Golden Moon Tea

My first white tea so it’s hard to describe well as I don’t have the experience or tasting ability for it yet. So far, it has a light taste; green with the tiniest, hard-to-find sugary note feeling under the front of the tongue. I say good but not awesome, but then, as said, I don’t have any experience with whites, really.

Humm…..Very nice. I believe this was supposed to be the May entry in the Single Leaf Club although I received it at the same time as their White Cloud in June.

The fresh leaves smell wonderful! I kept my nose tucked into the packet for a while to breath it in. A sweet citrus with just a hint of floral. I don’t usually like strongly scented tea leaves but this one is awesome. The fresh leaves also look gorgeous.

I initially followed the recommended brewing of 1 minute at 212. This was good, but after a sip I wondered if it would be better with an additional minute. Two minutes was perfect. No bitterness, just nicely full flavored.

Once brewed, their is just a hint of the fresh tea scent. The tea has a nice toasty flavor as mentioned in the Golden Moon tasting notes. A small hint of citrus for me. Not sure about the cocoa – still thinking about that one. Very nice, though. Highly recommended.

ETA: As the tea cooled, the citrus flavor that I noticed in the fresh tea leave scent became more pronounced. I really enjoyed this tea and look forward to trying a resteep.

I waited to review this one. I’ve been rationing my sample to get the most out of it, because I had to try it three times to make a decision. Because sometimes, when you absolutely love something in the first cup, you grow bored of it after a few weeks.
This is most definitely not the case here.
What can I say that hasn’t already been mentioned? I have quite a fondness for coconut, and a little bit of a love for oolong. This tea is nice and light with just the right amount of coconutty goodness. I love just sticking my nose in the mug to inhale its scent. I took a travel mug with me on my commute, and it kicked my senses into overdrive through the early-morning grogginess.
It’s just fantastic. I’ve succumbed to rambling about its awesomeness rather than writing an actual review.

I’ve been trying to drink all teas without milk lately. This tea was a nice honey brown color. The dry leaves smelled like floral, warm, and fresh. It was a bit like white tea. Steeped, it was a nutty and deeper scent. The taste is nice and refreshing. It had quite a bit of astringency, so I added a small amount of milk to it, which rounded it well. Nice overall.

I received a sample of this in my SweeTea package from oOTeaOo … thank you!

A very nice Darjeeling. It has a nuttier taste than I expected – usually, I find that Darjeeling teas tend to be fruitier/wine-ish, but this has a nutty taste to it, with a wine-like finish. Very nice, indeed!

This is the best tea I have ever had. This tea has an amazing aroma, dry right out of the container. It has a beautiful hue. Once you have made a cup, the aroma of the steeped leaves is still of full smoky potency. This tea has an amazing, full bodied flavor. A sweet finish, with a complex flavor. I will post a followup or two because I want to see what future cups are like. This first cup is strong, not delicate at all but complex. No wonder this stuff is so expensive.

Overall, this is an amazing tea. It is delicate, mild, and I highly recommend it. This is a white, or, technically, yellow tea. The flavor of this tea is not assertive, but I find myself wanting more every time I have some. You can steep these teas over and over, like pretty much every tea I have gotten from Golden Moon.

I quite like this tea. You really get the scent of the fruit on the front. Drinking it, the fruit is much less pronounced, but I really like this tea. I enjoyed it even more on the third steeping. I put a couple of pieces of german rock sugar in there, excellent.

I got to work kind of early this morning (earlier than usual at least), so I have time for two teas this morning! I’m kind of pushing myself to consume more tea so what I have doesn’t languish in my cupboard for too long. My sample of this is nearing its end, and since finishing up samples is a goal right now, I decided to try this one again.

I finally managed to steep a cup at the temperature that I think is appropriate for this tea (which definitely appears to be a black/green blend), so I’m looking forward to trying it this time. In the aroma of the steeped tea, the scents of vanilla and jasmine combine remarkably to make a very minty aroma. I actually got some mint out of this when I cold steeped it, so I guess it’s not surprising. Vanilla mint, really, like some candy mints you can find. Flavor wise… I’m afraid my estimation of this tea is only dropping with subsequent tastings. I’m almost getting a hint of soapiness now, crazily enough. The jasmine is just not working for me in this tea, and the vanilla isn’t too inspiring either. Clearly this is one of those polarizing teas since plenty of people really love it, but it’s another that’s just not for me!

Cold steeped. I’m not quite sure what to make of the flavors of this one when cold steeped. Definintely vanilla, definitely jasmine, but cold steeped they combined to make some other flavor I couldn’t really place. Almost minty, perhaps? Not one of my favorite cold steeps, but still decently tasty. I think I prefer this combo in its incarnation as a Monk’s blend with the added bergamot.

The last time I drank this tea I found it a little weak in flavor. I steeped it for longer this time to see if I could draw it out, but I’m not sure if it really worked. The vanilla and jasmine are still really light in the aroma, and what seems to have been brought out is the black tea. I don’t find this tea to be very good while still relatively hot, but the vanilla certainly comes out as it cools. The jasmine never really makes itself known in the way I’d like; it kind of sits back and provides a very slightly floral flavor to the blend.

Did I seriously not realize that this was a black/green blend until just now? Apparently not, because I usually steep those at a cooler temp. Thankfully my sample from JacquelineM is big enough for me to try it at different steeping parameters once again. I assume the jasmine is part of the green tea, so that may help bring it out

Golden Moon is one of those tea companies that I’ve wanted to try tea from for a while now, but I just haven’t gotten around to it. Until today! Thanks to JacquelineM I have a sample of one of their teas that interests me most. Jasmine is rapidly becoming one of my favorite tea flavors, and I always love a good vanilla, so this tea definitely seems like it will be up my alley. The dry leaves smell variably primarily like vanilla or jasmine each time I stick my nose in them, but the other scent is always there as well.

Brewed, I get a lovely blend of the vanilla and jasmine notes in the aroma, with some slightly vegetal tea notes as well. Neither seems to really reign over the other, instead they each bring out complementary notes in the other. An early sip while still very hot (too hot for me to actually really pick up in my handleless cup), yields a satisfying blend of both flavors: jasmine at the top, a solid tea base providing the bulk, with the creamy, rich vanilla underlying it all. Cooled a bit, the flavor is much the same, although I feel as if the jasmine is fading away somewhat and I’m getting a somewhat weakly flavored vanilla tea. I think I’ll be experimenting with brew times/temps with this one (fortunately I have enough to do so thanks to JacquelineM!), as between all of the tasting notes on here there is quite a variable range. Still, a very nice tea and I’m glad I finally got to try a Golden Moon tea!

Delicious! I don’t usually like mint mixed with things, but this is really tasty. Good vanilla, and peppermint. I love that GM uses real things to flavor the tea – even in my sample I could see chopped vanilla beans. Not sure I’d drink regularly enough to buy, but I’d definitely recommend trying this one.

I don’t often crave Chai, but when I do this Golden Moon mixture is very satisfying. You have to be very careful to not over-steep this one as it gets bitter as time goes by. Fantastic aroma is almost better than the taste. :)

I have oOTeaOo to thank for sending me this tea – I received it as part of my SweeTea package. Thank you!

This is an extraordinary breakfast blend. Hefty, solid, strong black tea – perfect to get one going! I love the malty tone to this tea. Very lovely, indeed.

GM Sample 23/31
Continuing sampling I picked the coconut pouchong. Smells lightly of coconut milk. Blends nicely with the pouchong tea.

I’ve had this tea for a while, but wasn’t thrilled with it the first time around. Since that first attempt, I’ve learned how to lightly brew my black teas, which has resulted in a much more favorable outcome. Case in point, Honey Orchid Black.

The dry leaves smell lightly like pepper. They’re very long and light and it’s hard to get them measured unless you have a scale. I’ve been using 3g per 6 oz. of water. 195/1 min.

Now, the tea smells lightly of tobacco. I’m not certain where that’s coming from as I expected more of a sweet floral scent as per the name. The taste is lovely. It’s lightly sweet, yes, there is a hint of tobacco in the flavor, but there’s an aftertaste of something floral. Overall, it melds together quite well and I’ve enjoyed several steeps of this one, all of them very pleasant.

My awesome HoppiTEA, Alana237, sent this in my package so I am enjoying a fragrant cuppa right now.

This is the first tea I’ve tried from Golden Moon. I really enjoy the deep coconut flavor (and fragrance!), but the pouchong tea is what I’d write home about.

It’s grassy and mellow, light but not so much that the coconut overpowers the tea flavor. It’s a comforting, fragrant cup. Delish!

I wasn’t wild about this. It smelled wonderful — like a mixture of black tea and tropical fruit. But when I drank it, there was something unpleasant about it. I felt like I was drinking fruit-scented soap or some type of cleansing product. I could still taste the black tea, which was perfectly good, but that unpleasant soapy note really put me off.

This is the April 2011 selection for Golden Moon’s Single Leaf club.

The idea of scenting teas is new to me. I will admit that I avoid scented products in my day to day life (e.g. unscented detergent, fabric softener, lotion, etc….) When it comes to tea, I love the scent of certain spices but scenting with fruits or flowers is not something I would seek out.

This tea has an obvious fruit scent for both the dry leaves and steeped leaves. The scent of the brewed tea itself is pretty subtle, so not objectionable for me. The tea itself seems to be a pretty basic black tea. Nothing special. Golden Moon recommends drinking the tea “neat” however, I found that a touch of milk smoothed the sharpness of the tea.

For my tastes, there is nothing really wrong with this tea, but nothing special either. I would prefer to drink other teas instead. I’m looking forward to trying some of the other teas that are mentioned as sample club items….a unique assam, first flush darjeeling, golden snail yunnan, etc….

AGH! I totally wrote up a whole review on this tea, and of course my internet poops out, sending me into no go territory. I refresh the page, and poof. My post is gone. WAH! >_< Anyhow, I don’t want to go on about this. I’ll try to remember what I wrote. But I do remember how it tastes. This tea is good.

Liquor – deep honey brown
Scent – strong nutty and light florals
Taste – nutty and floral with a hint of sweetness. There is some hint of astringency but it isn’t so bad for me. I assume you can add some sugar to this, but I didn’t try. It didn’t need it.

Overall, a good, forgiving tea. Withstood around 3 steeps. I accidentally left the second steep for 8 min, and the tea was still good. A good way to celebrate passing BLS and all.

The reviews on this tea certainly are intriguing. I’ve brewed it now on three different days, and in the end have found it rather disappointing.

I actually don’t like the smell of the fresh leaves at all. While there is a certain honey scent to them, there is also a very sharp scent that overpowers the honey. I suppose I could describe it as floral, so the fact that I don’t like floral perfumes in general might explain my dislike for the scent. The impression that comes to my mind is someone trying to cover body odor with stinky perfume.

Once brewed, luckily it looses the sharp scent. There is a nice black tea flavor, but I have a difficult time picking up any honey. I detected a hint of honey near the back of my throat as it cooled, but it was rather fleeting (since they describe the sensation as the front of the palate, this also led me to an interesting internet search to learn that taste bud mapping is over simplified).

The second time I brewed the tea, I didn’t use enough leaves and the result was very blah watery tea. The leaves are difficult to measure (I don’t have a scale) due to their very large size. Both the first and third time, though, I used plenty of leaf. The third time around I tried adding a small amount of honey to the tea to see if it would accent the natural honey flavor, but it didn’t really add much. The tea also left a bad aftertaste in my mouth.

All in all, I’m glad to have tried the tea and can see why some might enjoy it, but I think the description from Golden Moon of honey flavor literally exploding didn’t happen for me at all. I don’t generally sweeten my tea, but I do sometimes like a hint of honey in some teas. This one was a little disappointing for me at the end.

Wow, I’m afraid I didn’t get this one. Decided to give my Breville a little workout this morning. Brewed this tea twice as it was very weak and bland the first time around. My usual starting point for single estate assam’s is roughly 2 gently rounded tsp/cup, 212, 5 minutes so that is what I used for the first brew. This tea has very large leaves so figured that would work as a starting point. The tea was pretty tasteless and even worse after adding milk – just a subtle bitterness at the end. No malt, none of the complex flavors that Golden Moon describes.

Brew number 2 (fresh leaves, not a resteep) using 2 overflowing (as opposed to gently rounded) tsp/cup. Still pretty blah and couldn’t stand up to the addition of milk. I can just hear my husband complaining that the tea is watery. Won’t even try it on him. Again, no malt, and no complex flavors.

Going to move on and pull out my old tin of Harney and see how it compares. Might do some Upton FBOP blend as well.