Golden Moon Tea

This is a smooth, non bitter Irish Breakfast…super yay! I compare all Irish Breakfast to Stash’s blend. I love Stash’s, to me, it’s the best, and what got me into Irish Breakfast.

This is quite nice, and good on it’s own. I usually drink Irish Breakfast iced, which might seem strange. This tea would be awesome warm. Refreshing and strong. I find it has more depth than Stash’s and is smoother.

Another tea from the GM sampler. I used my Adagio tasting set to brew up this tea, and was impressed I was able to pour the tea into the cup without spilling most of it :) I love how these leaves unfurl, they get so large!

The leaves smell like rice to me, maybe rice steeped in coconut milk, but rice is the first thought that comes to mind. Brewed the scent is even stronger. It reminds me of the rice the Thai shop near my last job made. The taste is sweeter, has more coconut taste to it. This would be a good accompaniment to a homecooked meal of curry. I like how unique this tea is, I really haven’t tasted anything like it. It’s much different than a milk oolong flavor. I plan to try multiple steeps.

Finally getting around to trying this highly rated sample from Ricky.

The aroma surprises me a bit. It smells salty, a bit like steamed rice, a nice fancy jasmine rice with a hint of coconut milk.

It tastes like creamy coconut milk, a lighter version of the rich, creamy coconut milk, but coconut milk nonetheless. I’m still getting a bit of rice taste, but might just be from smelling while tasting.

I have a 2nd steep cooling to try iced. I don’t know how to rate this one. I think I’ll have to try it again. I don’t think this is one I’ll need to own, but it could grow on me.

Didn’t realize I had so many teas left in my Golden Moon sampler! Picked this one out to go with a mediocre chocolate chip cookie this afternoon. This tea made the experience more than mediocre. There are sweet honey notes that I am really enjoying in this tea. I am getting something else too, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s a little woodsy, but not in the same way a rooibos is. I love being able to enjoy a black tea in the middle of the afternoon, and this one made for a tasty treat.

Holy Vanilla! This tea is so potent, and smells like you just stuck your nose into a vanilla bean. The smell alone, makes me want to taste the tea immediately! (i am a vanilla fiend!). Sadly, I was kind of disappointed with this tea, it was vanilla-y on the nose, while the tea was hot, but the vanilla seemed to go away and dissolve as the tea cooled off. The taste of the tea was a mild black tea, not anything to write home about, but I was sipping on it at night after an exam, so the tea helped me relax, but I think i wouldn’t drink the tea if I wanted a boost in the morning/afternoon. The tea reminded me of how vanilla as a flavor is a bit subdued and kind of on the mellow side,which is exactly how this tea strikes me. I would have liked the vanilla to be more present in the tea flavor, and maybe a stronger black tea too.

I am really behind on logging my teas, but that’s what finals week will do to ya! So, I reviewed this tea on my blog, but man, this is a delicious tea!

Read the rest of my review plus pictures over at my blog! http://bit.ly/foeM5u

A nice refreshing green. It made a nice iced tea. It has a light sweetness to it. I did get a little pineapple in it. Wish it was a little stronger.

This is my first experience with gunpowder. It’s such small little pellets of tea. It has a smokiness I’m not much a fan of. I brewed it for an iced tea. It was too smoky for me, even though it’s very little. This would probably more for hot tea, not so good iced. I don’t like smoky teas to drink iced. It isn’t refreshing to me. I don’t think I would like this warm either.

Another It’s All About the Leaf review:

Jasmine has been scenting and flavoring tea for almost as long as tea has been grown in China. The aromatic qualities of the jasmine bloom and the aromatic qualities of the tea plant are one of nature’s perfect matches.

As you may be able to guess, I’m very fond of jasmine pearls – it’s my favorite way to have jasmine in tea.

(read more at http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/1503/tea-review-golden-moon-tea-jasmine-pearls/)

frenchvanilla sent this one to me…thanks!!

I’ve not had many of Golden Moon’s teas (in fact, I think I’ve only had their Lapsang Souchong), so I’m really excited about this. I didn’t sniff it prior to brewing (too cold!! Must get tea into tea maker and retreat to nest on couch!), but I could smell it after it had brewed, and it’s got this wonderful oolong scent to it…sweet, golden grassy notes.

Coconut taste is very mild to me…in fact, I don’t know if I would have identified it had I just been handed the cup to drink. It is smooth, and creamier than most oolongs I’ve had (perhaps the coconut milk does this?). I’m definitely enjoying it, but if I’m going to drink a coconut flavored tea, I want it to be really coconut flavored. And probably in a black tea base.

I do enjoy jasmine teas. This just was just ok. I like lighter flavoring of jasmine. Whatever flavoring of jasmine in the Vanilla Jasmine was amazing. This is lots of jasmine, just not what I like as much.

My husband and I split this tea this morning. Thank you Rachel for this sample! I knew I had tried this before and I remember liking it a lot too! So refreshing in a creamy, warm sort of way. I love how there were mint leaves in there, but they didn’t overpower the drink. Great mix!

Delicious tea! So relaxing and vanilla with hint of mint.

I made a big 32oz iced tea out of this for my day at work. It was quite nice, a better Earl Grey, for sure. It’s the right amount for flavoring, not too much, and not to little. I like the black tea in this. The last Earl Grey was a little astringent and brisk. This was a lot smoother.

I prefer Earl Grey mixed in chocolate…mmm if you make chocolate truffles, steep some Earl Grey in your cream. It’s quite good!

I kind of wished I didn’t dump my whole sample to make iced tea! This would of been amazing warm with some cream! Anyways, being iced, it’s naturally honey sweet and yummy. The dry leaf has such a big pungent honey smell. I didn’t get much pear, which is a shame. I bet this would be tasty brewed in pear juice. There’s a little pear in the background, though. And when I burped! :) I bet this tea would be awesome in sweet tea, too.

It didn’t rebrew again, it was pretty weak, but drinkable.

Refreshing and naturally flavored. Tastes like it has calories!

This makes a tasty iced tea. I love the tea base in it, the green comes out quite nicely. The flavoring blend is a nice balance with mint. I would of liked more vanilla. I resteeped it only once, and it stood it up quite nicely, no vanilla though.

I had 2 steeps of this. It smelled so good I couldn’t stop smelling the package even after I’ve emptied the leaves into my gaiwan. It reminds me some cute tea shops that I used to frequent when I lived in NY. I love the dark green leaves all rolled up into a ball. There are some stems in there. The scent is a little musty, sweet, floral, and green.

I had 3 steeps. The steep is a nice yellow color. It tastes and smells buttery and green. There is a hint of floral and sweetness to it but it is very slight. Something lingers in the back of my tongue and its a bit fishy. Sometimes I get that similar taste with some senchas I’ve had. I imagine this would be good with seafood.

I didn’t rate this very well because it was also a bit bitter and the fishy thing.

-EDIT—
So I did one more steep and it was so smooth! The fish thing I’ve been experiencing has diminished. I’m bumping the rating up a bit.

I don’t like licorice. However, out of all teas with licorice I’ve tried so far this one is best by far. Really goes well with white tea flavour. I hate it for example when they make a chocolate flavoured tea then put in licorice. Then I just get that scent of artificial sweetness out of the licorice. But his combo when the tea is all about licorice flavour is really much better.
I don’t hate licorice anymore :) I just hate it sometimes now. Kinda like jasmine. At this very moment while drinking this white licorice tea I’m enjoying licorice. Never thought I’d say that ;) Yep yep licorice ain’t all that bad…

Hi again! I can’t get this page at work. I’ll blame the firewall for my lack of posting :)
So, I’ve got 3 more samples left. Here is one of them.
Strong mint scent. It smells light and minty when brewed but strong at the same time… It’s kind of contradictory but that’s what it’s like to me.
Taste wise… There is mint- combo of mints- again light but strong at the same time. The mint is much fresher and more natural tasting then most mint flavored things.
Nice fresh after taste.
The tea flavor underneath is very mild.
Oh, and for the rating scales. I give up. Perhaps I’ll come up with something and start for the next tea but so far, they are rather random and don’t relate to the other teas I’ve tasted as I can’t remember how each tea compares to each other…

Picked a random black tea from my sampler this morning and got this: Sinharaja! I was even curious enough to look up what it meant. Its a Forest Reserve in Sri Lanka!

First sniff, I knew this was a black tea. It smells like a Ceylon, but not very strong. Yum! It brewed a nice golden yellow brown color. It smells delicate and sweet. I do get a very slight malty taste but mostly a woody molasses. Great tea! I’d say this would be a a great addition for a daily black tea. Tastes great with milk and sugar too!

My 1st sencha. Judging by the previous review I didn’t pick the right one to start with but it’s worth a try. Lets see if I like this.
Leaves look quite similar to Kukicha tea I got home. Dark green. Not sure if that’s how they’re supposed to look.
Tea is deep yellow. Smells similar to that Kukicha again. Just less strong. I’m really not an expert on these. For me it smells quite nice.
OK I kinda get the reviews now. This is not as good as it smells. That Kukicha I keep comparing it too is so much better. This is bitter first of all. Not smooth enough. Just not very good. The after-taste is let’s say OK but still not very good.

Wouldn’t buy this one…
Gotta try some different Sencha’s.

I usually hate English Breakfast, more of an Irish Breakfast fan. I always find it too astringent and bossy in my taste buds.

This is the best English Breakfast I’ve had, even though I am not a fan of the style. It’s smooth, brisk, and strong.