Golden Moon Tea

Additional notes: Sipdown of one of the last remaining teas JUST in a sandwich bag and not also in a big Teavivre pouch with other similar teas. I wanted a jasmine black tea. But this was the closest I could get. It’s definitely more vanilla than jasmine at this point. Incidentally, I’m getting some Teavivre samples that should arrive tomorrow… a few jasmine! I’m thinking of mixing some other jasmine teas with some black teas and pu-erh though. Otherwise, anyone know of any good jasmine black teas?

Additional notes: I had this a while ago, and last time the green tea in the Steepster description tricked me, but this time, I guess my palate has changed enough to know that this is a black tea. I checked Golden Moon’s site just to be sure. Last time, I let the water cool way too long and there was hardly any vanilla, jasmine or black tea flavor. This time must have been perfect (I waited for the water to cool about 10 minutes) because there was definite vanilla sweetness and a hint of jasmine that seemed to hit the roof of my mouth. The black tea is tasty! It must have been very week last time steeped at green tea temps. I will up the rating now and also change the steepster description. I have enough for one more cup after this…

Vanilla and jasmine are two of my favorites, so I was really looking forward to this one! (thanks Nicole for the package of tea!) The vanilla and jasmine aren’t too strong, you really should wait until it is cooling a bit to drink, rather than when it is piping hot. After it cooled, I could smell and taste the vanilla and jasmine much better. Even though the base of green tea wasn’t that strong, it still didn’t let the flavors shine as well as I would have liked. Hoping future infusions are better! But I like the idea of vanilla jasmine!

This was fantastic. I will resteep to give it a proper review later, however, for starters, this was amazing. I am very upset that there isn’t a lot of this to go around, this is something I could drink every day for the rest of my life.

The scent of the leaves is slight floral, a little nutty, smells divine. The liquor is a pale yellow with similar aroma. The taste is delicious.

Sweet, creamy and mint-alicious!! :) Tempered with a slightly bitter, almost tangy, green tea taste—overlaid with a toasty black tea. Refreshing yet cozy and warm. I love the vanilla in this—almost like creme brulee. Super yummy.

The aroma is pretty basic black tea, to me. The flavour is pretty similar, although it tastes a little extra toasted, which is kind of nice. No astringency, which is great, but it seems that black teas require cocoa notes in order for me to enjoy them straight, and I’m not getting those here. Or barely (I can imagine them being present; it fits with the extra roasty flavour profile). Thank you for passing along a sample so I could satisfy my curiousity, Alphakitty!

I’m not a fan of coconut, but I got this as part of a Steepster package and tried it.

It has that toasty coconut flavor to it and it doesn’t overwhelm the tea, but no.

I’ve had this sample for a little while now, and decided that I wanted a nice relaxing afternoon cup today. This is really quite nice. It is one that I think is best if you let cool for a few minutes before drinking. The first couple of sips actually seemed a little harsh but after it cooled for about three minutes, the flavor became much smoother and actually quite lovely. I could taste the floral tones distinctly, but they weren’t sharp or bitter. Just very calm and smooth.

I have never tried a Genmaicha Matcha before. I brewed this at 160 for 1 min. as recommended on package, not at 212 which was on their website instructions. It was a very pleasant cup of tea with a beautiful vivid green color. The toasted rice added something extra that I really enjoyed. I found that if I steeped at 175, it seemed a little bitter, so I will stick with 160. Would definitely order again.

I’m just finishing off a sampler of this tea that I received from Steepster a while back. This is the first of my Steepster sampler bags that I have finished off. While drinking this, I could get over half a dozen steepings out of this tea throughout the day.

I am usually not a fan of pouchong nor flavored teas, but this one was good. The coconut flavor works really well and makes this a very addicting tea.

The dry leaf smells just like you might expect — sugar, caramel, and oolong — and it’s lovely! Due to this it’s the first dessert tea that’s made me want to bake up something similar, rather than hoping that the tea will live up to a given dessert.

These are nice curled up oolong leaves, nothing exciting to look at at first but beautiful as they steep and unfold. The liquor itself is also nice to look at and sniff, a toasty warm yellow with a weaker but similar sent to the dry leaf.

Unfortunately, the flavor also doesn’t live up to the initial scent. While I can very much enjoy weaker teas, I feel like this one in particular would do better to have a strong taste; in my book, if you’re going to cover up the tea with not-so-tea-ish tastes, it’s generally best to go all the way. Fortunately, the flavoring that is present isn’t even vaguely artificial, and in fact tastes like a higher quality of ingredients was used than I’d normally find in my kitchen. The overall taste is also assisted a lot by the type of oolong that was used; while its hardly my area of expertise, I can tell that it’s on the rich, sweet side.

I tried adding sugar and milk as is suggested on Golden Moon Tea’s website, but it was hardly an improvement; instead of bringing out new elements of the flavor, they just took over the taste to the point that it was as though I’d just put them into hot water.

One last thing that I really like about this tea is the feeling it leaves. Some tea just feels like drinking water when all is said and done, but there’s something about this one that’s very comforting and even somewhat filling. It might be due to the small aftertaste.

I was expecting something different from the name and the smell, but I actually really like this even though it’s disappointing in some ways.

I didn’t write any tea reviews in ages :D
Here’s one of the tester Golden Moon packages that I found in my office drawer.
I think I never tried pu-ehr in leaves like this, I always drank the one that came pressed in little balls. And it was always quite weird. So I’m looking forward to this one!

The package smells more like chai than pu-ehr :D
OK in hot water it smells more like pu-ehr, I can barely smell chai :) I don’t think I’ll ever get used to this smell. It’s quite nasty animal-poo-like smell ;)

But, oh well, let’s give it a try…

OK, it’s actually quite tasty. The aggressive pu-ehr goes along quite well with aromatic chai. I can taste both in this blend. And it’s quite even…
The tea itself is really dark colored – like pu-ehr’s. It’s kinda sourish. I’m lacking sweetness. Unfortunately I don’t have any milk here. I think this one could be fabulous with milk and honey. Pretty sure of that.

But all together I’m quite satisfied with this tea. It might be the pu-ehr I liked most till now. 7-8/10-ish

Very pleasantly surprised by this! This was my first time trying gunpowder, so I’m definitely interested in trying gunpowder on its own soon. The little rolled up leaves are so cute, as are the bright green mint leaves in this blend. A very pretty blend, if I do say so. The mint was strong, almost overpowering when I brewed it, but I guess that could be because I was having it iced. I have yet to try it hot but iced with or without sugar is great. Still minty, but not too overdone.

Not too bad, and one time I even got to eat it with sushi, because I kept this tea sampler at my work and had late night sushi ordered. Nothing spectacular, but not bad, either. And it is a much yellower color than green.

Very nice. Not bitter, don’t need to use sugar or milk with it (haven’t tried yet, though). Smells extremely spicy, which I like, but I don’t taste the spices too strongly in the cup.

Sipdown! 850.

So I brewed up two last cups of this, side-by-side, to compare straight cold-brewing to hot/cold-brewing. It’s really hard to note much of a difference, except that when teas are hot-brewed, the leaves sink, and when they’re cold-brewed, they float. Water penetration, I guess.

Anyhow, I actually wasn’t a big fan of this one cold. There was too much astringency for me; I should have just had them hot. Ah well. Live and learn! I think for dark oolongs, a hot brew followed by chilling in the fridge without the leaves in the cup might be the best bet. Of course, that require more effort, but for anything with astringency, I think it’s the only reasonable option. (Which, of course, is why I like cold-brewing whites, herbals, and now rooibos. Even greens usually end up too astringent for me.)

But yes. This one’s all gone now, and I’m officially at 850 teas. It’s kind of late, so maybe I can get one or two done tonight, or at least throw the last of something in the fridge for tomorrow… (I really should just go to sleep… I’m at 33 hours of awake with only a short ~3hr nap. I should be a lot more tired than I seemingly am.)

While this is certainly a tasty tea, I’m not sure that I’d necessarily entitle it “sugar caramel” as those flavours aren’t particularly prominent to me. It does taste like a good, sweet, roasty oolong, however, which is not at all disappointing! And it leaves quite a delicious flavour in my mouth as well. I have a bit more of this, and should try it against some other similar oolongs if I have any, to see if they have similar flavours or if this one really is quite special.

Another tea from Alphakitty, thank you!! Haha, I’m sure it’s almost always obvious when I have a swap package arrive, because I immediately dive right in and try a whole bunch of samples in a row :D In spite of having multiple samples from all my previous packages yet to try.

Steeped, this smells a lot like Creamy Nut Oolong from Teaopia. Perhaps I’m only making that association because I just drank some, but that’s definitely how it smells. And yes, I’m sure I didn’t switch cups or do something silly :) If I take the tea out of the chocolate-raspberry scented bag, it does have a sort of sugary, toasty aroma, similar to Creamy Nut.

The flavour is also somewhat similar, interestingly enough. I’m seriously a bit concerned that I did swap them, now, although this is not as sweet, and has a stronger nutty flavour that reminds me a teeny bit of genmaicha. So weird and unexpected! I think I prefer Teaopia’s version because it’s more caramelly and sweet but would drink either.

ETA: Just did a side-by-side comparison of the second infusion (170F/3min) of this one to the third of Creamy Nut. Definitely many of the same flavours; biggest differences are that Creamy Nut is sweeter and less toasty. I think Sugar Caramel may also have a better base oolong, but it’s not really fair to compare second and third infusions; I should really start both from scratch together. But that’s for another day. (Third infusion is getting a bit weak. Creamy Nut definitely lasts longer too.)

Sipdown! 821.

Brewed this up earlier, had a sip, and then forgot about it for a while. At that point, it did taste a fair bit like melon, but now, it tastes more like play-dough, which I noted previously. I’m starting to think that this play-dough tastes is just a signature of too-old white tea, since I’ve picked it up with other whites as well. It could also be a flavouring issue, but I’ve had it from multiple companies, and as far as I can recall, exclusively with white tea. Anyhow, I’m also having trouble tasting this one right now because I have a mad case of the hiccups. Sigh. Ah well. Another tea of curiosity down.

I’d been dying to try some additional (other than Coconut Pouchong) Golden Moon teas for a while, and was super excited when Alphakitty not only had them in her cupboard, but was willing to pass some along! Yay! Problem solved (now let’s hope I don’t like them tooooooo too much, because they don’t ship to Canada IIRC, and that’s annoying!)

Strangely, I’m getting almost a fermenty/rotten melon scent from the tea, which started the instant I put the leaves into the water. Not quite what I was expecting. I thought perhaps there was some cross-contamination between the teas, but then I remembered how to box smelled deliciously like chocolate raspberry, so I highly doubt that was the case. (I just went back to the little baggie of tea and sniffed it, but alas, the baggie smells too much like choco-rasp to pick out the tea)!

The sip tastes much better. I’m getting more of an overripe cantaloupe sort of flavour, mixed with a hint of….. Play-Dough???? That’s an odd association. Only getting perhaps a hint of white tea at the end of the sip.

I’m kind of glad I didn’t order this tea for myself. It’s not bad, but there’s something a little off about it. I’m going to leave the rest of my sample to “air out” (I do it with all my swaps, improves them a lot!) and see if it is an intruding flavour, but I really don’t think so. Either way, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t prefer this over Butiki’s Cantaloupe and Cream, and there’s only room for one melon white tea in my cupboard!

Thanks for the sample, Alphakitty!

ETA: Second infusion, 160F/3min, is similar to the first. Still that overripe melon sort of flavour, with a really nice white tea flavour at the end. I really think I might have enjoyed it far more prior to Cantaloupe & Cream though. … sipping it more, the “overripeness” doesn’t really bother me all that much now.

If you like coconut and tea then you should try this selection. There is a strong coconut aroma from the leaves and the steeped tea. You get some of that coconut flavor along with the light oolong flavor which is not unpleasant. Where the tea and I begin to disagree is the mouthfeel after swallowing. It is not so heavy to be called oily, but it feels like a coating in my mouth. However, mixed as a cocktail could cut through that and make some amazing drinks. I believe as a standalone tea it is too much for me.