was nice. Subsequent cups and cooling have let the anise taste come out. Nope! Still not a fan. There’s just something about the taste of anise that makes me think of plastic. I don’t want to be thinking of plastic while drinking tea!

Objectively speaking however, the flavors are very nicely balanced. White tea is, after all, very delicate and if you like anise or are at least indifferent to it, I could see the flavors complementing each other quite well. Still, (obviously I’m biased, but) I think the melon + white tea combo works better, simply because melon is a pretty delicate flavor to begin with, whereas you have to be careful with anise. Although apparently not THAT careful given how huge the pieces in my sample were.

Also this tea cooled really fast. I have GOT to get that tea cozy made.

Golden Moon Sample #?/31

This was another generous sample, around 3.5g, so I used a generous 1.9 in my 4oz pot. The leaves are large and, yes, silvery; they look lovely steeping. Formosa oolongs aren’t usually my favorite, but this one is impressing me. A little bit astringent, but very flavorful. G pronounces it starchy, savory, and nutty. Not getting any orange blossom yet, but maybe on the 2nd steep.

2nd steep (5 minutes) was probably the best, though 3rd at 7 was also good. Both were smoother than the 1st.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #15:
Goodness, the packet wasn’t kidding about the whole pale green thing. My initial brewing, which I did exactly as I was told to, (Boiling water, really?) and got a very light, almost tasteless green tea. No floral note that I could discern, and altogether not particularly impressive.

I let my second cup steep longer. It’s now more of a golden color, and has more taste, but on the downside is, of course, also more bitter. By quite a bit. The original steep didn’t have any bitterness, which was probably the point.

On the third cup, the tastes seem to have settled down somewhat and I’m finally getting something floral. It all seems quite muted to me though, and I can’t help but feel decidedly meh about the whole thing. Guys…I think I might just not be that into Oolong.

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.

Yummmmm. I brewed this up and tasted it without honey and determined that it did not need any. It is definitely sweet on it’s own. However the directions did say to add a touch of honey, so I did. I always follow directions on the first steep of a new tea. I am glad I did, because after adding just a half teaspoon of honey, the melon flavor really popped. This won’t be my favorite tea, but I will be returning to it often.

I just had a serious craving for something sweet and this looked to fit the bill (I think it’s from reading all of ya’lls amazing caramel tea reviews). The dry leaf smell was amazing like as another poster said maple cotton candy smelling (if there is such a thing as maple cotton candy).

Once steeped I get more of a mapley sweet smell Yum! The liquor is bright yellow and the taste is as JaquelineM described sweet yet earthy in a very good way. This is definently filling the sweet tooth craving I was having. It’s a nice sweet treat that I might be able to find a little room in my cupboard for.

Another sample from the wondrous golden moon sampler. This is a very delicate blend. I only steeped for two minutes, on the lower end of the suggested 2-4 minutes, as I am not fond of Ginger. This tea has just the slightest tingle of Ginger in the aftertaste. It seems to build with each sip I take. I do like the white tea base that was used for this as it doesn’t taste vegetal or grassy. This was a nice hydrating cup.

I guess you know what dropped on my doorstep yesterday? Well if you guessed the GM sampler you’d be CORRECT! I decided to wait till this a.m. to try something and a pulled out all the breakfast blends as I’ve never had a tea that had breakfast at the end of the name it was between English Breakfast, French Breakfast, and Irish Breakfast. I picked (obviously Irish) and it really does hit the spot.

Dry leaf is green and golden tipped and the dry leaf just smells of tea. Steeped a cup for 5 minutes and I have a reddish golden cup what I think Jim Marks in one of his posts referred to as chestnut color.

Steeped it tastes like tea a very smooth cup with the tiniest hint of astringency. If this tea is what I would be served with my breakfast while in Ireland I wouldn’t complain. :)

Madagascar vanilla smells like a very creamy,milky vanilla. I was impressed at how dark the liquor brewed up after only three minutes. The vanilla flavor reminds me of the creme base in Teavana’s Earl grey creme. I enjoy Earl grey creme and find this enjoyable, just not extraordinary. It is almost as if the vanilla is an after thought. It is not a main player in this mélange. I would expect more flavor from the name. Oh, well. On to the next one.

2nd tea out of my sampler. I don’t even know what to say about this tea. My tea taste buds are improving the more I sample better teas, but my vocabulary lacks the words to express what I’m tasting. I do like this tea, I just have nothing to compare it to it to yet.

Brewed up my sample cup of this tea to take with on the way to work. WHAM, it is one strong tea. Great malty flavor after a 3 minute steep. Wish I would have paid more attention to this tea as I think it was quite good, I just don’t remember what else I tasted.

A while back I read the post about this tea that Auggy wrote, and I was ecstatic. I also, do not like licorice, however, during reading the review, I thought, well maybe I will like it, I should get some and give it a shot.

Much to my dismay, I do not like it. The tea was not bad, it was exactly what it said it was, white tea with licorice. I do not like licorice, and I did not like this tea.

This is not a review in any way. However, I did make this for my fiance today, he was not feeling well, and said he wanted some tea. He loves Earl Grey, so since I was not planning on ever having this sample, I made it for him.

The smell, is much stronger, more fragrant, and maybe a little sweeter than other Earl Grey teas I have smelled/had. I did not taste it, but he said it was the best Earl Grey he has ever had. Take that for what you will, if you like Earl Grey, you should definitely try a sample of this.

Not gonna lie…I’m scared of pu-erh.

It may be that I should’ve waited to try this until after whatever uplifting, familiarizing, reassuring experience might follow the arrival of my Samovar order sometime later today, since I purchased what I understand is a very forgiving ‘starter’ kind of pu-erh, and it might’ve set me down the road to not having a mental block about the stuff…but it was exceedingly early when I sat bolt upright in bed for no good reason (3am) and I needed something cozy. I needed chai. I wasn’t completely willing to go the distance and do the yerba mate chai thing; I have a sneaking suspicion I’ll need that mega-dose of caffeine much later today. This was lingering along with a handful of other tea samples in my Golden Moon basket…so…

Here we are.

I can’t get past the idea that something about this tea smells a little bit…funky, and yet I can’t quite put my finger on what it is. It seems to hide directly behind the hint of cinnamon, just out of view, and worry me. I have a creeping feeling that it is…socks. Or something like socks. Maybe someone’s socks after they were walking around in the dirt. Or…or…not socks. Something. This is definitely not the chai experience to which I’ve become accustomed, and I am having a hard time telling whether or not this is psychosomatic or genuine.

I tried for quite some time to finish my cup, and in the end I couldn’t…a real rarity for me. I wonder if I ruined this tea for myself by being so wary of pu-erh; I wonder if I wouldn’t have liked it better had the qualities of the pu-erh flavor not been somewhat masked by spices, so that the vague hints of them that I was receiving were immediately associated with a pu-erh experience that I enjoyed, rather than striking me as, and I stand by this assessment, a faint impression of socks.

It isn’t terrible, but it sort of unnerved me. Hopefully later today I’ll have my first cup of really good pu-erh, and this will all rectify itself.

I love oolong tea, but for some reason I don’t ever buy any for my cupboard. I am particularly glad that there are several oolong options in the Golden Moon Tea sampler, and am hoping to come across one that blows me away so I’ll have one in mind to order. (That being said, anyone have any favorite oolongs out there??)

So, today’s Golden Moon Tea sample was Imperial Formosa Oolong. Yum. It’s pretty much exactly what the description says. It’s sweeter than I expected, had a distinct citrus smell and taste, and it’s woodsy as well. Ricky made a comparison to Houjicha, which I completely agree with.

It’s good, but not one that I’m craving, and won’t be the oolong that I order more of. Still glad to start the day with it, though! Pictures here: http://bit.ly/bsU65w

This tea is a light fermented Wuyi Oolong which means the leaves were grown in a specific area in the Fujian Provence of China. Even though this is a light Oolong it is remarkably toasty in the first infusion. Not toasty like a dark roasted Oolong but a lighter flavor version that retains the complexity without the strength.

The second infusion loses a lot of the toastiness and really showcases the floral undertones and sweetness. Don’t get me wrong it still tastes fermented. This is absolutely no where near a pouchong but it does have that kind of lightness to it.

Anyways light but complex flavor.

Brewed 3 minutes. Taken Plain. Sampling first and second infusions.

Mint all the way, not much tea taste, but good.

I did not like this because I do not like jasmine.

Not for the everyday, but makes a great iced tea for those times when you want something different.

I got a ton of Golden Moon samples in Rachel’s sale that I always wanted to try! thanks so much I don’t love Golden Moon’s sample packets as they seem a LOT of metallic packaging for one cup of tea…they could have a few cups in there! I was hoping I could get two cups out of this package of tea, but nope, I guess I was fooled by the gigantic packaging. There are some pearls but there also seems to be a lot of dustings, unless those are just pearls that fell apart. I waited a long while for the water to cool and steeped for about four minutes. The fragrance and flavor is divine! I love the sweet jasmine. For a couple sips it seemed a bit dry on the mouth but otherwise I love this one. The second steep is just as nice. I’m looking forward to trying the other samples as I LOVE their Sinharaja.

Steep Information:
Amount: 6.2g
Water: 500ml at 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL

Steep Time: 30 seconds
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: fresh green, lush
Steeped Tea Smell: light, sweet, vegetal
Flavor: sweet, grassy, a little nutty
Body: Light
Aftertaste: toasty, slightly astringent
Liquor: translucent light green

Resteep:
500ml at 160°F for 1 minute
good

Resteep:
500ml at 160°F for 1 minute 30 seconds
good

Resteep:
500ml at 160°F for 2 minutes
very weak/watery

Co-Worker thought it smelled like a Chesapeake bay blue crab. Weird.

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Pictures: http://amazonv.blogspot.com/2013/06/golden-moon-tea-loose-leaf-green-tea.html

Really enjoyed this! This was my first hojicha. It’s not quite as coffee-like as I was expecting from guidebooks, but it definitely has that roasty, toasty, satisfying quality. Really yummy and filling. Tea is so versatile and cool; I love that someone figured out you can even use the twigs!