Golden Moon Tea

Sipdown Sunday Tea and Books!

This tea was one of the oldest teas in my collection as I bought it back in February when I ordered a Golden Moon Tea sampler. I learned along the way, though, that I’m not a huge fan of white teas, and hesitated to drink this.

Iced tea seemed like the best way to use up all of the leaf from the sampler in one go, so here we are.

The Tea

I used the whole of the sample on 2 L of cold water and let it steep overnight. I also added about 2.5 tsp of sugar to the pitcher. The resulting tea is not very melon-flavoured, as I can really taste the white base (I think it’s Shou Mei). However, I’m happy that I’ve finally dealt with this tea so that I have one less one in the cupboard to worry about.

The Book

This tea is supposed to taste like melon, and while I can sense the taste, it’s not very fresh and juicy, but more dark and dusty. I’m pretty sure that other people here have said that this tea tastes like muskmelon. So that’s the flavour I’m assuming to taste here.

When I think of muskmelon, a particular sci-fi story comes to mind: “Tiny Tango” by Judith Moffett.

This was a novella that got nominated for both the Hugo and the Nebula awards after it was published in the late 80s/early 90s. It’s about a botanist with HIV who chooses a life of academic mediocrity to hide her HIV-positive status, as she’s worried that the stress and high profile of a successful academic career would both ruin her health and run the risk of “outing” her to the world. She instead devotes her time to breeding a new variety of muskmelon.

However, as time goes by, other issues become far important to the world’s landscape: the arrival of extraterrestrials, climate change, and a vaccine to prevent HIV. The story shows her reaction to all these things in turn.

I’m not really explaining this story well, I realize. It’s a hard one to sum up, especially considering the public discourse around AIDS has changed a lot since the story was first written. But when I thought of this tea, and the flavour of muskmelon, this was the story that immediately jumped to mind.

For those who are interested in reading it themselves, it’s available on Kindle: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B00IA66OAG/ref=as_li_qf_sp_asin_tl?ie=UTF8&camp=1789&creative=9325&creativeASIN=B00IA66OAG&linkCode=as2&tag=morein-20

Sipdown (144/152)!

Cold Brewed this sample from 221Tea who generously added it into are swap “way back” a few months ago. I’ve been sorta waiting for the so called “perfect” moment to drink it given how I’ve heard really good things, and I do love cold brewed coconut tea quite a bit.

And true to the reputation; this was amazing. I don’t know if I’d go as far as to say “life changing” or anything, but damn good. It was a refreshing, crisp and solid coconut taste with more of a confectionery edge to it than a tropic one and with nothing “tainting” or drawing away from the flavour. It even had a sort of frothiness to it that was very, very welcome.

Honestly, this could totally be my new “Coconut Grove” in so far as the strong, purely Coconut cold brewed tea department goes…

Except it’s a sipdown, so it’s not. But hopefully this’ll find its way back to me someday! I’ll be waiting, with open arms.

This is a one teaspoon sample I’ve had for a while, but it has been in that terrible metallic packaging… terrible for one teaspoon anyway, so I haven’t been in a rush to drink it. This tea could last 100 years in this packaging. And this packaging could fit a few teaspoons, so the least they could do is make the packaging smaller for one teaspoon. ANYWAY, I wish I was on a vacation and I was hoping this coconut would be enough. The oolong is a twisty long oolong, not rolled. Yes it is sunscreen coconut and it is delicious. The oolong has a little bit of a vegetal flavor to it, otherwise it is hidden by the coconut. The second steep had more hints of oolong that were allowed to shine with slightly less coconut. There seems to be a hint of a tangy off flavor to this, but probably because I’ve tried a couple other teas similar to this that were a little better. I have no idea how this is actual coconut milk anyway. But at least this tea is what I expected!
Steep #1 // 25 min after boiling // closer to 4 min steep
Steep #2 // 25 min after boiling // 4 min

Purchased this from kimquat in her stash sale. I’ve been rather curious about Golden Moon for a while, so I figured I’d pick this one up while I had the chance. Dry, it smells extremely minty! There’s a little vanilla sweetness in the background too. I did a 3 minute steep because mint teas tend to get too minty for me if steeped longer.

Yum, the aroma is much mellower in its mintiness, and there’s a lovely creamy vanilla in the background. This is quite delicious! The front of the sip is mostly mint, but the vanilla quickly develops around it and is especially strong at the end, where it obtains an almost custard-like quality. This tea makes me think of white chocolate with spearmint leaves, if there is such a thing. If not, there should be! :) A lovely, mellow mint tea.

Tea #7 from Pass the Stash box

I like this tea. I can taste the oolong, which isn’t too overpowering. The smell of the caramel/burnt sugar was prevalent in the dry leaf. I can taste some of it in the tea, but it too, isn’t too overpowering.

I probably did oversteep it, but it is satisfying.

So it seems I had this prior to reviewing it for Sororitea Sisters and determined it was lacking in vanilla. However, when made as a latte, that seemed to bring out the vanilla flavor more. It was good but not good enough that it stood out from all the other vanilla mint teas.

Check out the full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2017/11/13/vanilla-mint-from-golden-moon/

GCTTB Rd 3:

Thank you Christina for the chance to try this tea but I find myself slightly disappointed as it is like a less vanilla version of Della Terra’s Anti V-Day Treat. Since I like my vanilla, I find this lacking but it was still fun to try. And honestly, it is still a pleasant enough cup.

GCTTB Rd 3:

Having this iced and it is definitely a melon tea but at the end of the day, I can’t help but compare it to Cantaloupe & Cream and it just doesn’t measure up. It is nice though so thank you Christina for the chance to try something new.

This sample came from mj a little while back and I’m just getting around to it.

This is an interesting oolong. The first infusion wasn’t what I was expecting. Where was the caramel? Where was the sugar? It tasted like a light roasted oolong to me, kind of nutty, and even a little fruity. The second infusion….this is where the sugar and caramel
were hiding. It tastes like a dark caramel, with that not quite to burnt sugar taste. And the fruit is a lot stronger, too. Oh, this is nice. The third infusion the caramel burnt sugar taste is really toned down but still there. It’s nice. I like it.

#teakutuesday
Badamtam First Flush
fuzzy, floral, i like this
cup of Darjeeling

Steep Information:
Amount: 4 tsp
Water: 1000ml at 212°F
Tool: Breville One-Touch Tea Maker BTM800XL
Steep Time: 3 minutes
Served: Hot

Tasting Notes:
Dry Leaf Smell: floral (honeysuckle), sweet, a little vegetal, fuzzy white tea
Steeped Tea Smell: slightly floral and vegetal, a little hay
Flavor: sweet melon, a little fuzzy and floral, sour finish
Body: Light
Aftertaste: bakey, vegetal, grassy
Liquor: translucent light brown-orange

as it cools i get grape (red)

My coworkers and I enjoyed this tea.

I guess i forgot to resteep?

Rating: 3/4 leaves

Blog: http://amazonv.teatra.de/2014/07/15/golden-moon-tea-loose-leaf-black-tea-badamtam-first-flush-darjeeling/

Drank the last of this at work today. This is a solid Yunnan style black tea. It’s rich, with a hint of chocolate, some nutty goodness, a little sweet, and maybe just a hint of stone fruit hanging around in the background. I really like it, but considering how hard it is to get Golden Moon teas into Canada, I don’t think I will be re ordering it. There are other black teas out there that are just as good, but don’t have a 30.00 (something) shipping charge attached to it.

So…I gotta say first off, I don’t get why all the Golden Moon Tea ads are all about this one tea. They act like it is the BEST coconut tea you’ll ever have!
Because like most coconut teas taste the same…It seems pretty hard to screw up a coconut tea. But that’s just a newbie talking. What do I know!
Anyway, the initial flavor I caught was obviously coconut.
But after a few sips all I could taste was butter. Slightly salty even. It’s like you go to the theater and instead of putting the butter on your popcorn you put it all into drink and put a pinch of salt in after it. That’s how buttery it tastes. Imagine drinking that straight…that’s how it is.
Well…that sounds horrible. It’s drinkable, but I’ve had better coconut teas. Maybe I’m just off today xD Sorry, mj1851!!

Not gonna lie…was kinda disappointed by this tea. I thought it would be way sweeter than it actually was. But mainly tasted just like oolong tea…slightly nutty, and maybe a hint of caramel. Eh, not my favorite, but so glad I got to try it before I wasted my money on it. Thanks so much, mj1851!

Sipdown (150/155)!

Thank you 221Tea for the sample! It’s been a while (well, a few weeks maybe?) since I’ve had a hot cuppa Genmaitcha and man was it good to have one! I needed that sweet cup of roasty, toasty goodness!

This one was definitely very pretty to look at; dry the brown rice was all a brilliant bright green from the matcha it was coated in, and steeped up the liquor was a slightly cloudy green as well! I wish I’d made it in my clear glass mug so I could have looked at it better. It was perdy.

Taste wise, this was pretty straight forward: vegetal green and toasty rice. It leaned a little more towards the toasty side which did surprise me a little considering the matcha in the mix. I was braced for something a little more vegetal.

All you lovely Steepsterites keep saying “smokey Keemun” – I’ve actually never really found the smoke in Keemun – that would be until I tried this one. This is not as smokey as a Lapsang Souchong – but it’s right up there with a smokey, roasted oolong.
I don’t think I like this. I don’t really need smoke in my black teas. The packages says chocolate notes with peach in the finish. No chocolate, no peach – just smokey black tea. Happy to have tried it – will not be restocking.

I’m still sipping my way through Dexter3657 black tea pack. Thanks again for your infinite generosity :-)

I’m surprised to be the first to review this excellent tea.

Yunnan black. So good. Beautiful golden colour, its aroma makes me drool even though I just ate a full plate of penne primavera with lots of extra parmesan cheese. (Burp!)

This tea feels like a sunday dessert. Peach and chocolate syrup, honey drizzle with nutty crumbles on top! Where is the cherry, you ask? In the bowl I’m about to have right after, fresh Bing cherries, yum! (Yep, this Fairy was a hungry one tonight!)

Another hit this tea, thanks again Dexter!

Another sample from Sil! (238)

I’m drinking this one while I catch up on my backlogging from earlier. It’s a really nice oolong – it’s darker instead of greener, which is what I like, and it has a bit of caramel sweetness to it that I am a fan of. I could see myself drinking this one fairly frequently.

I think this is my favourite coconut tea so far! It’s just enough coconut to make me happy, and still let me enjoy the base. Beautifully light floral notes and a pleasant texture make it even more appealing. Thank you so much to the witty mj1851 :D

As I sit here lovingly sipping my third cup of this today I wonder why I originally rated this a 92. Changed the rating to a 99 because this is now my favorite tea. I drink 2-3 cups every morning and love it so much that when I traveled to my sister’s this past wknd it is the one I had to take with me. The caramel/molasses flavors in this tea make it wonderfully sweet all on it’s own. Adding just a touch of milk to it gives it a creaminess that makes it just perfect.

In any case, I will NEVER be without this tea unless they stop selling it. It is so good I can’t even “hoard” it and “save it for special occasions” like I usually do when I find a really good one I love. I am addicted to it so if I run out I’ll just get more. LOL.

To continue my nightly tea binge, I chose this little dude, brought to me by the charismatic mj1851. Thanks gurl! The dry leaf smells strongly of toffee and caramel, and I’m really looking forward to having this in my mouth right now. The water may have been a bit too hot when I steeped it, on a count of me being lazy and not wanting to check the temperature of the water, so I don’t know…I may have screwed it up. Let’s try it, yeah?

I just splashed a whole bunch of very hot water on my eyeball, in my eager attempt to take a sip. Who needs two eyeballs anyway? So now about the tea: slight butter taste. Noticeable, but I’ve definitely had more buttery. Pleasant. There’s also a slight vegetal je-ne-sais-quoi and the caramel is there, but it should be there more. Caramel, why are you hiding in the background? Come here! I just want to talk to you! Come!

Nope, he doesn’t want to come out. Maybe if I let it cool down a bit. Let me just put my freakin’ safety goggles on before I take another sip lol. Well, I can now detect a vanilla-like flavour. Not exactly vanilla, but something like it. Maybe…sugar? But the thing is this tea is not sweet at all. It tastes like sugar, but doesn’t taste sweet. Am I talking crazy again? Probably. Now where do you buy an eye patch? Preferably one with ruffles, fringe or print, because an eye patch is no excuse for a fashion faux-pas.

God. What am I saying.

This is another sample from Dexter3657.

I love a good Keemun, but my liking is proportional to their level of smoke. A few exceptions aside, I’m not a fan of smoke in tea.

This Keemun falls in the middle for me. It’s moderately smoky, with nice fruity and floral undertones, though I can’t really pinpoint the peach and lilac mentioned in its description.

The truth is, the smoke ruins it a bit for me, so I decided to try my second cup “Sil’s Style”, with maple syrup you have guessed. I very rarely add anything to my tea, but maple syrup will sometimes join the party and help a little with difficult ones.

Does’t really help in this case I’m afraid, the smoke’s sharpness still cuts trough.

Oh well, I’m still very happy I got the chance to try it, it helps me narrow down excacly the type of Keemun I prefer.

Thank you Dexter3657 for sharing with me :-)

I forgot to check if I had any creamer before making a cup of this and am now drinking the cup without any additives which is unusual for me with a chai. It was better when it was warmer, but now that I have neglected the cup and let it cool, the tea isn’t as even as it was when hot. I like this chai, but I don’t think it is going to be one I restock after it is gone.

I’m at the point in my tea drinking exploration where I want to find my favorite version of each tea I like and hone in on those in my cupboard. I have yet to find my favorite version of a black chai. I think it would be similar to this, but stronger and with a touch of chili.