Golden Moon Tea

Brews up a light, bright, pretty orangeish color. Has that light refreshing quality and woodiness I like and associate with black teas from Nepal. I think I like my Fikkal estate tea more—it’s not as delicate and has a lot of flavor—but this does me just fine for today.

These are crazy sturdy leaves! Long and winding, stiff and artistic-looking. It’s a lovely Oolong. Somewhat floral-sweet, nutty, a little buttery. The end sip is somewhat like a gentle Jasmine in comparison to give you an idea of flavor.

Delightful!

I grabbed enough for a cups-worth before passing the rest along in the Traveling Tea Box. This one lives up to it’s name…Beautiful! It’s gentle and mouth watering and somewhat citrusy – naturally! This is very nice! Glad I was able to try it!

Bold like an assam, but beautifully balanced and very delicious. Possibly the best Ceylon tea I’ve had (generally not a fan). The immediate impression involves a wonderfully smooth toastiness. Has some woodiness, along with an unexpected sweetness at the end of the swallow that lingers. Package says it takes well to milk and raw sugar, but it’s so good I didn’t even want to add them (and I’m usually shameless about that stuff!). I would definitely order this again.

All the usual standard hoped for qualities of a darjeeling, and smooth to boot. A nice easy-going version for when you don’t want to treat it all too preciously or think too much about it.

Hit the ground running with our return post-snow week and spring break (out of town twice, sorry I was absent guys), feeling weirdly pretty good about it. Refreshed and ready to roll up my sleeves and work a while without complaining, ha. Last night getting ready for the work week I was contemplative but not broody, realized just how much I feel dreamy and restored. It’s a good mood to be in. Also been feeling really nostalgic lately for music—this comes and goes and when it’s here, it’s like a tidal wave—so loud goofy Siamese Dream and metal-shoegaze and Siouxsie and older Neko Case early this morning and this tea (in my new Cafe du Monde mug! Contributes to the dreaminess :), which is like some all-purpose morning security blanket/bowl o’ Goldilocks’ porridge, not too anything to startle me first thing, always just right. Are there louder, more interesting, more special or complex teas out there? Yeah sure. But this is so reliably pleasant and easy to enjoy. Didn’t even realize it was St. Patrick’s Day and thus a fitting choice ’til I hopped on Steepster and saw all the Irish Breakfast logs in the stream, ha. Ours is meant to be a close and enduring friendship, I think.

Maybe it’s the unexpected snow day (complete with yesterday’s late night Criterion fest, this morning’s sleeping in and making out and cuddling bewildered-by-snow cats, and the promise of beef stew with collard gratin and cheese biscuits for supper tonight) and the fact this is my favorite week in the Catholic calendar (up next: pancakes and ashes), but I’m in good spirits today and I’m guessing that’s making this cup even more delicious. Perfect. It’s great at a low maintenance boil, smooth and satisfying, but at this lower temp it’s even silkier and more divine. Yum.

This brews up a gorgeous color, deep dark almost ruby red or garnet. At first I thought I was underwhelmed by this tea because of all the hype—I was like “that’s it?” the first couple sips—but found it so drinkable, rich and strong but incredibly smooth, that it was a total pleasure to finish the cup and I found myself longing for a second right away. I can see why this is so highly esteemed—it’s the smoothest, most easy-drinking breakfast blend I’ve tried, without sacrificing presence, real tea flavor.

Wow, this really does taste like honey and flowers, so naturally, delicately sweet—very sweet without being cloying. Honeysuckle. Reminds me of summertime as a kid, when you go outside to play and end up sucking the sweetness out of purple flowers. Lovely. Brews up a golden honey color too. Next time I might steep a little longer or use a bit more tea (couldn’t find steeping directions anywhere); this is a tad delicate for something that smells and tastes so delicious. There’s a juiciness—bursting with more honey sweetness!—at the end of the swallow I really like. Really lovely afternoon or after dinner (on the weekend!) tea. Also, the delicate beautiful nature of this tea goes really, really well with biscuits (Dutch caramel wafers or hobnob-style cookies!)—I’m noticing subtle teas pair excellently with sticky flaky sweets.

YUM! This is still so good! Thanks so much for sending me some Jennkay! :D

Still trying to work through some samples today! I’m still a big fan of this tea apparently. It reminds me of creme brulee! I doubt I will reorder but its pretty good :)

WOW! This tea is TRUE burnt sugar caramel flavor. Super rich and wonderful! I wish I had ordered more than just a sample of it…there’s a hint of maybe floral on top of it all? I assume that is a note from the oolong itself coming through. Goodness though, wonderful dessert oolong! Makes me think of the crunchy top of a creme brulee.

Another neglected favorite of mine. These flavors were meant to be together! :)

Mixed this with some pineapple oolong this afternoon. Very nice!!

So glad I bought this one! Coconutty afternoon here :)

Mixed this half and half with Lupicia’s pineapple oolong today. And then I died of yummyness! :)

This might be my favorite flavored tea of all time. Smooth green oolong base…creamy coconut all over the place- OMG! If you love coconut and oolong this one is highly recommended :)

Oh wow this is pretty good! Nice true cantaloupe/honeydew type of flavor. I may have slightly underleafed my cup. I will do 1.5tsp next time for a stronger flavor. I sure dig me some white tea :)

I think I’m getting a little oolonged-out. Or getting oolong-fatigue. They’re all starting to blend together. This one had the distinctive flavor of the oolong enhanced by a sweet caramel flavor that was fairly bright.

One of the best things about taking a long afternoon nap on a gray Saturday afternoon, is that it provides a second opportunity in one day for a good strong cup of “wake up” black tea (with milk and sugar, of course). When I smelled this tea, my first thought was “Holy bergamot, Batman!”. But, in my cup the bergamot is not overwhelming. This is a nice strong Earl Gray, which I like since it was one of the teas I grew up drinking in my teens.

I’ve had 2 cups of this today brewed as a quick hot cup of chai with hot milk. Yummmm! For me, it has the perfect blend of clove, cardamom, cinnamon and other chai spices. The black tea base supports it well. This is the chai I will stock up on as my go to chai.

This morning I made this the long way according to the instructions of teaplz under this tea’s tasting notes. Heaven! Even my husband, who scoffs at my tea habit, enjoyed it. Love the cardamon, clove and hint of cinnamon. Tastes so soothing with the milk and sugar. And, I gotta love the jolt of caffeine early in the morning! I’m going to raise the rating on this one.

I probably should not be drinking this before bed, but I am so excited to try my new Golden Moon teas! (I’ll probably be up peeing every hour all night after all the tea I’ve had so far). Anyway, I made a quick/short-cut chai with this. I heated equal parts milk and super-concentrated tea and put them together with some honey. Probably not as good as the slow cook method of making chai, but this is still really good. I love the cardamon and the cloves. Can’t wait to make this the long way tomorrow morning…in larger quantities.