Golden Moon Tea

sample. another tea i didn’t love at first, but that grew on me the more i drank. possibly would order more of. would be interested in trying other coconut flavored teas.

another sample i was really excited to try. at first i was disappointed and didn’t like it, but it kind of grew on me. don’t think i love enough to order more of though.

ack! i really wanted to love this as i love pear flavored confections, but it didn’t smell or taste like pear to me, and i couldn’t even make it through a full cup. sample.

Oh my. The aroma of this tea is scintillating! Remember those Neopolitan coconut candies made by Brach’s? Well, this is exactly what the unbrewed tea smells like…so sweet it will make your mouth water. This tea brews a light brown liquor that retains a surprising amount of the coconut aroma. The taste is light and kind of funky at the front of the tongue, but full coconut bursts forth at the back of the tongue. Of the coconut teas I’ve tried, this is my fave so far.

I bought this based on the name, but I won’t be buying it again. It smells divine prior to steeping, and hints of caramely goodness and hot sugar waiting to melt in your mouth. Steeped, this tea resembles really old urine from someone who only drinks pop (don’t ask how I know this) and the aroma is greatly weakened. The liquor itself is weak, bland and unremarkable. At best, you can taste the mild, grassy flavor of oolong while catching a little bit of buttery caramel undertones. Very smooth tea, however, bordering on being a cream tea.

Sipdown!
Incredibly coconutty. Pretty much like coconut milk with a floral hint from the pouchong.
I’ll miss this one.

Backlog from earlier today.
Mmm. The coconut in this is amazing. It’s almost as if I were drinking coconut milk. Yum! So smooth and creamy, with an authentic coconut flavour. Getting some floral notes, too. I’m guessing it’s the pouchong? This is so good… I’d imagine it’d taste amazing iced, too.

Resteep: Not as flavourful as the first steep, but still quite tasty! I might try a third steep, but I think that’d be the limit for this.

additional notes: Sinharaja was also mentioned in ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ so I thought it was the appropriate time to dig out this old tea from the stash as I finish the book. Surprisingly the dry leaf has a fragrance of chocolate that I don’t remember at all and it’s even in the flavor. Possibly this is aging and changing? So old yet so good…
Also, tea is not really mentioned in the book except for one of the characters not really liking tea, and Maali’s mom adding alcohol to her teapot…

Additional notes: I know I really like a tea when I’m steeping it again a month or two after the last time I had it. I usually have so many choices, that doesn’t happen unless a tea is really calling me! I appreciate momo’s generosity while drinking this one! I love its dark malty molasses-like goodness! I had three great steeps of it. Somehow the first cup was a bit more astringent than the other two, even though I steeped that one less. So good!

Thanks momo, for the amazing package of teas! This one is a delicious black tea! The dry leaves have a sweet smell. It’s malty and as it cools it does taste like molasses (not like I’m sure what that tastes like, but it seems accurate!) I don’t get a berry flavor at all, like the description says. It’s not a weak or a super strong blend… a nice medium. This one is tough to describe but really good!

The first real chai I ever had and still my favorite! My first taste was with the one-serving sample pack, which I only got to have half of. I knew I was going to have to order much, much more eventually. I’ve been preparing it in that way outlined by teaplz/takgoti every time, and I am extremely grateful to them for sharing that on here!

This one is much more mellow than all the other spiced teas/chai I’ve had. There’s no ginger or black pepper, so no strong spicy bite in it (not that I have anything against that!). Just a very smooth cinnamon-cardamom-cloves taste in with the blend of tea, which with the milk makes for something better than any milkshake or latte I’ve ever had. As for the scent, the cloves seem strongest – especially on the leaves. I love this one as a comforting, gently spiced drink.

Sending the remaining of this off to TeaEqualsBliss and LibreTEAS
Still enjoy it but need to pass it on before it gets stale.

Been sickly and this is the only tea sitting right with my tummy right now.

Ew not a fan of this one. Too much astringency. Left a funny taste in my mouth as well. oh well another tea down off the 12938714876723642374734873248729387429837432877 types out there heh :)

I love the mood on this one – introspective, scholarly. As I’m staying up all night awaiting the announcement of a literature prize, I do feel a little of both.

The smell of the dry leaves for this one was very sugary/sweet, but when brewed it mellowed out considerably. And became extremely delicious. It’s a really smooth caramel flavor, with both a light sweetness and creaminess to it. From the described flavors, I think I’m mostly getting the cedar and orange blossoms notes – the more crisp, autumnal side of it. I do notice it gets fairly bitter after it cools a bit.

The wet leaves after the first steeping started to smell more oolong-y – steeped this one the max of four times.

Serious edit!!!
THANK YOU AZZ FOR THIS WONDERFUL SAMPLE. Please forgive that slip. In a rush to get through some notes I spaced the most important part. Then after that I grabbed some teas without researching what I was drinking and made three in a row I had already done notes on. Better luck today.

I’m going to try to do several short notes to catch up on all the samples I’ve recieved from several of you generuos tea lovers out there.

Golden pale color. Smell fantasticly of coconuts. The drink first only hints of coconut, but rather plays with my palate with notes of vanilla and maybe nutmeg. The coconut slowly makes it’s presence known, but he brings a floral friend with him. The creamy smooth mouthfeel is probably the most prominent feature. This stuff is good. I could drink it all day, but I suspect I won’t get too many steepings in that the second has already lost some of the crisper notes. It’s still good, just not as grabbing as the first infusion.
tunes-Dave Mathews&Tim Reynolds=Typical Situation/Ants Marching/Warehouse/Jimi Thing

Backlog:

Sipdown! I am happy to be done with this tea. For some reason, the sample tasted a lot better than this actual tin of Kashmiri Chai. It would have been better without that super overpowering cinnamon oil!

At this point I am just drinking this to finish it up. I am not a fqn of cinnamon oil. It is too strong and just overpowers the rest of this chai blend.

I made this over stovetop today. This pairs so nicely with the coconut chicken curry that I made for dinner. We had several friends over today. My husband and I appreciate everything they’ve done for us so far.

The cinnamon disappeared a little bit after boiling it for quite some time, which is a good thing. I added condensed milk and a tiny bit of sugar for good measure.