Golden Moon Tea

This is the tea we started off with this morning.

I find it malty and almost creamy. I almost feel like someone dropped a pinch of Bailin gong fu in my pot while it was steeping. I definitely get a grainy taste in here. While the tea fairies were dropping other teas in here, I’m pretty sure that they dropped some grapes in here as well. White grapes. There is a sweet flavor that reminds me of white grape juice. It’s not a tangy sweet, more like sugar. Not a bad way to start my Sunday morning.

After a month of waiting, I finally get the Groupon order with my Golden Moon sample. Sheesh. Less than stellar experience from Groupon. Though, it is a matter of managing expectations. Had, at the very start of this, someone said ‘Hey, you will get $50 off of this tea sampler if you wait a month’, I would have very patiently waited a month.

That being said, the sample itself has a nice assortment of flavors… though I doubt I’d order it if it weren’t for the Groupon sale ($10 for a one ounce sample seems exorbitant). But there was a Groupon sale, and I did order it!

This tea smells for all the world like a snickerdoodle while it’s steeping, and while it’s still warm in the cup. Very, Very sweet smelling. The drink follows this similarly, not quite cookie-ish, but still a very sweet chai. The clove taste is the most prominent flavor, but not overpoweringly clove to where you get that smokey kind of taste. For having clove be dominant, it’s well done. The ginger and cinnamon follow a bit behind… not far enough to be lost, but they definitely aren’t holding their own against captain clove.

The tea base, like a lot of chais, is kind of lost here. Although it does have a bit of astringency, which I’m going to blame on the fact that there’s a green tea in here, and they tell you to boil it to death.

So, this is a good tea. However… it doesn’t have any of the kick that I really want from a chai. There’s no pizzazz. It doesn’t really make my tastebuds stand up and go HEY! DRINK THAT MORE YOU GIT! If you want a very smooth, sweet chai… this would probably be perfect for you. I’m evidently not a very smooth and sweet kind of guy… more bumpy and bitter ;)

We got our goldenmoon sampler box today. We are swimming in samples at the moment. I totally understand having a ton of different teas in your cupboard. The more variety you have, the more you want, or some thing. I think I’ll have to do some thing like pick a sample blind some time soon.

I brewed this one up straight. I think it would be good with milk though. It’s gentle due to the lack of pepper for that extra zip. Pepper need not apply. I taste cinnamon, clove and cardamom. I love that word cardamom. I’m waiting to shout it out at a female checking out with alcohol or smokes. I probably wouldn’t shout it out, but I’d think it really loudly. I do get a bit of tea taste here. It’s pretty mild, just enough to know that I am, indeed, drinking tea. If you are looking for a gentle chai this is a good place to start.

This is one of my favorite teas (I have about 25 different teas at any one time in my collection) When I order it – I usually get 1/2lb. bag. I prefer to steep it in my cup with 16 oz. filtered water using approx. 2Tbsp. of tea with water temp 190F. for 3 min. I like to add about 1 to 1 1/2 tsp. of 1% or 2% milk and sweetener. I find it fantastic. Truly tastes like fresh coconut with NO artificial taste. I have let the cup go cold and placed it in the frig. if I didn’t have time to finish it and it was equally good when cold. I love Golden Moon Teas!!

Sipdown! 113/365!

Last sipdown of March (I forgot to log it yesterday); I don’t think I’m doing too badly with these! Anyhow, it was delicious, but this tea seems to be fairly widely available, so I have confidence I can get more in the future if I want.

What a throwback! And thank goodness there’s no actual coconut in this one, because it is quite old – purchased from Rachana at iHeartTeas in my early tea discovery days. There was a big fuss about this tea; it was well-loved. Since that time, I think a bunch of other coconut oolongs in various forms have popped up, probably some from the same supplier.

Anyhow, this tea is as delicious as the first day I tried it. Amazing coconut flavour, perfect pouchong base. It’s a very… dry sort of coconut. Not sure if it’s toasted, or just dry raw coconut. Either way, it’s good. One cup of this left; it’s probably high time we parted ways, since I can probably restock elsewhere pretty easily.

Good old reliable coconut pouchong. So coconutty but not in a sweet way, which makes it the perfect accompaniment to sweets. Yum. Also, works great in thermoses :D

Just….. yum.

I was craving a creamy coconutty tea tonight. Not quite this one… haha, I just realized that it is/was DavidsTea’s Buttercream that I’m craving! (Or Persimmon’s Coconut Creme, but Buttercream is better.) Glad I figured that out! Anyways, this was the only non-black coconut option I could think of for the time being (I’m sure I have tons of others, I’m just blanking). It’s highly satisfying and toasty as usual, but I’m really craving that touch of sweetness that either of the other two teas would give me. No regrets on brewing this up though, I haven’t had it in a while!

Haven’t had any of this one in a while, so opted for this to be lab tea #2 for the evening. I was craving a straight tea, and this fit the bill perfectly. I know, you’re saying “What?! But this is flavoured!” For whatever reason, the flavouring here comes off to me as so natural that for my palate, it is like a no-fuss straight tea, complete with the ability to be infused multiple times and retain its deliciousness. Butiki’s Cantaloupe & Cream is similar in this regard; clearly a flavoured tea, but works when I’m craving a straight tea. Probably to some degree has to do with a lack of weird/off-flavours which are frequently present in flavoured teas that are pretending to be something they are clearly not.

Anyways! This one was great tonight. The first infusion tasted mostly of toasty/milky coconut, the second was where the pouchong base started to peek through. Deeeeelicious. Hopefully I can get some more infusions in tomorrow. A big thanks to Rachel @ iHeartTeas for making portions of this one available without having to go through Golden Moon and pay exorbitant shipping (to Canada, at least)!

Was craving DavidsTea’s milk oolong again tonight, but I’ve decided to hold off on purchasing any tea I’ve tried before until I’ve drank a fair bit of what I have, so have to conserve it for a future craving!

Anyhow, this is what I picked in its place. Although toastily coconutty and good, I think I might have oversteeped it juuuust a touch. Not quite hitting the spot though; I probably should have gone for Teavivre’s unflavoured Milk Oolong instead. I do feel like I may prefer the London Tea Room Coconut Oolong over this, but I just bought 1 oz. of it, so it will have to do for a while. I’ll do a comparison someday.

ETA: Seriously, some of these coconutty teas last FOREVER! At least, the well-done ones. I’m on the third infusion, and it shows no sign of losing flavour. I’m using a reduced amount of water, but I’m not even sure it’s all that necessary. Yum. Now to cold-brew some of this since apparently that makes something pretty tasty :D

ETA again: On the fourth or fifth infusion, and still coconutty! However, this one has a bit of an odd flavour, so I think I’m done now. Tremendous longevity!

I’m pretty much dying at the heavenly scent emanating from my cup right now. The tea smells amazing, a very authentic coconut smell, both dry and steeped. It reminds me of fresh coconut.

The taste is very coconutty, almost a dry, nearly-toasted sort of flavour. I can taste just a hint of oolong at the end of the sip. I would like it to be more present.

This is definitely as coconutty, if not moreso, than I was hoping/expecting. I like it, but I think I’d have to be in the mood for it. If I ever make a Golden Moon Tea order, I suspect this will be on it. I really want to add a couple chunks of candied pineapple and a bit of sweetener to this to try and make a pina colada oolong tea. I think it would be delicious…

ETA: Er, I got a bit excited and forgot to send a huge thank you to LiberTEAS for this sample, which I had been dying to try ever since I heard about it!!

ETA again: Second infusion was good too, oolongy aftertaste, and less coconut, but still toasted. I sampled a leaf out of curiousity, and there was still toasty coconut flavour in it, so I suspect I could have gotten a nice third cup, but left work at that time to retrieve my car (which I had forgotten entirely at the shop all day!)

Have had this for a while by now, but the first two testings made me feel like I was doing something wrong (did not like…at all). How could I not like a coconut tea, so loved by so many on Steepster?

Well, as the saying goes: third time is the charm. Tried to be brave and try it unsweetened (blech…nope). After adding about a tbsp. of honey, this turned nice … much more so as it cools. This coconut is very obvious, but so is the tea. Since most of you have tried this, I’ll just say: yummy.

p.s. Have any of you cold brewed this? If so, any hints?
Still need to try some resteepings, so depending on how many and how it turns out, maybe chilling after is better ??

Amazing, intoxicating aroma, every cup is a treat. I think it’s much tastier than Adagio’s blend. Not quite sure how to brew it to get the maximum flavor, any tips?

So I totally didn’t look up this tea before I steeped it. Le sigh… I still really like it. Vanilla and mint happen to be two of my favorite flavors so I can’t really go wrong here.

The mint is nice pick me up right off the bat. Once the mint tires, the vanilla pops in, lingering for a bit. I get a hint of what I think is green tea. Towards the very end of my sip I can taste a hint of black tea. I agree with Dylan that it’s probably a mellow fellow tea. It reminds me of the Nonsuch estate that I had the other night.

Overall a great dessert tea, especially for lovers of vanilla and mint.

I received this in the mail today as part of a VERY generous swap from Azzrian. Thank you!

Still being fairly new to all of the different teas that are out there, I have a hard time not reacting like a playful little puppy. Every new tea I get that tastes good is like my new favorite person to play with. I haven’t tasted a tea this good since the last awesome tea I tasted! Now you’re my favorite tea. Now YOU’RE my favorite tea! To sort of ‘leash’ my inner puppy, I’m sloooowly drinking this tea, and writing towards the end of the cup.

There’s a lot to like about this tea. The mint flavor is very tasty, but not overpowering. After the first flavor rush, the mint smooths down and allows the vanilla to shine through a little more. Underneath both of those, hiding ever so delicately is the flavor of the green tea. The black tea doesn’t have much room to come through, and I feel like it may be a more mellow black tea to begin with.

I’ve never had a black/green blend before, and we actually brewed this one a little hot and long for green tea, which gave it the tiniest hint of bitterness in the background. That’s our own fault though, nothing to blame the tea for. Our next go at this one, and we’re going to go with a lower temp and less time… see how that works out.

This is my first Golden Moon Tea, and I have a sampler pack from them coming soon. If the samples I get are up to this level of quality, it will definitely be a company I’m interested in buying from in the future. This cup of tea went by really quick, and we keep fairly large cups around here :)

Thanks again to Azzrian for the swap!

I got this from Rachel. Thank you so much again!

This tea is a lovely flavored oolong. I like how dark and large the leaves were. The brew was a nice deep, golden amber in color. The scent and taste were like burnt sugar and a hint of nuts and caramel. It is a warm and toasty/roasty blend. I steeped this twice and the nice light flavor persisted. It tastes light and slightly sweet. It is a smooth tea. A good blend overall.

I had this one at the cottage on the weekend, and all went as usual. I find this a nice lazy morning tea. But, I left the second cup to chill for me to come back to later as I thought it would make a lovely iced tea. When I did, it was incredibly bitter! So bitter that it was unpleasant to drink. I’ve never experienced that before, when a tea is nice and light hot but bitter cold. I think this would be nice cold-brewed, though.

I am just a little bit surprised by my reaction to this tea. In my quest to drink every coconut Oolong I can get my hands on, I ordered some of this from iHeartTeas. I expected to be madly in love with it, and heartbroken that Golden Moon for some reason can’t arrange shipping to Canada (I’ve emailed them about it and they are very nice and helpful, but say it’s not a possibility at this point).

Anyway, I’m not in love! What! This isn’t to undermine this tea. It’s good. It’s really good! But, my mind is not blown. And I’ve been finding coconut Oolongs pretty mindblowing 3/3 up to this one. It has the same light Oolong crispness, the coconut sweetness. But I’ve had it twice now and it’s just not quite matching up. It’s going to be a pleasure to finish it, but I am (thankfully) not going to be in mourning when it’s finished. I’m enjoying it but it’s not the first tea I want to reach for like Tealish’s Coconut Bongo was while my 50 g lasted. I think the Spice and Tea Exchange and Tao Tea Leaf versions have been my favourite, but the price of the Tao one sets it back. Tealish’s is a close third, but its accessibility boosts its rating. This one comes in fourth, as a solid contender but lacking the star power of the others.

Minty, savory green tea. I’ve steeped this pretty potently so the “brothy” notes are shining through. Not bitter at all and very refreshing. After a very late, fun night, I’m finding this very soothing to the tummy this morning!

This would definitely be delicious with sugar or honey!

Thank you Melanie for this wonderful sample!
I’ve been seeing this tea reviewed over and over again…so what’s all the hype? What’s so great about this tea? Curiosity got the best of me when I saw that Melanie had this in her cupboard for a swap…hee hee…would she part with a pinch for moi? She agreed (to my delight)! I don’t go along with the crowd unless there is danger… I form my own opinions and hope you all do also and this tea review is not an exception. Beginning the process I kept the steep at just 3 minutes and at about 180F. Sniff, there isn’t a huge burst of fragrant coconut…no…I’m reminded more of oolong…a faint memory of that corny, floral butter scent. First sip is very creamy and rich, diving right away into a deep pool of coconut taste the way you get it right out of a fresh coconut in the tropics. It’s the aftertaste that is so honest. I spent 4 months living in Puerto Rico where you could stop and get a chilled coconut at the roadside, have the top lopped off with a machete and drink the coconut water with a long straw. So good. That’s the coconut flavor I taste. But there is that floral orchid mixed in also. Makes you want to put on a sarong and lay on the beach. Sometimes it helps to pull away and come back to tea when it is so intensely complex. Doing this was helpful for me. I came back to my glass cup and realized that there is a custard quality quite a bit like the fragrance of jasmine in the Summer on a hot evening when you swear there is coconut cream pie somewhere close by…or you hope there is one waiting at home (there never is though). Real jasmine never tastes like that smell. Tragedy! I think this is very good tea but not one I would serve with food. Too special for that. This is dessert and could stand up to fresh strawberries or pound cake. I thought chocolate was too strong alongside the tea because I tried some and said “no”. Tried some sugar and it was good. I’m off to finish the lovely liquid without you now…bye.