Golden Moon Tea

This is a well blended tea. I can taste a slight smokiness (is this the tea? or the toastiness of the coconut) which perfectly tempers the sweetness of the coconut. The coconut does not taste artifical which is a plus. And the pouchong base, which seems milder compared to a black tea base does not overwhelm the coconut.

Thanks to SoccerMom for sending a sample of this to me and I will definitely be purchasing this and the Golden Moon sampler SOON.

This was a pleasant coconut tea experience and almost erased my first experience w/a coconut tea (Adagio’s Thai Chai) that did not go well. The spicinessof the chai called out for milk. Then, the milk, lemon grass, and coconut combo tasted like Thai Curry…

Lovely rose scent upon opening the sample package. Scent a bit lighter in the infusion, but still a fresh rose scent with a citrus undernote (!). Tea has a tartness with a sweet finish. 2nd infusion—much lighter in aroma and flavor. Not a tea I would seek out but an interesting one to try. There is an elegance to this tea—you may want to wear a hat and gloves to partake!

Melt in your mouth buttery flavor. Makes me want to get a donut. The coconut overpowers the green taste but not in a bad way. Lovely.

I must preface this tasting note by saying that I am forever spoiled by the Oriental Beauty I had at Radiance, and I hold all teas of this type up to that one.

That being said – this tastes good but very average to me. I’m getting woody/nutty but very little sweetness.

2nd steep: The beginning of some sweeter floral notes. I do prefer this steep compared to the first one.

3rd steep: a little weaker, but ok.

Certainly not a bad tea, but it lacks the amazing deliciousness and honeyed, flowery pizazz of the One True Oriental Beauty of Radiance Tea Room. This one does not rate a tin for me..

ALSO!!

This was my first tea made with my new Breville variable temperature kettle! I set it to French Press (200 degrees) and let it do it’s thing. It is able to hold water temperature so I didn’t have to go crazy reboiling ad nauseam. It was very easy to use (especially since my coworkers broke it in when I was at school yesterday (!!!). I love it!

The infusion had a lovely honeyed aroma—I was intrigued. My first sip had a mild, not unpleasant astringency, but, unfortunately, the astringency grew to cheek-sucking strength as the tea cooled. Not a bad tea with food, but not a tea to drink on its own.

The smell is not as overpoweringly bergamot as a lot of earl greys. It smells citrusy sweet and almost floral. The taste is also mellower on the bergamot than some, allowing the tippy sweetness of the tea to come through along with a bit of maltiness. Mildly astringent. Brews up dark amber.

First thoughts when I opened the package: Ewww, Bacon flavored tea! Who on earth could possibly enjoy this. The aroma was just overwhelming at first, but I calmed myself down and really dove into the tea. I always say ‘Got to try everything once.’ Now I’m pretty sure the bacon scent is coming from how the smoked it with the pine embers. So I loaded my infusing basket and boiled some water and started the brew. When I first stuck my nose into the basket to get a smell the bacon was still very noticeable. I kept at it though, taking in the aroma for all it was worth and sure enough I began to pick up the pine. Okay, this is getting interesting. The liquor has an orange / bronze appearance. It was very hard to find the courage within to take my first drink of this tea. The whole bacon scent, just WOW! Alright, I take my first sip and I get hit with the shivers up and down my body. The smokiness is setting in now. I keep drinking, swirling the tea around trying to get all the possible flavors it has to offer and you know, it’s really not too bad. I found myself getting past the bacon and really enjoying the smoked pine flavor.
I ended up drinking two cups of this tea, and came out rather taken back by the fact that I actually enjoyed this one. I can’t say that I would buy more of this unusual tea, but I definitely thing everyone should at least try this one at least once.

Beautiful deep amber with golden lights. Flavor is very clean and smooth, but essentially just a nice tea—not remarkable, but nice.

Brewed tea smells intensely of pine resin. The taste is surprisingly mild – reminding me of sage brush with a starchy lima bean quality and a gentle sweetness. A dominant smokey aftertaste lingers for quite a while.

This is delicious! Tastes like date-nut bread (which I love!) Then it changes a bit, lighter with a hint of citrus. A tease of a tea, something new with each sip. I brewed this western-style because I wasn’t sure of the amount in the sample, but I will definitely purchase a tin to steep in my tiny oolong pot—can’t wait to taste the changes then!

The mix of black leaves and golden tips brews up copper red in the cup. Aroma is malt and leather. Taste is malty, roasty and and sweet. Mildly astringent.

This smelled like creamy vanilla, but the scent did not carry over to the tea. No creamy vanilla flavor, just a tea with a bit of harshness. 2nd steep was a bit smoother, but never did taste vanilla. Not destined to be a favorite—

Appearance: Brews up very dark—a deep, rich amber.

Scent: Hints of cocoa and malt with a berry-ish edge.

Taste: Surprisingly mild. Not much of the “bite” that I expected from a “robust breakfast tea”. Slight astringency.
(Reads the GM label) —No hazelnuts. Maybe a bit of prune and cherry. There is an underlying honey-sweetness reminiscent of A&D’s Jackee Muntz!
(Adds a touch of milk, per GM’s recommendation) —hmm, I taste only milky black tea. The subtle nuances of flavor have been drowned out by milkiness. May have been too much milk. But the astringency is gone (of course).

Overall, this is a serviceable breakfast tea. A black tea that will not “scare” anyone. Very likeable, pleasant and mellow.

Needed something minty but was looking for something a little stronger on the tea side, so I decided to try this (it won because it had the gunpowder). This smells minty and tastes a bit minty but I think I over steeped it as it is quite a dark, almost amber, liquor, dark at least for a green based tea. I don’t think I’ll try a second steep of this one. Although maybe I will…maybe it will lose some of the POW BAM strength and sweeten up a tad. I’ll stick with vanilla mint.

This tea will take the Ceylon niche in my cupboard, when I’m ready to order. Delicious 1st cup, sweet 2nd cup, and caramelly 3rd cup. I didn’t believe it until I tried it—I believe, I believe, I believe!

So this is it.

The last tea to try in the Golden Moon sampler.

Back when I started rating teas on Steepster, and when I started my loose leaf journey, one of the first things I noticed was the Golden Moon sampler. I began to sound the alarm around Steepster, probably annoying the hell out of a bunch of people in the process, but I really was pushing this thing on people. Because you know what? The sampler is a tea education in a box. It’s the perfect way to convert your friends to tea. It can show you everything that tea has to offer. Because Golden Moon is a damn fine company.

And Golden Moon is also a company that does flavored teas really, really well.

So I’m saving their award-winning baby for last, the pinnacle of their tea artisanship.

And you know what? This tea is amazing. This tea is just… man.

Okay, let’s start with the basics though, before I start babbling on about the taste. First off, when you open the packet, all you can smell is rich, delicious coconut. Toasted coconut. The inside of a Mars bar. It’s extremely distinct. You cannot mistake this for anything else other than coconut. I’m serious.

Yay for my first loose leaf pouchong! The leaves look more akin to a green than an oolong, and since pouchong falls somewhere in the gap between green and oolong, it’s understandable. They’re very full and dark and lush. So I steeped it up, and the resulting infusion was a pale lemon chiffon color. Very pretty.

Did I mention how much I love the color that oolongs steep up to? Okay, I’ll mention it now. Oolongs have such an appealing color palette.

Anyway, the infusion pretty much smells just as delicious as the dry leaves. Except now add butter. I’m serious. You can smell the buttery pouchong shining through.

Is there a first thing as love at first sip? Because I think this might be it.

Oh my. The pouchong is the first flavor that hits your tongue, smooth and ridiculously sweet and full of buttered goodness. And then the coconut comes, authentic and delicious and real. It doesn’t overpower the taste of the pouchong, but rests happily next to it, all cuddled up inside of it, until the two tastes merge so well that it creates a newer, better, wonderful taste.

I love it when flavored tea does that. When neither the tea nor the flavoring overwhelms the other, and there’s this wonderful balance that makes you just sigh with happiness when you drink it.

That sigh is this tea.

Much love for Golden Moon, and yay for all of the people that have taken this remarkable tasting journey with me! Let’s convert some more people to the Tea Box to End All Tea Boxes, and have fun drinking tea! Because if tea tastes as good as this, I’m a full-on crazy convert to this wonderful beverage.

This is lovely, refreshing, and light—just right for a gorgeous spring afternoon! Honeydew and cantalope enveloping scents; soft, sweet melon flavor (2nd infusion actually sweeter than the first.) Come summer, this gets iced!

Brews up a pale amber with a slight greenish-yellow cast. Smells of the ocean – salt and seaweed. Taste has a mellow sweetness of grapes. Seaweed returns in the finish. Smooth mouth feel. Very little astringency.

Today seemed like as good a day as any to try this one, and I must say I rather enjoyed it.

The dried leaves smelled a little like a junior mint, strongly minty and refreshing. There is no hint of green tea. Brewed hot, three minutes, no additives. The brewed tea smells even more strongly of mint, and at this point I am excited.

The green tea is subtle, the mint is strong, there is a mint flavor up-front, green tea taste and then the cooling mouthfeel of the mint after the tea was swallowed. The green tea is completely a base here, it is hard to pick up at all even, it is not vegetal or grassy, there is no reason to even believe this is green tea except that the package said so (of course, the color of the liquor and the lack of flavor tells me that it is not a different type of tea).

Would definitely like to try this iced. Also, hot and sweetened. Also, I think it would make a fantastic mojito if I infused the tea in rum, but I am going to have to buy more to try these all out. :) Until then, enjoy

Very minty aroma (think Doublemint gum). Prepared with sugar. Minty flavor with a bit of an ashy kick at the end (the gunpowder?) Deciding whether to steep a second time. Moving on—

Brewed tea smells complex like pepper and sandlewood. The taste is mellow honey, pepper and oak. mildly astringent. light amber in the cup.