Golden Moon Tea

Mehhh, so I must say I don’t think I have ever had chrysanthemum in anything before, but I don’t believe I am a fan of them. Nothing was very special about this tea to me, it has a slight honeyish taste to it which I guess is from the chrysanthemum flowers? Hm, not sure how I feel about this one… I’m indifferent on it.

Ehh, this one is okay but nothing to write home about. I am already picky on my chai blends to start with since there are so many different variations out there and this one is mainly just cinnamon… a lot of cinnamon. The pu-erh wasn’t as nice and earthy as Golden Moons original Pu-erh, this reminds me more of fall leaves. Also due to all of the cinnamon this is a bit bitter from it and I can pick up on a light citrus note which I think is a bit weird in a chai, but to each their own! …This is just “ehh”, wouldn’t recommend anyone to go out and purchase this one.

UPDATE – after drinking this more as it cools the more I feel like I am gnawing on a cinnamon stick. Added some milk and honey and now it really reminds me of a cinnamon stick!

WOW! I’m speechless on this tea! This is my very first Pu-erh experience and honestly I have been intentionally avoiding this tea for some time now… something about being “aged in a cave” and the word “fermented” had me pretty freaked out. Anyways, the aroma of this tea is intoxicating, I’ve smelled this smell somewhere before but for the life of me I can not place it nor can I describe it. It is pungent, musky, strong and… I LOVE IT! This may sound very odd, but it tastes like a very good piece of earthy tree bark with some really rich soil covering it… not that I know what that tastes like, but it is what I think of while I am sipping on this treasure. Hmmm I think I need to take a moment and zen out while I finish my cup! I’m going to place an order for this right after I get done zenning out with my new treasure :-D

I am still new to the world of oolongs, but they are fast becomming my new fave! This is a very woodsy/musky tasting tea (but in a good way!) and I can taste the cedar notes, which I just love. The date flavor hits the very back of my tongue to make itself known and then if I really concentrate I can pick up an ever so slight floral finish. This will be put on my “must buy list”, I wish I had more than just the sample that came in Golden Moons sampler pack since I now want to make a whole pot!

As with most of my tea reviews… this is the first of this kind. Welcome to my teapot, pu-erh!

I, of course, let this sit a little too long before drinking. I usually like my tea right out of the kettle, and I got a little sidetracked. (Once you start organizing something, you just can’t stop.) But despite that, I’m not complaining about this cup. I stuck my nose in the leaves beforehand and it was a pleasant, dark, woodsy kind of smell. Apparently [judging by other reviews here, yes I cheat] it has a mossy, fungus-like quality. Like this scares me. I eat mushrooms raw.

The tea itself has that same earthy quality to it. I’m not quite bold enough to go over a 2-minute steep right now, but this seems about right for me. It doesn’t smell like much in the cup, but has that sharp, almost spicy taste going down. Again with that “spicy but not really” adjective. What else did I use that for? Oolong? Perhaps.

Days off work = plenty of time for tea. YAY.

I’m kind of torn on how to judge this one. As a tea, it’s pretty fantastic, but I’m not sure it’s to my taste. When they say jasmine, they mean jasmine. It’s seriously all I smell/taste. I went with a shorter steeping time (the packet says 2 to 4 minutes) because I didn’t want to be overwhelmed. Good call on that – I don’t know if I’d be able to handle if it were any stronger. The sample was pretty packed full so perhaps I’ll try it iced later on. (This is my new thing, apparently… anything that can be iced, shall.)

I find this to be a very flavorful tea. You can equally taste the bergamot and lavender but I will say they both appear to be fighting for first place. This is not a tea I could drink everyday but if I did have the urge to raise my pinky I would reach for this cuppa.

I’ve never tried this variety before, so I’m excited to see what it’s like. The smell and appearance are both quite attractive. The leaves are thin, slightly curved, and light green – they remind me of the needles from last year’s Christmas tree that I find when I pull out the box of ornaments again. There’s a sweetness to the scent, and maybe even a fruitiness? I’m not able to put my finger on it.

Let’s see, I didn’t burn out my taste buds at lunch with spicy food…what’s going on here? I can’t really taste much of anything. The mysteriously sweet and fruity aroma is gone, and the very light yellow liquor is perhaps just too subtle for me latch onto. I’m getting a very small bit of astringency, a little more mouth feel than a plain cup of hot water would give me, but that’s about it. Ah well.

Having just had a not-so-nice time with Golden Moon’s gunpowder green, I was a bit hesitant when I saw that this was the base of their Moroccan Mint blend. However I’ve always been a fan of mint, so I thought it was worth a shot to see how the two got along. I went easy on the steeping, to minimize the risk of ending up with a drink that would be unbearably bitter yet breath-freshening.

I’m okay with it. The mint is there, front and center, and the gunpowder thankfully does not leave any acrid traces. I can definitely tell that the blend has been enhanced with mint essence, as it does not have the strong herbal flavor that using freshly dried mint leaves brings to the table. After looking at the tasting notes here from some of the other mint blends, I’ll try those as well, but overall this would be a good fall-back.

Here is my 3rd sample from Golden Moon, this time I decided to go with something safe and that I knew I was already fond of! This tea is OK, it is a really light jasmine tea, especially when hot. For this being jasmine pearls I would expect a bit more of the jasmine flavor to be taking the front and center stage, but it’s just not happening. This is a light and subtle jasmine tea… probably would make a good bed time tea.

Pretty good stuff. The smell is wonderful. This tea is bold, nice for the midday boost. I taste the honey on the front end then the sandalwood takes over and lingers long after the sip.

At first when took in a whiff of tea from the bag I took a step back and was a little overwhelmed. Just smelled artificial I couldn’t tell if there was a vanilla or a jasmine scent. I was hoping for the best once brewed and it delivered. Very tasty and soothing, nothing overwhelming. Just wished I brewed it a little longer but lesson learned.

This is my second sample to try from them and this one is better than my first go around! The vanilla is very strong and the jasmine is kind of running behind in 2nd place. It’s a smooth black tea, not bitter but the vanilla reminds me of a vanilla marshmallow taste and I’m not very big on those, except for maybe in hot chocolate! The jasmine does make its self known more as the tea cools, but it throws me off a bit because I am so used to drinking my green tea (jasmine pearls) with jasmine that by having jasmine in a black tea just seems ….sooo…wrong?! LOL but that is just me being biased! This is a good black tea for vanilla/marshmallow lovers.

Mmm, what a nice full-bodied smokiness when I open the packet. It took me a while to get into Lapsang Souchong, but now I really enjoy it. For me a good one has a balance between the smokiness and the tea flavors, and the smokiness is itself made up of individual sub-components. Let’s see how this one measures up.

I see that they’re recommending 5-7 minutes steeping time, so I’ll go with 6 and assess it there. The brew is a clear dark golden-brown, and it smells really good. I’m getting a malty scent in with the smoke, and more – just an overall savory quality to it, like a well-cured meat (apologies to my vegetarian friends).

Taste: nice! Good balance there between the elements. The smoke is complex enough for my taste, and features the maltiness I smelled before as well as pine. It does not overpower the taste of the tea and doesn’t burn the back of my throat – both of which I’ve experienced with other Lapsang Souchongs.

Am I crazy to try the second half of this with cream and sugar? What the heck, nothing ventured, nothing gained. Wow, surprising how much that tones down the smokiness, and also brings out flavors that remind me of very dark chocolate. The smoke is more an ambience than the main star at this point, and that works well for me. I’d definitely drink this again – it’s versatile and tasty.

Edit: I’m going to bump up the score a little because now at 15 minutes later I’m still getting this incredible smokey chocolate aftertaste. Yum!

I wanted something light this morning, something to stretch my taste buds to their fullest extent in working out the subtle flavors at play in a mild tea. Well, I certainly got light, or perhaps “lite”. The smell of the dry leaves was appealing enough; a pleasing blend of tea-ness and flower. I noticed that there was one flower in my sample pack, and that others have gotten two.

Two minutes at 180 is all I’m giving it – definitely don’t want to overdo this one. I’m getting a pretty light yellowish-green liquor, with a very faint aroma. I think the floral addition is giving me more of a tisane than tea feel with the smell and appearance. The taste is fine…nothing stand-out, nothing offensive. I’m getting a vegetal top, some honey, and a light aftertaste somewhere in the realm of asparagus. Overall, I’d call it a good basic white tea, wouldn’t turn it down if offered but wouldn’t go out of my way to order it again.

I picked this tea out of my sampler pack to drink last night before bed. When I first opened the pouch a strong beer smell hit my in my nose, possibly even punched me in the nose! So with that being said we’re already off to a bad start. I steeped the tea as directed for 3mins, the color was amber and the smell was of hot beer. I slowly sipped my tea and sure enough… sweet hot beer taste! I let it cool off a bit and I suppose the nectar flavoring came out a bit more, but still none the less this tasted like a sweet, hot beer! I believe this tea is one that you would have to have an acquired taste for; I on the other hand do not have that acquired taste and it probably doesn’t help that I loathe beer either. I had to pour this one down the drain.

I found this VERY smokey to the edge of burnt it was weird but I gave it a little higher rating then I would because as I was sipping it did start to grow on me a bit. Still I won’t buy it.

As Auggy wrote in a review of this tea, it is very similar to Cream Soda. The vanilla aroma is lovely but I think that the vanilla overpowers the jasmine in the tea. I like this quite well, but I’ve had better Jasmine teas and I’ve had better Vanilla teas. I think that the combination does not dance symbiotically. Vanilla takes too much of a lead.

Drinking Vanilla Jasmine was more than a little pleasant but not enough of a knock-out for me to invest in a full size. But I can understand why some palates will award this with a top score of 100.

A faint smoky smell greets me on opening the packet; the dark olive green pearls also have a slightly acrid scent. It’s been a long time since I’ve had a gunpowder, so I’m not too sure what to expect. I’ll do two and a half minutes at 180, as I’m thinking this will be strong enough for my taste.

Whew! Sure is. There’s smoke there, but it’s also really astringent already. The liquor is a somewhat cloudy green-tinged brown. The scent of the liquid is lightly smokey, with green tea pushed to the background. Bitterness too – something I’m not usually turned off about, if it’s in moderation. However this bitterness feels somehow much more penetrating than usual, and lingers at the back of the throat. Maybe I just steeped it too long, though it was right in the middle of their 2-3 minute guideline. Ooof! Don’t think I’ll be able to finish this cup, though I think I’d try it again steeped for maybe half the time to see if it made a difference.

I’m approaching this one warily – dare I say gingerly? It’s such a strong flavor, and to team it up with delicate white tea… Opening the packet there was a pronounced but not overpowering ginger aroma, and when I poured the sample into the hot water there were about 20 or 30 little ginger chunks which immediately sank to the bottom. Well, I like ginger anyway, so I gave it three and a half minutes at 180.

I’m really surprised at how mild this is. I’m getting the mouth feel of the white tea, which is nice, and just the tiniest bit of warmth on the back end from the spice. There’s a pleasing amount of natural sweetness to the flavor, but really not a whole lot else going on for me. It might be worth trying it again brewed up much more strongly and then iced?

I don’t know what I am tasting. That is all I can say. I sorta taste vanilla at the backend but it isn’t for sure vanilla. It is disappointing since it smelled wonderful dry. So I end with…Weird!

This one smells of butter and out doors.
Mmm, very smooth. I taste the buttery oolong and a small bit of burnt sugar. There may be a vegal element but it is way back. I think I can pick up a nutty quality at the very beginning of a sip. This is a great tea.

(Oh and random other note, this is my first full day in my new apartment. I graduated med. school on Friday)

Back to the tea, as it cools a bit, the vegal comes forward some and the buttery/nutty goes backward. It’s still smooth but not as much so.

The second cup is similar to the first but with a touch more vegal.
Third steep is again similar but less flavor. Next steep I’ll do 2 minutes. The vegal taste has backed off again a bit.
The fourth steep smells much more vegal. There is still a bit of buttery/nutty but the vegal is stepping forward accompanied by a touch of bitterness. I’m thinking this might be my last steep of this one. I really like this tea though. Perhaps my favorite Oolong

All right Golden Moon, you’re going to have a hard time living up to Mariage Freres Vanille des Iles or Black Orchid…let’s see what you’ve got. The aroma is promising, strong natural vanilla flavor, and some sweet background note as well, like malt or cocoa. I see a sliver or two of vanilla bean too, a great sign.

In the pot, it brews up a clear dark brown, and after three minutes I’m getting a woodsy scent in there now too. I like my vanilla tea strong, but I’ll stop at four minutes to see where we are with it. The first sip is…underwhelming. I taste the black tea, which is fine, but where the vanilla is supposed to be is a place holder value that’s not quite what I was expecting. There’s still a pleasant maltiness in the aftertaste. It’s trying really hard but is not yet there. Shucks! Maybe the addition of cream and sugar will bring out more flavors.

Not so much. The warmth of vanilla is there, but again it feels like it’s standing in for the real thing, which is waiting in the wings somewhere but never quite arriving. Overall a pleasant tea, but not enough vanilla flavor for my taste.

This is my first attempt at oolong… and I feel I should try again in the future.

I think overall it’s too dark for me, and I seem to be tending toward lighter teas (in both color and flavor). It tasted like black tea with a spicy aftertaste. Is spicy the word? Maybe it’s the woodsy, cedar-like taste. I can’t knock it too hard, though. By the end I was looking forward to that aftertaste. Gave it a little kick.