Golden Moon Tea

Happy New Year afternoon! This is a sipdown as I finally finished a tin of this. It’s vey good when it’s cold brewed with a dash of soymilk.

I’m really not Southern but I’m making a big old pot of black eyed peas and listening to the blues tonight. I just discovered this amazing woman Marcia Ball. Having my tasty creole peas, good tea and lots of good tunes!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VuZsKmw30HA

This has been cold brewing in my fridge for 18 hours and I finally decided to try it. I might have made it a little strong but when I added soymilk to it, it’s really very tasty. Like a big glass of coconut milk but at a fraction of the calories.

I am having this with a seaweed salad for lunch and the two go pretty well together. I might be weird for eating seaweed but I kinda like it. :)

I seriously cannot help but make this every time someone mentions it – so I sent some to Tamm and she remarked on how good it smells and I had to have some too. It is one of the best coconut teas out there.

I forgot how much I like this until SimpyJenW steeped some up and started talking about it! Now I must have it. :)

The coconut here is sweet and delicious and the pouchong plays a light and elegant base. smells heavenly. see my previous tasting notes. :)

I really love coconut so I had to try the coconut pouchong by Golden Moon, having read so many good things about it. This is a lovely tea, there is no doubt about it. Nice coconut smell and flavor with a hint of buttery-ness. The flavor is more subtle than you would expect from something like a dessert tea, for instance. Light and delicious. I definitely would buy this again but it’s a toss up between this tea and Rishi’s coconut oolong. They are both so good.

I am working my way through my first box from Golden Moon Tea. I thought about the sampler but there were a lot of teas I thought I wouldn’t like, so I made my own. I couldn’t resist anything with temple and orchid in the title, so here I am.

The instructions say freshly boiled, so that’s what I did. And since I just used the higher end of GMT’s range on a jasmine and it turned out bitter, I set a time for 2 minutes (range 2-3) and steeped it exactly that long.

The scent is a pretty, light floral, rather jasminey, actually, more like a very, very soft lilac. A little soapy, like another reviewer mentioned, but not unpleasantly so. Just like really good soap is lightly fragrant, not fake. It’s good cold, too. Not so amazing that I have to buy a pound of it, but it’s nice. Really nice. Might sample it again.

I adore jasmine tea (hence the screen name), and I am in search of the ultimate one to bribe myself to answer my inbox each working day. This has a nice scent but it’s too bitter for me. I waited about 15 seconds after boiling (instructions say just under boiling, something like that), exactly 1 teaspoon per cup of water (got 2.5 out of the sample), and steeped for about 4 minutes, which is on the long end of the range they recommended. I could try to steep it for 2 minutes, the short end, to tone down the bitterness, but the jasmine wasn’t strong enough to make me buy another sample. Plus, I don’t need that kind of pressure to make a perfect pot. I may not even finish the 2.5 cups I brewed.

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea.

A delightful Sencha. The flavor is rich and vegetative, and the tea has a thick, broth-y texture. Smooth and absolutely delicious. I like this Sencha very much.

This was mellow and surprisingly more minty than I expected, but still tasted of black tea. The vanilla was definitely in the background. It was very good for sipping.

My tummy has been feeling pretty off lately and this tea was perfect balm to the pain/uncomfortable feelings I’ve been experiencing. It was lovely.

I tried this because I love Pouchongs, and I have a fondness for well-flavoured teas. The reviews on this tea were good and so I took a chance. It is a nice quality tea, and the coconut is not out of proportion to the tea, but I liked it less than I thought I would. I think I will enjoy it occasionally, but it would not be more than a single cup.

This tea really does remind me of the tea I drank for breakfast when l was in France. Good tea with a nice wither.

I felt that the smoke in this particular Lapsang Souchong was entirely overdone. I could no longer taste the tea, and the tea looked to be a nice quality.

As much as I wanted to like this tea (I love pears and honey), I couldn’t convince myself that I did. My wife thought the honey was too pronounced. Overall this did not impress me as Mark’s best effort.

A pleasant tea. The Melon flavour doesn’t overwhelm the tea, though it still has a bit of an ‘artificial’ taste to me. I can’t decide yet whether I like it or not? On the other hand my wife was sold on it and loved it the first cup she tried.

Delicious buttery, minty, grassy flavour. Just what a good mint tea should taste like.

I love licorice, and tea….what could be better? Especially when you combine great tea with a not overwhelming flavour of licorice.

From http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2383/tea-review-golden-moon-tea-white-licorice/ – It’s all About the Leaf

There are over 5 million ways to divide the world into two groups. Licorice is definitely one of them. People either adore black licorice or hate it. I personally fall into the “love it” camp – unless it’s salt licorice. Because it’s just.. odd. Blea.

There are a few ways to get licorice-like flavors. There is the traditional licorice root, but anise, star anise, and fennel all contain similar flavoring agents. All these plants contain the chemical compound anethole which provides that signature flavor. And while all are similar, there are subtle differences. Licorice root is sweeter, anise is more aromatic, fennel is milder, and star anise has a bit of a bite.

This tea uses star anise to get it’s licorice flavor. On first sniff, the leaf smells very much like standard licorice. But once it started to brew, the notes of star anise come out much more strongly. It develops into a very light yellow brew – likely due to the white tea. On first sip, the licorice is very mellow, soft. Almost more plant-y than standard licorice. The hay-like features of the white tea blend well with the plant-y features of the star anise to merge together into a nice mellow cup.

Of all the various plant anethole-delivery systems, star anise is my least favorite. I don’t like the small, strange bite it delivers. I like all the others (I even have this amazing bread dip recipe that uses fennel*) much more, but even with this mark against it, this tea does not disappoint. It’s mellow, smooth, and yummy. Because it’s not so strongly licorice-y, even those who fall into the camp of licorice hater may like this tea. Good blend.

special bonus recipe!

*G’s amazing bread dip
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt
4-5 turns of fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp chopped garlic
Olive Oil

Take the first four ingredients, grind in a spice grinder until they’re a fine powder. Blend with the chopped garlic in a mortar and pestle until you get a nice paste. Blop the paste into the center of a shallow bowl or deep plate. Pour olive oil over the paste, stir slightly. Serve with fresh bread. And drink with strong tea – because any other type will be overpowered by the dip.

Last of my Golden Moon samples. I haven’t quite taken to white tea so far… it’s not that I dislike it, but I have yet to have one that’s blown me away or had me coming back for more. I suppose Harney’s Winter White Earl Grey is a possible exception. Anyway, I do love melons, so I had to try this one anyway.

The leaf is fairly long and twisty with some long stems, and a fair amound of fuzzy leaves too, and I’m not sure that I ended up with enough tea in my infusion basket. It smells amazing, like the freshest, ripest, sweetest juicy canteloupe, with perhaps some light honeyish notes underneath. Brewed, it smells melony but subdued, and the tea has come forward a bit.

I’m afraid I didn’t put enough leaf in the cup, because the flavor is very light. Still, the melon is definitely present: sweet, juicy, like having a slice of fresh canteloupe. The tea adds a flavor almost like when you eat down to the rind and you get that green, fresh flavor. I’m really enjoying this one even a little weak; it’s delicious and pretty unique, at least to my tea cupboard right now.

Edited: Ok, I took my already steeped leaves and dumped the rest of my sample pack in with them. I know Golden Moon sample packs are only supposed to be one serving, but they usually include a little more leaf than I would typically use in my 12oz cup, so I’ve been measuring out what I usually use and then I’ll see what’s left after that. Since the white tea is so light I put the rest of it in and steeped as before. The liquor is much darker this time, but the tea is, surprisingly, not as good! The melon flavor is just not as evident and it lacks the natural sweetness of before. Too much leaf this time? I dunno, but this isn’t doing much for my experiences with white teas!

Another oolong from Golden Moon. I loved the other orchid oolong that I’ve tried, so it was a no-brainer to get a sample of this one. The dry leaf has a strong scent but it seems lightly scented, if that makes sense: unlike most flavored/scented teas it seems, this one smells primarily like the vegetal green oolong with only a hint of sweet floral aroma to it. Looking back, that actually matches up with the other orchid oolong I tried (the Orchid Oolong from Tea Lux).

That one became very floral when brewed, but this one less so. The florals pick up in the taste a bit, and even provide a lingering sweetness at the tail end, but I wouldn’t consider this to be a highly floral tea. Just a breath of florals, really. It’s mostly the vegetal green oolong, slightly nutty, a bit roasted, and the florals fold in like they were always part of the tea, like it was natural and not scented at all. Overall a nice, tasty tea, but not quite right for my palate.

In my new quest to try a bunch of different kinds of oolongs and discover the joys of unflavored varieties, I ordered this Imperial Formosa to try. It may just be the first of its kind that I’ve tried; I don’t have a lot of background in these things. I have to say, the dry leaf smells pretty different from all the other oolongs I’ve tried so far, though I haven’t tried many dark ones yet. It’s very woodsy, and has an aroma that is familiar to me but that I can’t place right now. The directions say to steep for five minutes, which I’m a little worried about (I don’t steep anything but herbals and rooibos for five minutes), but I did it anyway.

Steeped, the aroma is much more familiar as an oolong, albeit definitely a dark one with a rich, almost black-tea type aroma and maybe a hint of a floral note. Honestly, based on the smell of the dry leaf I didn’t expect to like this tea very much, but I am enjoying it. It doesn’t blow me away, but a nice cup. It’s a bit roasty, a bit nutty, the slightest bit vegetal, with a tiny floral note at the end. I feel like that slightly sweet note that oolongs often have is lurking in there, but hasn’t been let out. Tasty, but I prefer oolongs with a bit more florals.

Today has seen two new teas tried and one sample finished so far, so I decided that finishing another sample would be a good idea. I think my next course will be going through the remaining cups on each of my Golden Moon packs to figure out which teas from this company I will want to keep in my standards.

I am definitely still enjoying the dark, floral honey notes in this one along with the bright pear. I am definitely a fan of this tea, but how much do I love it? Golden Moon only sells it in a 4oz tin or a 1/2lb or more. I’m really not sure if I love this tea 4oz worth; that’s a lot of tea for me because it takes me a long time to drink through even teas I truly adore. If I could buy 2oz of this tea, I would probably pick some up.

I took the day off yesterday and spent it out and about, hence my lack of tea notes. This is the last black tea I have to try from my Golden Moon order, and I can see that it seems like I will like this tea, or just think it’s too weird.

The dry leaf gives the aromas of what I might expect: intensely pear, with a strong accompanying note of rich, floral honey. It smells a bit like a pear hard candy, with actually a hint of “green apple”. I dunno, I can’t quite place the particular aroma that smells like a candy I’ve had before.

Brewed up, it smells much more like the black tea base. As it cools a bit I get more of that honey and pear aroma from the dry leaf starting to take over the cup. As to the taste, you can count me in the fans of this tea. The aroma of the dry leaf is pretty faithfully translated to the flavor, but with a lovely black tea base that fits in well with the flavors. It’s a bright base, and not especially malty, so that it reminds me of a darjeeling. I would consider the pear the primary note, with the somewhat floral honey backing it up. This honey reminds me of eating comb right from the beehive: it’s fresh and dark and wild (and delicious). I don’t find the tea “weird” at all, like many others, but perhaps that’s because the flavor is already one in my repetoir. I’m really enjoying it and it’s one I would probably keep around.