Golden Moon Tea

This is a very good Earl, but it isn’t typical as it has lavender added. The lavender is medium in strength with the bergamot just barely more noticeable. The tea base of this tea really is great. I hate when companies add lots of bergamot to cover up the inferior tea base, but when the tea base is nice and smooth the small addition of bergamot is magical. As much as I love Earl Grey, I usually add sweetener and/or milk. However, this is the only Earl Grey I can think of that I really love without anything added. The floral notes of this tea are so perfectly balanced. You should try it at least once!

Oh, Earl! We’ve been apart for too long, but you are still absolutely delicious.

I’m getting pretty low on this tea! I’m drinking this completely plain today, this is the first Earl I’ve been able to handle that with. The tea is very smooth and slightly floral with the bergamot kicking in at the finish. Overall, a very unique Earl that is definitely worth trying out.

This tea is surprisingly good iced with milk and honey…who would have thought? However, this Earl is a bit on the mild side, it has been making me really miss my bold, slightly smoky Saint Isaac’s Blend.

It has been awhile Earl, but you have been quite patient with me while I play the field of tea in my cupboard. Don’t worry, my heart will always be with you….(maybe not this GM version, but definitely with the Earl in general.)
Seriously, I quit drinking this because it just wasn’t tasting good to me. After taking a break, it is awesome this morning!

This is my first hot tea of the day, and I think I made the perfect choice. It is surprising that I prefer this tea plain. I usually add something to almost all black teas regardless of flavorings or types.

This is light on the bergamot and pleasantly scented with a lovely lavender. The best part of this tea is that the black tea base is of good quality, which seems to be rare for Earl Grey teas. Another shoutout to LiberTEAS and TeaEqualsBliss who have a great tea review site http://sororiteasisters.com – they run tea giveaways and that is how I won this delicious tea.

This is one of the best teas to start my day with. Unlike many Earl Greys, the bergamot is smooth and lightly floral without being over done.

I haven’t had this in over a week because last time it tasted “off.” I think I just overdid it as I was having this every morning for awhile.
I am really glad that I have this tea! It is very smooth and not overly perfume-like. The added lavender really makes the difference I believe. I’m enjoying it today with a bit of honey which seems to bring out the floral aspect of the lavender a bit more.

Okay, third infusion is a bit lighter, but still flavorful. It reminds me more of a lavender herbal, but not overly flowery. I’m not certain if I will routinely go for a third infusion, but I can see myself doing that every so often. Small ratings boost.

The second infusion is just as strong and flavorful as the first. Could this be one of the few black teas that can survive a 3rd infusion? If so, I will be forced to boost the ratings.

I just had to start my day with this and it was a very good choice, in my opinion.

The much anticipated tea that I won from the SororiTEA Sisters blog (run by our very own Steepsterites – LiberTEAS and TeaEqualsBliss) arrived today! That was extremely fast – great customer service from Golden Moon.

On to the tea:
I was a bit afraid of this tea because Earl Grey can easily become perfume and because I was afraid the lavender would be too floral. The scent of the dry tea was reassuring because it definitely wasn’t the strongest bergamot Earl Grey I’ve come across. After brewing, the tea was a medium brown and the bergamot/lavender scents were present, but muted. Taken plain, the tea is quite serviceable and smooth with the lavender and bergamot blending nicely with the medium strength black tea base.

I love drinking Earl Grey in the mornings, so for this tea to be suitable as a breakfast tea it had to pass the milk and sugar test. The additions nicely complement but do not overpower any of the flavors present in the tea. This will be nice with breakfast.

I want to thank LiberTEAS and TeaEqualsBliss for their entertaining blog that allowed me the opportunity to win this giveaway. I’m very glad that the giveaway tea was such a great one. I think that any Earl Grey fan would love this and I also think that people who don’t love Earl Grey because of the perfume-like aspect would appreciate this.

Hmmm, I’m afraid Den’s Sencha has spoiled me. Prior to tasting their varieties, I probably would have looked on the Golden Moon Sencha as quite a nice pick. The leaves are pretty enough, the vegetal and fresh aromas are present enough, and the tea itself is tasty enough. But in each of these categories, the Den’s Sencha is head and shoulders above Golden Moon’s. Den’s has a much more substantial mouth feel and a lingering buttery sensation that is really good.

Time for my Afternoon Green!

This is another one that was rated rather poorly by most of the Steepsterverse, but I think it’s very good! Mild jasmine taste. No bitterness. Very enjoyable to sip. I think a low water temp and brief steep time suits this one.

To totally contradict myself – the second steep, forgotten about in the pot and brewed for 7 minutes (!!!) is very good too! I thought it was going to be a bitter nightmare, but it’s enjoyable!

I can’t say that it distinguishes itself from other jasmine green teas – like A+D has that unique banana/tropical thing going on. A solid B but I am looking for a little more pizzazz for a whole tin purchase.

Looking forward to this one, as it’s been a while since I had a good chance to sample some Sri Lankan teas. Nice spicy, rich and enticing aroma to the dry leaf.

Great balance of flavors here. Strong and complex at the same time, just the way I like them. I’m getting a warm general spiciness rather than a particular note like cinnamon or clove, and some sweetness that I associate with berry or stone fruit jams. I want to see how this will taste with a little cream and sugar, but I’m enjoying it plain so much there’s not going to be a whole lot left over! A pleasing amount of astringency and good mouth feel.

With the additions it’s really luscious. I think the berry/fruit notes have morphed into maltiness. The aftertaste is like I’ve been having shortbread cookies with the tea but I swear I haven’t!

Score – two really nice ones today.

I’ve tried a couple different pu-erhs, and some I’ve really loved, but don’t have a whole lot of experience with this tea, so I’m looking forward to see how this compares. I’ll definitely be doing more than one steep with this one. The loose leaves are dark, dark brown and have a fruity/spicy aroma to them. Promising!

1st steep: 3 minutes, 200 degrees. Dark brown, coffee-colored liquor. Not super strong taste-wise, but interesting. I’m getting spices (cinnamon and clove) and the telltale fermented flavor of pu-erh; not sour or yeasty, just earthy. So far, so good.

2nd steep: 5 minutes, 200 degrees. Just about as dark the second time around, but the aroma has really been toned down. The flavor is mild but still earthy, and retains some sweet/fruity/spicy notes. The combination of them all is a little like chocolate – an interesting effect.

I love jasmine pearls, so my expectations here might be too high, but what the heck. Opening the packet I get that lovely scent of jasmine blossoms, sweet and for this variety, particularly juicy. I’ll plan on doing a couple steeps and see what develops.

1st steep: 2 minutes, 190 degrees. The pearls are semi-unfurled, and look like little caltrops with their spikes pushing out in all directions from the central core. The liquor is a clear, light golden-green, and the scent is jasmine but with an unusual note that reminds me of a chemical sweetness, almost like acetone/nail polish remover. It’s enough in the background though to not be bothersome. The flavor is light and sweet, with the distinctive perfumed aftertaste that I really like about jasmine pearls. Just a hint of butteriness, too.

2nd steep: 3 minutes, 190 degrees. Now I’ve got a kelp forest in my little pot, with long green fronds gently waving about in the currents of hot water. The liquor is a little cloudier this time, and a little duller in tone. The aroma is still distinctively jasmine. The flavor is much milder this time, and I’m not getting any new notes that weren’t there the first time.

Overall, I’d call this a good but not outstanding example of jasmine pearls.

After the last attempt with Imperial Oolong, I was looking for something to cleanse the palate of the lingering taste of lightly-toasted, semi-rotted wet leaves, and chose this one.

Whew, quite a perfume there on opening the sample packet! Very peary, pear-squared, pear upon pears. This should do it… Looking at the ingredients, I’m wondering if the pollen in the mix is the only additive to contribute the honey flavor?

After four minutes, I’ve got a clear, medium-dark brown liquor with great clouds of pear scent coming off of it. The taste is overwhelmingly pear, but now we’re getting into “too much of a good thing” category. It’s moving in the direction of pear incense or perfume (pearfume?), i.e. a little too artificial or at least overpowering. I’m going to add some cream and sugar to this one to see how it works out…

I think that’s better. The honey flavor is coming out more now, and combines well with the pear. Still, the pear component is a little too ramped up for me. I’d have another cup of this if offered, but won’t go out of my way to order it.

I’m down to my last few Golden Moon samples and had stepped away from it for a bit but I’m back to them :) It’s really hot today and I just wasn’t in the mood for my usual teas. I wanted something lighter.
This hits the spot. The jasmine is very refreshing. The taste is light rather then overbearing. The scent is also refreshing. If you want a hot tea on a hot day, I think this one hits the spot.

Edit: I did a second steep and there is a oolong buttery scent that surprised me a bit (pleasant surprise). It’s also in the taste as well. Cool- first taste is jasmine, second is oolong. Very fun.

I’m baaaacccckkk! Due to switching internet providers I had about a week without service (can we say, going insane)?! Anyways, I am backlogging from teas that I have had over that time. I decided to try this sample since my previous Orchid Tea that I sampled from a tea bar tasted watered down. This one was ok, definitely not watered down tasting…pretty smooth, but nothing special. I expected a more floral note to it, but it was very mild…so mild that I kind of had to concentrate a bit too be able to pick up on it. All in all it was a decent tea, but it seemed to be lacking something.

Two flavors I never would have thought about combining – how is it going to come out? Two different kinds of tea, too. Brave, those souls at Golden Moon. I like both vanilla and mint, but in sampling this tea I realize that I think of mint as a high, cool note and vanilla as a low, warm note. I keep getting thrown off all the way through – the smell as I open it up, the smell as it’s steeping, and the flavors as I drink it. It’s like I’m listening to a bass and a soprano at the same time, and wondering where the tenor is!

It’s weird, I like all the flavors in this, and it’s probably just me but I think it would take some getting used to if I were to drink this on a regular basis. Not quite sure what to rate this yet, so I’ll throw it somewhere in the middle.

A stalwart aroma greets me upon opening the packet – deep and toasty, and umpteen times more interesting than a regular old English Breakfast. The dry leaf is small and dark, and after three and a half minutes I’ve got a little pot of clear dark brown tea. Now I’ve got some fruity and sweet notes in the aroma, and my mouth is starting to water!

This tea isn’t shy – it’s got lots of strong flavor, and I keep thinking it tastes like Lipton (in a good way) on steroids. Now this is what EB is supposed to taste like. There is pepper, and fruit, and wood, not too much but just enough astringency – nice job! Buzz buzz buzz…pretty good caffeine content in it too, I’d guess.

I’m approaching this one just a bit skeptically, as it isn’t labelled as anything other than a generic “green tea”. With so many varieties out there, that seems to be selling it a little bit short. The aroma of the dry leaf is fine, fresh but not very nuanced.

I set it up for two minutes at 190, and got a nice green color out of the liquor, just a bit cloudy. The aroma was understated, as was the flavor. There are hints at vegetal, a little astringency, perhaps a couple other notes but they’re so far in the background that it hardly seems like I should count them. Nothing offensive about it, but I’m not finding a compelling reason to keep drinking this one when there are so many other excellent green teas out there.

Very nice aroma on opening the packet: Darjeeling moments, but also a deeper woody sweetness and some floral notes too. Mmmm!

After four minutes it’s a medium-dark brown, and smells good. I’ve got some maltiness, that sweet wood thing going on and just a bit of spiciness. The taste continues in this vein – it’s not enamel-scrapingly strong, which is good, and manages to put forward an incense-like tone that I find very pleasant and not surprisingly reminiscent of Nepal. I’m not putting sugar and milk in this one, but I bet it would make a superlative chai with that and some spices.

As it cools the honey and wood flavors heighten their profile, and there’s just enough astringency for it to be a good afternoon choice for my taste. I’d definitely be interested in getting more of this and playing around with different permutations of steeping and blending.