Golden Moon Tea

GM Sampler #ohmylordidon’tknow&amtoolazytotallywhat’sleft of 31 ;)

I awoke to such an overcast drizzly day that I knew I had to start my day with a black tea. But black teas are such a mystery to me. It seems like a lot are much too harsh for me, but then I love lapsang souchongs. I can’t tell the difference between Ceylons, Keemuns, or Assams and that drives me nutty cuz I want to! So I thought as I rifled through the sampler basket “Oh hey, this one’s Ceylon – I just need to make a note of this being a Ceylon and then go from there.” Well, that’s my hope. I think my theory falls flat since I don’t think that I have straight up Keemun or Assam tea handy for a comparison. D’oh!

Everything seemed like stereotypical black tea from the scent of the dried/steeped leaves to the cup’s aroma. The taste is really suprisingly pleasant. There’s this nice subtle sweetness that I’m digging. I feel sorta crazy(er) in that I almost feel like I’m drinking the pre-smoked tea that’s used for lapsangs, because this is the undercurrent taste I get while drinking GM’s LS, only a bit sweeter.

I’m on my second steep and there is a bit of dryness happening at the back of my throat, but not enough to dissuade me from drinking this again. But I’m not rushing to add this to my shopping list. But, I could see myself buying some to keep on hand for days I need a simple “reset” to my tea routine. NE

Second steeping!
Still delicious!
I just want to make a giant pot of this, set it on my desk and keep refilling my cup all afternoon. I would obviously have to think of a way to keep the pot warm (samovar) that would not involve fire (…electric samovar?) and did not cost over a hundred dollars (…I got nuffin)

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #22:
Enough about dessert teas, it’s time to get back to work!
This is, as I have noted before, one of the teas that I’ve been dreading. Not as much as the licorice, because I can generally tolerate coconut in pastry, but still, expectations = not too high.

The leaves smell like macaroons. I am reminded that I quite like macaroons. Or at least fresh ones. Once I got the leaves wet, though, I could immediately sense the green tea, although the coconut/pastry scent was still there. I was a little worried about pouring in too much water, and I think I may have overshot the mark a bit. Oh well!

I…really like this! It has just the right amount of personality in the base tea and coconut flavoring. I can definitely see getting rice from it – although I’m more thinking of rice crispies – there’s a certain sense of toastedness about it. It’s VERY drinkable, I think I could just drink it all day. But especially if I had some curry or something. Maybe crab rangoons. Man, I wish I know how to make those.

This would confirm my theory, by the way, that most of my food dislikes have to do with texture more than taste. I hate peanuts but like peanut butter, I hate coconut flakes, but apparently am perfectly fine with coconut flavor. Not that this really allows me to do anything about it, but at least I know! Knowing things, it’s great!

Today’s moral is: I am totally getting more of this.

This tea was the perfect dessert tea pairing with my dark chocolate square this evening. The aroma is a sweet caramel, very enticing. I haven’t had a caramel tea that smelled this good since the Spring I spent in Toulouse, France. My host family had a wonderful caramel tea that I had at least twice a day, and haven’t found a replacement for yet!

I taste a slight bit of wood on the tip of my tongue on some sips. I’m definitely getting the caramel, more so in the aftertaste then in the immediate taste. There is a slightly nutty flavor too if I swirl the tea around in my mouth a bit. I have to have more of this tea! I hope for a few more steeps tonight. Then I must make some room in my cupboard as this is definitely getting ordered again! Thank you GM for introducing me to your teas through a wonderful sampler!

Sipdown no. 56 for the year 2014. A sample; another in the “not sure, try again” category after my massive Golden Moon order.

Trying this side by side with the Vanilla Mint to see how different they are. I will say that the Vanilla Mint has much more of the Andes/Girl Scout thin mint thing going on than this does. This is much more of a pure mint smell in the sample packet.

The steeped aroma is a delicate mint, and the flavor is pretty much as described in my original note. There’s a definite difference between this and the Vanilla Mint. This has a fresher, cleaner taste from the green tea base, with a rather buttery green flavor underneath. The Vanilla Mint is creamier and heartier from the black tea and vanilla.

I like this quite a bit. If I didn’t already have other green mints in my collection, I’d probably add this to the shopping list.

Golden Moon sample No. 7 of 31. You guessed it — randomly picked.

This is going to be interesting. It’s my first loose leaf gunpowder green tea. I’m enjoying looking at the little rolled up leaves as I haven’t been able to see them before when I’ve had bagged gunpowder. They’re nestled in and among the brighter green, flat mint leaves.

It’s also going to be interesting because of my love affair with Samovar Moorish Mint, the only flavored green tea that has my number so far.

Smells minty (duh) and the dusky smell of the tea adds some depth and darkness. I’m reminded of Girl Scout thin mints. I heart Girl Scout thin mints! This bodes well.

It steeps to a golden yellow with a hint of green. A dark champagne color. The minty aroma has become duskier, greener and lost its thin mint quality. It’s more like a warmed-up mint cordial.

The minty note is fresh and clean, and lands softly on a surprisingly mellow gunpowder base. I expected it to be more pungent than it is. I’d describe it as a cross between wheatgrass and parsley with maybe a little moss thrown in. It’s not quite sweet, but it’s not overpowering or bitter either. The tea feels soft and velvety, and the finish is sweet with a persistent minty freshness.

It’s a nice mint. I’d drink it if I couldn’t get the Samovar and I wanted a mint tea instead of a tisane, but it isn’t a replacement for the Moorish Mint.

Sipdown no. 52 of the year 2014. A sample; another of the Golden Moon teas that I couldn’t quite make up my mind about after the initial taste-through of the 31 tea sampler. I notice that Adham rated this very highly so I’m using his time and temp to steep instead of my original. 195 for 3:30.

I am probably very over-caffeinated at this point because I’ve been drinking black tea all morning, so I’m using this as a transition out of blacks (it has both black and green tea in it) for the day, but I wonder whether I’m so wired that something has gone wack-o with my smeller.

Sniffing the packet, my first thought was “lime sherbet?” My second was “bubblegum?” Which made me stop to think whether one of the flavors I taste in the flavor known as bubblegum is vanilla, because it certainly isn’t jasmine. But I think vanilla is part of that flavor? This wasn’t what I described smelling the first time around. The longer I sniff, the more I can differentiate the jasmine and the vanilla, of course. But a lot of other associations come along as well. Grape soda?

After steeping I get much more jasmine in the aroma than vanilla this time, though the associations continue. I mentioned crème soda last time, and I can see that, though I also get an impression of flavored fruit soda smell.

I am getting both vanilla and jasmine in the taste, more jasmine than vanilla like last time. The flavor is…. interesting. I like jasmine and I like vanilla, but together they don’t work together as well for me as they do separately. The aftertaste also leaves me with something of a Pepto Bismal association this time. Between that and the back of the throat grab from this mix that I mentioned the first time and that is happening on the second try as well, this is a pass for me. I’m bumping it down because I enjoyed it rather less than most things I’ve tasted in the past couple of weeks. Which is unfortunate because Golden Moon has so many other teas that I love to pieces.

Golden Moon sample No. 6 of 31 at random. I’d think it weird and that I seem to be channeling other Steeples today with this pick, but I’m saved from the weirdness because I actually fished it out of the basket two nights ago after the Coconut Pouchong. I just haven’ t had a chance to give it any attention until now.

Dry leaf mix is a nice range of colors across the tea color spectrum from very dark to silver flecks. Their scent is interesting. Vanilla, surely — it smells like cream soda vanilla to me. And jasmine, just as surely. And some darker notes: tree bark, and something that is almost musky.

I always have a dilemma as to how to steep mixed teas and I know I tend to like my greens steeped under two minutes and my black steeped around 3 minutes. It looked like most folks on Steepster who have had this went with longer steeps, so I chose closer to the black parameters.

To extend the cream soda metaphor, the liquor is pretty much the color of one of those old timely, hearty cream sodas — not the wimpy yellowish ones, the tan/amber ones. The aroma is lovely. The jasmine smells very fresh, and the vanilla smells more seasoned, and they come together in a nice, balanced way.

Unfortunately, I’m not feeling the love in the taste. Maybe I should have steeped longer? Or shorter? I taste some flowers, but not much vanilla. And there is an unexpected harshness to the blend. Something about it is making it stick in the back of my throat rather uncomfortably. It isn’t making me gag, it’s just a noticeable, continuing sensation, almost like an afterburn, though I didn’t drink the tea when it was overly hot. I would call it astringency except that it isn’t affecting anywhere else in my mouth, and astringency for me is usually an all over sensation. As the tea cools, I am able to taste more of the flavor of the green tea, the black tea, and the vanilla, all of which are tasty enough but the strange mouth sensation continues even with cooler tea. After the sensation, whatever it is, dissipates, the aftertaste is sweet and flowery, with an interesting, almost tobacco note.

The jasmine and the aftertaste are enough to make me willing to give this tea another chance, but it would have some work to do to change my mind. Mostly it would have to lose the climbing-up-the-uvula thing it’s doing in the back of my throat.

I love the aroma this tea gives off both in the dry and wet leaves. Ahhh :) A very calming vanilla with a bit of floral jasmine. I just wish I could drink this tea, I think I royally messed it up. I brewed with boiling water for 4:30 (says to do 3-5min on the silver armour). The taste was so astringent in my 12oz mug that I took very few sips. A few while scalding hot, a few slightly cooler and a few much cooler. I just don’t like this tea, but I don’t think it’s the tea’s fault. I think I’ll keep my jasmine teas of the green variety and skip black jasmines altogether.

Sampler Tea #9, chosen at random from the Golden Moon Tea Sampler

I don’t love Jasmine but I don’t dislike it. I found this tea to be “pleasant.” I think that I use the word “pleasant” in a lot of tea reviews where I find nothing objectionable about the tea, but I don’t get excited at all. I don’t particularly want to or need to purchase these “pleasant” teas because there’s an entire world of “pleasant” teas out there.

I have not sampled a lot of jasmine teas, so I cannot make any meaningful comparisons.

This is a delayed post so it will be quite short.
This tea was neither good nor bad. It tasted and smelt to me just as all the other jasmine teas I’ve had did. I’m not a huge fan of Jasmine after being exposed to some teas I like far better but at one point I loved it. For me, there are flavors I like better so this is only an occasional drink.

I’m down to about 10 teas left from the sampler and that makes me sad, I’ve been enjoying this journey.
This tea smells strongly of vanilla with a hint of jasmine. The flavor is more balanced. It’s really quite fun. The taste you get just as the tea is about to hit your mouth is fun too.
As it cools some, it’s almost the the flavors switch spots. The scent is stronger jasmine and the taste is stronger vanilla.
For me, this isn’t a serious tea, it’s a fun tea.

Sooo…Darjeeling. Yup. That’s what it is. I guess.

I’ve only had one other Darjeeling (Adagio’s #2), and have smelled the teabags that I prepared for others. So I really don’t know what comprises a good Darjeeling. So, keep that in mind.

I had this for my morning tea so I really don’t remember much at this point in the day. It was fine. It had a pleasant fragrance (both in the sample bag and in the cup), but for the life of me I couldn’t seperate what was what. Floralish spicyish teaish. Pleasant. Not really remarkable. Had two pleasant cups. Nothing made me think that I had to have this tea. NE

Golden Moon Tea Sample #8, selected at random.

The buttery note of this type of tea is always pleasing and so is the floral note. It’s good and pleasant but I don’t think that there’s anything here that will sear this tea into my memory and impel me to spend money on a full size. I like, but am not in love with, oolongs, green teas and white teas, so if you are reading this, please be a bit jaundiced about my opinion. I’m the person who thinks that the smokiest Lapsang Souchongs should be smokier. I am the person who drowns herself in perfume instead of applying a tiny whiff. I’m the person who used to wear Bob Mackie knock-offs. So I can respect this tea but not, perhaps, love it.

I finished this tea off yesterday. We’re going to be moving next month, so I’m trying to get through the teas that are nearly done anyway. I had forgotten what a good tea this is. I think of it as one that smells so good there is no way for the taste to even compete, and going into it that way it was a fine cup of team. I also used more leaves than normal, and steeped for less time. It was more flavorful without being overly so. Great final cup!

Oh my goodness! I love this tea! I had a cup this morning, and it’s one of those teas where I could be content just opening the can to smell it…. but then, even better, I get to drink it!

Yum!! It’s late for real tea, but I really wanted something good, so here we are. It’s making me happy. I’ve actually been toting around this thermos of it for the last hour, and every time I remove the lid the smell is rich and coconuty. Lovely way to end the day (at least I hope the day is ending soon!) :)

I wanted something good today, but didn’t want the caffiene dose to be after work. Coconut Pouchong sounded like it fit the bill, but I couldn’t stand the idea of packing it in a filter bag. So, I brought a 2 cup teapot to work and used the basket filter to steep this tea. Then, I resteeped twice to see how it went.

First steep (2 minutes): Fabulous!
Second steep (3 minutes): Still a very good cup of tea, but much less coconut.
Third steep (4 minutes): Not nearly as good, but still a nice tea.

So I finally caved and got the Golden Moon sampler. Yay! Today was exceptionally long, so I’m rewarding myself with a second cup of “real” tea. Which means, I’m embarking on a project that so many Steepsterites have taken on before me: tasting all the teas in the sampler.

I had heard such good things about the Coconut Pouchong that I went ahead and ordered a canister of that as well, so I started the sampler off with that since I knew I’d have easy access to it again in the near future. And it was the right call.

The dried leaves smelled nearly buttery, but with a hint of coconut. The leaves were lovely to watch unfurl in the water, when the smell of coconut began to fill the room. The wet leaves smelled much less of coconut, but the flavor stayed with the tea, as well as a hint of the butteriness that was so clear in the leaves’ dry state. Delicious.

So now, even though I’m hungry, I’m putting off dinner to finish this cup. It’s just too good to have with food and I want to actually pay attention to the drink. :)

You can see it here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/4346895667/