Golden Moon Tea

Sipdown no. 70 of 2018 (no. 426 total).

Another one bites the dust in project lapsang sipdown!

I think I’m down to just a couple now besides the Samovar, the Mariage Freres and the Tea Trekker.

Of course, it’s entirely possible there are more buried among the 400+ containers still in my cupboard.

Sigh.

Golden Moon Sampler No. 2 of 31. Eyes wide shut random drawing.

I’m gonna run a few laps today, I think. Maybe three. This one, the remaining bit of my Life in Teacup sample, and the Samovar sample.

As I think about it, this may end up being a mistake. I may not be able to get the smell of smoke out of my pores and nose hairs for a few days. (So I’m going to stop thinking about that for fear I might chicken out.)

Before I begin, a disclaimer about sample size. My Samovar is the biggest (about 1.8 cups worth) and its steeping instructions call for a cup of water. According to my scale, this is too much water for this sample. Of course, according to my scale, the GM sample is enough for 1.4 cups. So I’m going to steep the GM and the Samovar in the same amount of water in my 12 or so ounce cup and hope that evens things out a bit, even though there will have been more water in the GM than the Samovar (as the GM had no instructions as to the amount of water). The Life in Teacup sample is the last little bit, about enough for .4 cups. So I’ll adjust water volume accordingly, but the memory of its taste is still quite fresh from my last tasting so that ought to balance things out a bit as well.

On to this one. The dry leaves are dark, brown/green. Greener than, and slightly shorter than the others, but not shorter by much. Their dominant scent is ash, but there’s an interesting chocolate note in there. It’s the smell of the air in a calm residential neighborhood on a fall evening when many houses have lit up their fireplaces for the first fire of the season.

The steeped aroma is gently smoky. There is pine, and a tobacco note as well. The liquor color is medium amber. I expected darker, but it’s a very appealing color.

Now here’s where I scratch my head a bit and wonder if I used too much water (though I think I used the right amount). Full-bodied, this is not. At least not in my view of full-bodied. I would call this medium-bodied. It has a high coffee note, and of course, it’s smoky. But unlike my last lapsang experience, it’s not entirely about the smoke. There’s a strong woody flavor; it’s almost as woody as it is smoky. And by woody, I don’t mean woodsy/piney/sap/evergreen/conifer stuff. I mean it evokes an unfinished furniture store or a lumberyard. (Not to be confused with sawdust. It’s far deeper and more appealing than that.) It’s a pleasant taste and endearing to me, as it reminds me of my long dead grandfather whose trade in the old country was cabinetmaker.

It’s only my second lapsang souchong, and I’m looking forward to exploring more. I may change my mind as I sample more but for now I’d definitely drink this again as an alternative to the deep, almost tarry, pervasive smokiness of a more full-bodied lapsang.

Yesterday I took a break from trying new teas – I just needed a day of things that I’m guaranteed to like. So this morning I was back to being adventurous and felt full of vim ‘n vigor regarding new teas. I did Ewa’s patented “GM Indecision Buster Grab Basket-o-Fun” for the first time and came up with this. I have nothing against neither mint nor vanilla, but then I saw “gunpowder” and what’s left of my soul grew cold. I had a very bad experience with GM’s Gunpowder (which I’m pretty sure was user error) and I really didn’t want to start my day off with a cup of nasty. But, I had to go with my own made-up rules involving the “GMIBGBoF” and so I steeped this puppy.

The packet itself smelled like an anemic after dinner mint. I was not encouraged. And then it happened. In my not-a-morning-person state of cavewomanness I didn’t notice that I had left my kettle set for tisanes until after it started to go. And I couldn’t bring myself to stop it and start over. So I went with it. I actually think that it worked out well for me!

This tea was an utterly pleasant surprise. I think its description pretty much nails it. I wasn’t so sure with my first few sips, but as the tea cooled I felt myself getting that “nomish” feeling. So with my first few sips I don’t think that I would’ve bought this, but with the cooler tea I couldn’t help but think what an amazing iced tea this could be. So it’s now on the short list of future GM purchases.

Oh, and I was shocked at how many fannings were at the bottom of my cup. At first I thought “Holy Crap! How did three tea leafs get through my ultra-fine infuser?!?!” And then I realized that those “leafs” were actually fannings in a tea mosh pit. Second steeping there were quite a few as well. I’m just not a fanning fan, and so I tossed the very last tiny bit of tea in my cup. NE

GM sample #4/31

Not my favorite breakfast tea. Decent, but I think there’s too much Ceylon&Darjeeling in the blend for my taste. It’s subtle, for a breakfast tea, softer than an Assam and not as complex/chocolatey as Keemun or Yunnan. It’s good, but not great. Better with milk, but a little too brisk for me without.

Golden Moon Tea Sampler #4 selected at random

I was glad to see that nothing too delicate came up—-I was worried that this “pick” might be “white tea’s baby’s breath with airs of ethereal ephemera”. I do like a BIG taste and I fear that all subtlety is lost on me.

I would call this an “average” chai. It’s tasty,and spicy, as Chai should be, but not overwhelming. There is absolutely nothing to complain of, but I don’t find anything so memorable that I’m sitting up and wanting to proclaim the excellency of it.

I think that Golden Moon is for the advanced drinkers, the Zen drinkers, the sophisticates. Somebody said someplace that boddhisatvas could roam through hell as if it were a playground. And I think that advanced minds can really appreciate Golden Moon and its nuances. As for me, I can roam through a playground as if it were hell!

Golden Moon sample #3/31
Smells smoky and green, looks yellowish-green (olive), tastes smoky and green. Richer and less vegetal than most greens I’ve had, but also somewhat dry and dusty tasting, even on a second steep. This is alright, and I’ll steep as long as the leaves last, but I probably wouldn’t buy more

Tried to get around the fact that I didn’t really have enough of this left over to get a full steep out of by combining it with my Twinings Black Currant, Ginseng and Vanilla – since the residue the first time I tried this tea was quite pleasant.

Sadly, this time around I got mostly Black Currant and almost no Black Tea. Also, I really need to figure out how long to steep the Twinings stuff, because I keep overshooting the mark and turning into this sharp taste of not quite ripe vegetation. And I didn’t even keep it in that long this time! Man, that tea is so temperamental! Still, it wasn’t untasty just a bit too tart and a bit too…hm, I guess I’d call it sharp.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #18:
I actually grabbed this this morning for my morning cup, but apparently I hadn’t washed out my mug quite thoroughly enough after “enjoying” Twinings Blackcurrant, Vanilla and Ginseng tea (one that I was too lazy to tealog, especially since I’d have to add it to the database first. For the curious, it was actually quite pleasant but I let it steep too long and the nice currant taste turned into a weird vegetal blargness) for lunch yesterday. So what I actually got was mostly black currant with a tinge of “generic black tea” underneath. Now the combination was actually quite tasty and has given me a pretty awesome idea for iced tea, but it was hardly fair to the Sinharaja.

Naturally, I made a second cup this afternoon (taking care to clean out my mug thoroughly this time), and I have to say that I’m glad I took the trouble, because this is some pretty great tea. Now, I’m not always able to differentiate between just straight black teas unless they are pretty aggressively different, but for some reason I don’t have that problem here. This has character but it doesn’t overwhelm, it’s…quietly confident, to anthropomorphize a bit. It has a noticeable but not overpowering malty note as well as a separate underlying sweetness, and a surprisingly rich overriding tea taste.

I may need to get more of this.

Golden Moon Tea Sampler #3: Picked at random

This is a good tea. I liked it but I also acknowledge that I’ve become a bit spoiled. If I had tasted this 6 months ago I would have assigned it 100 points and would have pledged to drink it every day. At this point, I need to start my day with a Lapsang Souchong and then move on to a nice strong black tea. This could be one of them, but it just didn’t “pop” in my mouth in the way that Keemuns, Yunnans, and Darjeelings do.

I think this is a good tea but I know my test for a great tea (for me): having a severe anxiety attack because I don’t have more in stock and feeling a need to run and order it. I won’t do that with this one but I wish it well.

Another Golden Moon sampler (I’m trying to work my way through the pack). Great licorice aroma from the dry leaves, but it is a little strong. The licorice mellows out in the first brew and actually balances out quite nicely with the white tea. I’m a sucker for licorice, but I don’t know if this could be an everyday brew for me. Too much of a good thing, you know? But I’m pleased with this. Very nice.

Still have some of my sample pack left, so trying to finish it off. Cut open the pouch and inhaled the delicate aroma of the tea. The dried leaves definitely smell like black tea, with a slightly floral note and sandalwood.

Infused hot, four minutes, no additives. The brewed tea smells like sandalwood, however, I am not picking up any more aromatics. The flavor is mostly a black tea with a slightly woodsy note, the aftertaste is sweet. I cannot actually identify any floral or specifically honey note, just a slight sweetness at the end.

Overall, the tea was pretty good, definitely better while it was hotter. Note, as it cools, the woodsy taste starts to disappear, it is taken over by the sweetness and (finally) a hint of the floral.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #17
Woah, almost halfway! I am making some excellent time here.
I was very pleased that this came out from my random grab this afternoon, since my belly has been complaining about something all day and I’ve often found it responds well to ginger – better than to mint and chamomile, even. I’ve been kind of dreading getting any of the white teas, though, since I am a total white tea noob.

I was somewhat suspicious of the 2-4 minute steeping time on the packet, so I decided to compromise by going with 1m 30s for my initial cup (which is what my timer app recommends) then proceeding to leave the leaves in the pot for an additional one and a half minutes for the rest of the cups. Depending on the results, maybe I’ll put the leaves back in after my second cup. But that is probably a horrible thing to do to a white tea, so I will try to refrain.

The first cup was very light, I agree with Meghann that the taste isn’t vegetal of grassy, but I can’t put my finger on what it actually is. I like that, although the taste is light, it still seems to have suffused the water and doesn’t just taste like tea flavored water, but like it’s own unique beverage. The ginger, in this cup, is only obvious in the aftertaste.

Second cup, the doubled steeping time has left the tea darker and, obviously, stronger. The burn from the ginger is obvious throughout, and the white tea flavor, which I have decided tastes kind of grain-ish, is also much more obvious. There is also a sweetness that seems much more subdued than the sugary taste of a green tea.

Although I quite like ginger, it seems to serve more to add a kick to the tea rather than any sort of flavor. My stomach does feel better though.

Sipdown no. 3 of 2023 (no. 661 total).

I am on the fence. On the one hand, I rated this the same as the Irish breakfast back when it was new, and the last of this was anything but. So I should probably stick with that, but based on the “old” versions, I would give the Irish breakfast an edge for depth of flavor.

This one didn’t hold up its maltiness/sugaryness over time. That’s not really a way to judge a tea, and I’m not judging. I’m just noting, because, after all, this is a note. :-)

Methinks it is time to start on my sampler. Here goes nothing: No. 1 of 31

Took a page from Ewa’s book: closed my eyes, thrust my hand into the basket, diddled it around and grabbed. This is what came out. (That was really fun, by the way. I intend to go through the whole thing entirely at random.)

Pretty, pretty dry leaves. Long, twisted, pointy; a cross between olive green and chocolate brown. And the smell! First, chocolate. Then, tobacco. Then, coffee. Then, something green and toasty. All mixing together and swirling around. Bizarrely, the image that came to mind was of tiny, silver, schooling fish swimming this way and that.

I used the whole packet. According to my scale it is enough for 1.5 cups, but my favorite cup for tasting teas holds 12 oz of water, rather than 8. So six of one, half a dozen of the other as my mother would say.

A golden brown, “tea colored” liquor. Lighter in color than I expected. Sweet, chocolate/malt/brown sugar aroma.

How to describe the taste? It’s smooth and gentle, completely without sharp edges. It isn’t full-bodied like the Samovar Breakfast Blend; on the other hand, it is refreshing without being thin. This seems to be the influence of the darjeeling.

It has a taste I can only describe as leafy. It isn’t particularly sweet, though it does have a hint of malt. It makes me think of fall in the Northeast US, when the leaves are falling from the trees, fresh and fragrant. This is what I’m getting more than “floral” but perhaps it’s all part of a Kingdom Plantae continuum. There’s a nice, lingering, quintessentially tea taste. It’s what tea-flavored candy tastes like without the sugar overload.

It’s lovely. I’ll definitely order it. I like Samovar’s Breakfast Blend better, but who says you can only have one breakfast blend? It would be like only having one pair of black shoes.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #16
So, when I was reading the description on the sample packet, they referred to the “tips” in this tea as “buds” but, for some reason, at first I read it as “suds.” Obviously, I immediately did a double-take and corrected myself, but I think the whole soap idea stayed with me, because that is what I smelled when I opened this tea. Seriously. Soap. What is wrong with me?

The tea brewed up just fine, a darker red. On tasting it, however, I got…paper. Paper, water, and soap. What. As I drank further, I eventually isolated the paper down to the kind of peppery taste of the lavender. I got nothing about the soap though, I think it’s just imprinted on this tea now, which is a shame because…Earl Grey!

All while drinking this, I was unable to convince my brain that I was drinking tea and not papery dishwater. Oh Tippy Earl Grey, I want to love you, as I love most of your kind! But I don’t think it’s meant to be. Lavender is, apparently, just not my thing, and I have no idea what the hell kind of brain fart has made me unable to let go of the soap thing, but I think I’m not gonna be able to rid myself of it.

The smell is completely amazing. I wonder, is this the lost tea. I had a tea a year ago that smelled like this. I loved it!

So for the taste, I think the lost tea might be a lapsang but not this one. The flavor here is more like the ash then the smoke of a fire. The lost tea tasted more like the smell then this one. I could have brewed too long… I followed the directions and did 5 minutes. Perhaps less would be better. It’s not bad. Just a bit disappointed after the smell that it’s not that flavor I had been expecting.

Blech.

Oh, I’m sorry, you probably want something more thorough. Alrighty.

I was excited to try this tea out for some reason, even though I don’t really like black teas or the taste of honey. I do dig pears though, so I figured this tea would be good. When I opened up the package, the thick, pungent, musty smell of honey hit me like a ton of bricks. Almost medicinal.

Then I brewed it up and took a sip. Totally medicinal. The black tea base is too harsh, the honey is too thick, and…well, where’s the pear? Not there.

Dumped the rest. On to the next.

I’m trying to figure out whether I like Jasmine teas. So when I saw the SS I was totally confused because I know I do not like EG’s I think I would like Caravan and the verdict is still out on whether I like Jasmine I’ve tried Adagio’s Jasmine #12 and thought it was meh.

So today I thought I’d try jasmine from my GM sampler and see if we could get a verdict. The open packet (I think of Ricky and his comment about little silver suits) everytime I open one of these packets (random thought). Anyway once steeped this tea is more to my liking than the Jasmine #12 I think that this is much lighter and I like that. Which is strange because usually I like in your face flavors!?!

The taste is very light, another reference to Ricky here in that I agree with his notes on this tea the base doesn’t taste to me like a green tea but a white tea base. Well no verdict today I still don’t know if I like jasmine teas or not. Hmmm maybe I just think there okay I can take them or leave them or maybe I haven’t found the right one yet? Now I’ll be wondering all day if A&D’s Jasmine Green is the right jasmine tea for me! Drats I hate that!!!

Today I was a little more careful. I used only 4 ounces of water. I still don’t think I’m getting the full effect. I’ve noticed that the tasting notes are all over the place on this tea. I can smell the floral aspects which are pleasant but not to-fall-in-love-with. I can also pick up on a sun-shiny buttery aspect of the tea.

I think my palate prefers the big boom to the delicate touch. In terms of being a tea drinker, I feel a bit like Sir Walter Scott felt about Jane Austen: "The Big Bow-wow strain I can do myself like any now going; but the exquisite touch, which renders ordinary commonplace things and characters interesting, from the truth of the description and the sentiment, is denied to me. "
The exquisite palate is denied to me but I certainly enjoy those Big Bow-wow teas.

My ratings, by the way, reflect my own pleasure in the tea and have nothing to do with the tea’s actual merit or lack thereof.

This tea is growing on me as I drink it. I’m not sure how to describe it really. It’s very tea like in my mind. There is a element of nuts/flowers at the end of a sip but it’s very faint. The tea tasted really strong but became much tamer as it cooled a little. I probably would have had less strong if I hadn’t steeped as long but I really didn’t get any of the astringency of steeping too long. I think it probably was a shock on my tongue after so many other teas with various stronger additional flavors to the tea. Not my favorite tea but not bad at all.

Wow! I’m so glad that I’d read Shanti’s note about this tea and decided to give it a whirl. I have never craved coconuts, and I generally avoid them on sweets or cakes. Um, but I think that I’ll now take them in my teas! To paraphrase a wise old bird: I’m cuckoo for coconuts!

I think that others who have been reviewing this do a better job than I could. The one thing that I’ll add is that I don’t know what is going on (or if this is a common thing with oolongs because I had an oolong the other day that did this same thing) but it feels like little sugar bombs are going off in my mouth. Like, the size of a tastebud sugar bomb randomly “pops” on different spots on my tongue. I don’t even know if this has a name in the tea world, or if it’s just me, but I love it!

This isn’t a guaranteed future purchase, but it’s going on the short list. NE

Overestimated how much was left in the packet and got a pretty weak tea out of this. Not suitable for morning tea at all. Sadface!

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #14:
Usual morning (messy), usual method of grabbing first black tea I see. I really like the leaves, all curling around each other, there was just something playful about them. I probably didn’t let it steep long enough, but as I grabbed it on my way out the door it had a pleasant enough golden brown color that eased my worries about ending up with lightly tea flavored water.

Hey so, where does the stress go when you say Darjeeling? DARjeeling? DarJEEling? DarjeeLING? I wanna say it’s the first, but a part of my brain urges me toward the second. Damn you ingrained habits from speaking Polish with your insistence that stress should always be on the next to last syllable!

Anyway, on to the actual taste. This seems pretty mellow as Darjeelings go. Very low (pretty much none really) astringency, an overriding, if somewhat diffident, tea-ness, and a vague sense of fruit and nut in the aftertaste. I am willing to agree that the fruit in question is a grape of some kind, but I couldn’t do so with conviction. I think I kind of like this sort of more laid back Darjeeling…but not enough to spend my hard-earned monies on.