Golden Moon Tea

I drink most of my tea at work, as a mid-morning or mid-afternoon treat. Am I too far gone if I say that one reason I looked forward to coming back to work today was so that I could try a new Golden Moon sampler?

I chose their Jasmine tea today; this has been one of my favorite flower scents since we had a jasmine vine at the house where I grew up. The smell reminds me of long evenings during summer vacation… I love jasmine pearl teas for their aesthetic qualities, so it’s been a while since I’ve had a straight jasmine tea. When I cut open the sampler packet, the first whiff I got gave me not so much jasmine as bubble gum/Juicy Fruit! Very sweet and fruity aroma. The leaves are quite dark green and it’s really a very generous sample size.

After three minutes, the tea is quite a deep greenish brown color, so I’ll call it quits there. The taste is very fruity, and again I wouldn’t call it a quintessential jasmine flavor or aroma. There’s also quite a pronounced astringency – I think this may have been better at a lower water temperature than the 190 I used this time.

It’s not unpleasant, but I can’t help comparing it to my favorite jasmine pearl teas, which are unmistakably scented with the flower and leave a lingering aftertaste for a long, long time.

Another sample from Ricky, thank you.
Upon my first pokes in the package I failed to realize that the items were in fact labeled. Silly me. Had I noticed I would have pounced on the Yunan first. I have been dying to try a cup of that for months now. No matter Rose won out as I am a sucker for flavored and flowery teas especially when surrounded by unruly men/boys.

First sniff left me wondering if it would be soapy or perfumed and bitter. The fragrance reminded me a bit of these plastic roses I had inherited from my great grandmother and they sat all my childhood life on my vanity. Roses, powder and a most calming black tea earthiness was the combo that assailed my nose. With the addition of water, the fragrance was no different a rich wonderful tea entwined with delicate rose. To me, the scent was pleasant and not overly annoying.

This tea mixes well with dark chocolate hot cocoa mix and if you want to get rid of any annoying odor in those plastic tea mug lids, this tea will do it.

This one is a bust. Glad that I did not purchase a whole tin- and started with the sample first. Phew! This has been a popular tea on this website, but, in my opinion, the cinnamon flavor overpowered the typical chai medley of flavors.

I tried this one iced- cold brew method using the Bodum pitcher from Golden Moon. Seriously, refreshing. The vanilla provides a smoothness, sweetness and tempers the mint. I am getting addicted to my Bodum iced tea pitcher. Just throw some leaves in water and voila, the next morning, cold iced tea….

This one was confusing to me. Let me start by saying I am not a big fruit tea fan and I am especially not a fan of melon. However, just because I don’t like something as a food doesn’t mean I won’t like it as a tea so I gave it a shot. This is part of my sampler set I received. So upon opening the package the smell is intense and it smells a bit like alcohol. Weird but I went ahead and brewed and it still had a very strong aroma or melon and a tiny lingering smell of alcohol. I had my first taste after letting the tea cool a bit and noticed the alcohol smell wasn’t there and it didn’t taste like it either. However, it was ok in flavor but still better than expected considering my prior disposition. Next, I decided to let the tea cool a bit more and to see if there was a difference and there truly was a difference. It becomes natually sweeter and more like real melon; which for someone who likes melon would love. So great for the tea but just ok for me. I will say this tea probably would be great iced on a hot day with or without sweetener.

I am not enjoying this one as much as I would have hoped. I like oolong teas, but this one seems a bit too floral for me. There is a floral note to the dried leaves and then one to the brewed tea. Sifting through other reviews on here, it appears I infused it a bit incorrectly, but you live and learn.

As I said, the dried leaves, curled into little balls, smell like oolong with a strong floral note. I will not lie, that this note concerned me, so I added a few rocks of sugar to my cup as it was infusing. Followed package directions, infused hot, three minutes.

The liquor is a very pale yellow and the odor is characteristic of the dried leaves, there are no additional aromas released upon brewing. The tea continues to baffle me because though I can smell the floral orchid note, I really can only taste oolong while it was hot. As I allowed the tea to cool, I noticed more of a bitter note at the end of the oolong, this was not here while the brew was hot. This bitter note is more upsetting because I added sugar to the brew.

I fear I messed something up, that or I do not like orchids in my oolong…

Simple. Mint & Vanilla.
Why do I always think of toothpaste when I smell Mint tea’s?
I have no idea, but this was pretty refreshing this morning, so I will give it a thumbs up.

GM sampler #24, I know I haven’t been counting, but I know that there are five left after this one…

The aroma of the leaves screams black tea, but not much else. I infused the full sample, five minutes, hot with no additives. Honestly, I was not paying attention, again and realized about two minutes after my goal steep (3 minutes) I had overshot the brew. Oh well.

This tea is pretty good, but then again I like black tea. I also cannot really taste the difference between the different types of black tea because I so often get flavored blacks and then I find it hard to distinguish later on. This like I said is very nice. Not too astringent, not overbearing, has nice body, not too light or too strong. There is a slight twang of bitter at the end of this, I would normally consider than astringency, but because I do not taste it through the entire sip of tea, I do not think it is astringent, I just think it’s a little bitter.

Would be fantastic with some half and half and/or sugar. I think I’ll go do that and repost…

After reading some of the rave reviews here for this tea, I was a little initimidated. Kind of like meeting a movie star: would it be as nice in person as I’m imagining? Cutting open the sampler packet, I was immediately hit with the aroma. Not the suntan lotion coconut I’d feared, but rich, creamy and toasted. The leaves are pretty too – they look good. This bodes well!

The taste follows through on the promise of the scent. The coconut flavor is incredibly creamy, and makes me think of a macaroon dipped in milk. There is so much rich, delicious coconut flavor in fact that I’m not getting a whole lot out of the tea other than a background hum. Nothing offensive, but nothing standout either. I’d normally think of pairing coconut flavor with black tea and then putting cream and sugar in it to make a yummy warm drink, so I’ll be on the lookout for that variety next. Still, this is a very tasty tea.

It’s after lunch and I’m in the mood for something sweet – this one sounded like it would hit the spot and did not disappoint. Gorgeous sweet, caramel aroma. Mouth-watering, in fact!
These leaves really popped open during the steep, and continued exuding their yummy smell. The recommended steeping time was 2-3 minutes, and I know I like my flavored teas strong, so I went with three. This gave me a medium-brown liquor with a medium amount of oolong and caramel flavor. Really well balanced, but I think for my personal taste I’d probably steep it longer. There’s a sweet taste to it, but I couldn’t help but wonder how this would be with cream and sugar, despite the fact that I usually drink oolongs straight.
Very nice! Now it’s like a melted butterscotch candy, much richer and really almost decadent. Dare I still call this tea, or am I only drinking it as a dessert substitute?

Randomly Selected Gold Moon Sampler number in the vicinity of 20 or 21

I always thought that cats had an innate system of checks and balances that involved leaping up on tables but not knocking over the long-stemmed wine-glasses or not leaping into the tea mugs.

My first infusion of this was poured into a very nice bee house banilla-colored (I made that it — it’s not quite the white of a vanilla and not quite the yellow of a banana) 5 ounce mup (not quite cup; not quite mug) that I use for a lot of my smaller samples.

Anyhow, as it was cooling my calico cat Zoey took a flying leap at it and the tea and the mup flew off the desk. Fortunately nothing broke but Zoey stared at me imperiously as I cleaned it up.

I proceed to make second infusion. I am a bit underwhelmed. I’ve had green teas that have really nice vegetal or buttery tastes and the most recent one I had, a Wazuka Sencha, was delighfully complex. This one is pedestrian at best. I would not invest in it as a “go-to” green tea. It’s not awful—it just does not have any zing or snap crackle pop or butter or grass to it. Maybe it needed a longer steeping but a green tea can turn in the blink of an eye from a buttercup to a rancid bitter old shrew. How delicate then can be.

Zoey is unrepentent. RIght now she’s licking the tea off her toes with the spirit of a Rosie the Riveter.

The leaves are long and pale green, a white tea and smell faintly of melon. Not really like the green melon I thought it was, it smells more like cantaloupe. Anyway, steeped this tea up, hot, no additives, was aiming for 3 minutes, but forgot about it-so it actually infused about six minutes, no big deal.

The aroma coming off of this tea is very sweet, almost sickeningly sweet, like a nectar or extremely fragrant flowers, actually reminds me a very sweet wine. The tea itself, tastes like melon and is very sweet, but not overpowering, which is weird, because based on the smell I would have thought it to be sweeter. I am glad it is not as sweet as it smells, that would have been too sweet.

The tea wasn’t bad, it was pretty good but too sweet for me to enjoy on a regular basis. This of course could have been from the over-infusion, so I might have to get another sample and find out.

This is nice! The leaves are perfectly scented, pretty without being overpowering in their sweet melon-ness. Once it’s brewed up the cup is a bit darker than I expected with four minutes of steeping, but the taste turned out just right for me. It’s definitely melon-flavored, but it doesn’t taste fake, and I still get the tea aspects in there too. There’s also a natural sweetness that complements the fruitiness well. It’s a wonderful marriage of aromas and savors, and I expect this would be great iced on a hot day.

I was looking forward to trying this one, never having had a pu-erh chai before. It smells like I expected, earthy and cinnamony. Drunk plain, it’s a little on the bitter/spicy side, but the cinnamon and cardamom flavors come through well. A little milk is nice; sweetener would likely help but I’m resisting. I can’t quite decide whether this is good, and will grow on me, or just too strange; I wouldn’t buy more at this point, but I’ll drink what I have. I’m curious to see how well it resteeps, though there was enough in my sample for two solid cups.

ETA: I had the first two steeps (2 and 3 minutes) with milk, to soften the spices a little. The 3rd and 4th I’ve drunk plain, and I like them that way. The spices are milder by now, and the sweetness of the pu-erh is coming through more. It reminds me of harvest parties and field trips – drinking hot apple cider in a barn; it probably helps that it’s cold and rainy out today.

Bumping the rating on this one for resteepability and versatility.

So, I figured it was time to finish up the GM sampler. Picked blindly, got this one, perfect for breakfast!

This tea is probably one of the best breakfast blends I have ever had. You can smell the typical breakfast tea aroma from the leaves, but once brewed it releases a whole world of aroma and flavor. A robust aroma of black tea – slightly fruity and slightly smokey, definitely smells delicious. The flavor, you can actually almost pick out all of the teas in here: there is a smoothness, a malty flavor, a slight smoke and a hint of fruit. Absolutely delicious.

Infused hot, four minutes, no additives. Delicious. Second cup enjoyed with a teaspoon of sugar and some half and half. Also delicious.

Good. Smooth and clean with just a hint of sharpness at the end.

Wow this tea was an amazing scentual experience from the time I opened the sample packaging. At first when black it was a little lacking I would have to say thin. It needed more body so I decided to add milk and sugar and on my first sip it was still just okay. Then on my next sip a little better, then again and again I drank this tea and it truly grew on me almost immediately. Fantastic, it reminds me of “Rose Milk” a drink I used to drink as a child. Such wonderful memories came to mind and I was almost immediately wisked away to India. Beautiful indeed. I do wish the rose was just a little stronger. I will drink this again. :o)

Way too crazy a day today. Just enough time for one mid-afternoon steep, so I chose something floral and relaxing to try and carve out a little niche of calm. When I opened up the packet, I was hit immediately by the very strong rose aroma – I think there’s a fair bit of rose aroma added to what the petals included in the mix would normally provide. The smell moved into the realm that was getting close to air freshener territory, no longer so natural.

The tea brews up nice and dark, and fortunately the scent tones down the chemical overtones I got from the unsteeped leaf. The black tea it’s based on is unremarkable; so far this is just okay, so let’s see what happens when milk and sugar are added.

Hmm, I think that may have been a mistake. I’m losing the bulk of the rose flavor now – probably would have been better to steep it another minute or so if I was planning on using milk and sugar. The flavors have slunk into the background and aren’t doing such a good job of mixing with the cream; in particular, the combination of rose and cream are making it taste a little curdled. I checked the cream on its own and it seems to be okay, so I guess it’s some kind of interaction between the two. Not my favorite, but I won’t put the rating all the way down as it’s still okay on its own.

I’m in need of a good comfort tea today – I’ve been wallowing a whole lot lately and it’s starting to get pathetic. So hopefully this will blow my mind and make me forget where I am.

The smell of this was divine. It was a whole lot of burnt sugar and caramel. Now, I much prefer caramel to chocolate; it is probably my favorite sweet out there. So you can see why I chose this tea today.

Right away, I taste the oolong. It’s one of those nice buttery, creamy oolongs, so it is complemented very nicely by the caramel. The caramel doesn’t come out and assault your taste buds, but rather it very gently massages them into submission until you’re lost in the taste. The longer I hold the tea in my mouth, the stronger the caramel becomes. It’s not the sickeningly sweet caramel you would pour over ice cream; it’s almost like there’s nuts added.

This doesn’t come right out and scream “Desert Tea!” It isn’t sweet enough, so it’s perfect to have around as a comfort tea. Which is what I needed right now. I bet after a couple more infusions I’ll be wondering why I was ever in a funk in the first place.

This has nothing to do with the tea, but it just started absolutely pouring. Like, the kind of storm that sends my poor dog running under my bed with her tail between her legs. It was perfectly nice out a minute ago. The weather is so weird here…

EDIT: Oh, lovely. Now it’s hailing, too. And raining sideways.

I love melons, and Rishi’s Honeydew Melon is one of my favorite teas. I’ve heard that this is quite similar, so I’m expecting to like this one very much. I took this unsweetened.

The scent of this one is like baking bread. It’s yeasty and almost smells a little like beer. The melon in this is pretty subtle, not surprisingly. It blends perfectly with the white tea in the background. This is a very light tea that would probably be sublime when iced. It leaves practically no aftertaste. I feel that the addition of sweetener would make this too sweet.

I can’t decide if I’m tasting muskmelon or honeydew or both, but whatever it is, it is good! Another winner from Golden Moon!

EDIT: In case you were wondering, I think I like this better than Rishi’s version. Rishi’s is still excellent, but the melon is a hair artificial. This wins by a mere 3 points.

Me: Not a huge fan of straight mint. I usually like vanilla or cream flavors added. With that said it isn’t bad just strong but it could be how long I brewed it. I decided not to finish it and gave it to my husband.
Husband: I really felt it was a very minty delicious tea. Much better hot not cold. If however it was iced it would need sweetener. Otherwise delicious and would definitely drink it again and again.

I’m kind of disappointed. After hearing/reading rave reviews of proper chai, and going out to actually buy milk (this rarely happens in my house), I expected to be amazed.

I loved the smell. It has that smell of a country farmer’s market. I want to go pumpkin picking now, or something. And it certainly filled the kitchen with its spicy, woodsy fragrance (surely mother won’t be complaining).

I used the “authentic” recipe that teaplz forced upon me [ever so lovingly]. Know what this reminds me of? Why I don’t add anything to my tea.

The first few sips were enjoyable. It’s really rich, probably due to the water/milk ratio (1:1). But toward the end I had to force it down. I’m just not used to thick teas, and it reminded me more of “milk with a tea aftertaste.” How disappointing. Maybe chai isn’t for me after all.

Ah it was ok. Nothing seriously huge about this one or as it is “nothing to write home about” May have to try it again to make sure. It was sorta grassy/earthy but like I said no “Wow” factor here.