Golden Tips Tea

Sampler Sunday! I got this tea from Meowster’s cupboard destash last summer, thanks Meowster! Assams don’t tend to be my favorite when it comes to blacks, so I just kept a sampler size of this and decided to put the rest in the Discovery Teabox since it was pretty flavored blend dominant and I wanted to try to get some more pure teas in there for folks. That said, I have had some assams surprise me before (India Assam Kanoka Hand-made Black from What-cha comes to mind!) so I’m looking forward to this sample.

I use my typical black tea brewing parameters, which are likely “lighter” than most folks: 2.5g for 350ml of water and a 3 minute steep. The cup was a deeply dark cup, and had an aroma of malt, burnt toast, and… mint? That can’t be right, but then, my sniffer is just a little stuffy first thing in the morning when I get out of bed… The flavor was quite bold, with a strong malty, baked bread/burnt toast flavor, and oddly enough I actually was picking up a subtle undertone of citrus and mint notes towards the end of the sip. (Have I just been drinking too much mint tea lately? I’ve never tasted a mint note in a black breakfast tea before…) Also just a hint of a pepper note on the back of the tongue as the sip is subsiding. There is a decent bit of astringency with this tea due to the robustness, so I get quite a bit of tongue-drying after the sip. It’s quite hearty and offers quite a bit of flavor even though it’s likely older leaf, and would make a good breakfast tea option, but blacks like this aren’t my personal preference. I’m debating if I want to add a little milk, or just take it like a champ, because despite the astringency, I do really like that subtle mintiness my tongue is picking up.

Edit: After reading about tea-sipper giving her infusers a bath, I went and sniff-tested my gravity well, and yup… minty! Welp, that mystery is solved! I’ve been trying for a week straight to sip down a chocomint rooibos with an utterly obnoxious super artificial, overly strong peppermint flavoring in it, and it must have left some flavor residue in my infuser. Most of the flavor was covered by the robustness of this tea, so I just tasted a “mint note” which didn’t have that artificial taste to it, and just tasted pleasantly minty. Heh. Well, now the infuser is getting a proper vinegar and baking soda bath. At least I enjoyed my cuppa regardless of the mistake?

Best chai I’ve had in a very long while. Spicy without being overwhelming and strong enough to hold up against sweetener and heavy cream

perfect to material, i love and i want to use to my freinds

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Six – Tea #28
To me, there is no way this is a breakfast tea because it is so LIGHT in flavor. I really need caffeine in the morning! This is not caffeine. This is definitely more of an afternoon tea. The color of the brew was the lightest of brown. It’s so light though, I can’t imagine ever wanting to grab this tea. It doesn’t have enough flavor for me… it tasted like a very light Ceylon.

I used a short steep time. Makes a strong cup, but not bitter. Very balanced and has a grape kind of flavor. I would buy this again.

Tasted pretty bland to me. Flavor was more nutty than I’m used to from Darjeeling. Sweetness in the aftertaste. Underwhelming, but it didn’t taste bad. Try it if you like light Darjeelings.

I drank this tea right after a particularly good Chinese black tea from Yunnan, which may be influencing my feelings right now, but I think I prefer Chinese black tea to Indian as a general rule.

Anyway, about the tea: the tea leaves are in interesting tiny nuggets. The first steeping was bitter but I believe that was simply because I oversteeped it. Second and third steepings were not bitter. However, the third steeping (although still dark golden brown in color) seems to be waning on the flavor scale. Not that it tastes watery, it just doesn’t taste as much like tea. Except for the astringency, which is still out in full force.

I realize I didn’t say much about what the flavor of the tea actually was. Well, aside from the transient bitterness and rather a lot of astringency (more than I like in my blacks teas, if I’m perfectly honest) it seemed an unexceptionable tea. I didn’t find much of the delicate floral taste that I enjoy in Darjeelings (am not sure if it is normal for Assam or not). So that was unfortunate. But overall it was an okay-to-good tea.

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #46
This first flush Darj reminds me of lemonade somehow. Almost like lemon myrtle. That’s unique! I’m not accustomed to first flushes having so much flavor. The second steep ruined a bit with an oversteep. The rating is for the first steep. Two teas that were a little tough to pick apart today.
Steep #1 // 17 minutes after boiling // 2 1/2 minute steep
Steep #2 // 15 minutes after boiling // 4 minute steep

Here’s Hoping Traveling Teabox – Round #5 – Tea #37
Sadly, this okayti was just okay. (haha) I can’t really pick out any flavor notes. It was a little bland, even if it was stored in a nice pouch. It does seem very light to me, for an autumn flush.

Holiday TTB

I usually don’t go for unflavored teas but this one was in the box and I really enjoyed it. It’s not terribly tannic, but is a bit drying. I’ll have to do a bit more research on black tea types in the future.

Flyawaybirdie kindly included a sample of this tea in her Christmas card. While I ordinarily prefer Chinese black teas to Indian, I quite liked this one. It’s surprisingly robust with a strong fruity flavor and another taste that I can’t quite put my finger on…it’s a bit earthy, but not in an unpleasant way. There is just a hint of bitterness in the aftertaste, so I may try a shorter steep time or a splash of milk next time.

I have received a sample of this 2015 FF Darjeeling with an order from Golden Tips.

It has light flavour, light body, It tastes green, floral and it has no astringency or bitterness.

Full bodied for sure. But even when I took a deep breath, crossed my fingers and steeped for the recommended 5 minutes, I didn’t really get much astringency. Also not a lot of malt, compared to other CTCs I keep for that flavor profile. This still needs to be tested in the crucible of “hot” restaurant water in less than optimal conditions to see if it needs to be kept on hand. I suspect not, as I have a few others that do have lots of malt even in those conditions. But, I have a big pouch of this for now and it goes really, really smoothly with a dollop of cream so it will be a nice every-winter-day drinker until it’s gone. :)

I have so many Golden Tips samples that I still need to try. :) I actually chose this one thinking it’s a herbal chai (since it’s close to bedtime and all) but now I see that it actually does have black tea in it. Gotta say, the tulsi and spices really do drown out the actual tea, but not in a bad way. I actually really like the combination of minty/herbal from the tulsi and warm/spicy from the rest of the spice blend. It’s well-balanced, so no one flavour is really standing out over all the rest. I’ve been drinking it steeped fairly light (2.5g in 8oz for 3min) and without any additives, but I’m curious to try stovetop-boiling with milk and sugar for a more traditional chai preparation. This is good. It’s weird, because I used to be a big fan of masala chai (back before I got seriously into tea), and I’ve lost interest in it recently, but I’m looking forward to trying some of these Golden Tips blend.

Slightly tangy, golden, roasting bamboo. A light bodied black tea.

I don’t like the tangy-ness in this.

It’s sweet, floral, a little green. Silky, with high clarity and light bodied.
I love it :)

I liked this chai better than the India’s Original version.

With the tulsi basil and nutmeg in this chai, I found it tasting very dimensional, sophisticated and with a great depth. I just wish I had a stove at the shop, so that I could get more “tea” taste out of the BOP Assam base.

My colleague found the tea base too weak. I liked the many spices in this.

I think this is a very good masala chai.

Brew note: 2g masala chai tea leaves steeping in 120ml boiling water for 5min. Added 120ml steamed warm milk and 1 teaspoon of white sugar.

This is a signature blend second flush Assam from Golden Tips Tea, picked in August 2013. The dry leaf smells sweet and malty with an undertone of spice, and the leaves themselves are fairly thin and wiry, mostly black but with some lighter, golden tipped leaves scattered throughout. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a bright reddish-brown, and I added a splash of milk.

Assam is one of my absolute favourite black tea varieties. It’s one of the first I tried when I was younger, and it’s probably fair to say that my enjoyment of it encouraged my interest in tea generally. It’s always with pleasure that I try a new Assam, and this one is no exception.

What I’m tasting here is fairly typical of the variety, I think. There’s an initial sweetness that becomes intensely malty in the mid-sip, and a hint of woodiness in the aftertaste. There are very mild cocoa notes, but they’re fleeting and by no means a prominent part of the overall flavour. It’s a full bodied tea, with a thickly textured mouthfeel, very smooth and almost creamy. The malt becomes more dominant with successive sips, which only increases this effect.

See my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/06/19/assam-exotic-black-tea-golden-tips/

For whatever reason I have had a bad run in with Goldentip Teas/ Teabox
This tea was an exception though as I really enjoyed drinking it at work today. It isn’t ideal for me to really like a tea at work because then I get up and go to the bathroom A LOT… this has to do with drinking three pots of tea over two hours (which is something like 80 ounces of tea).
Unexpected tea of pleasure :)
This was picked January 5th 2015

I thought more people would have reviewed this. Welp, I guess I am the first one.

Good morning fellow tea enthusiasts! Im about to leave for vacation, and I am running on very little sleep. This was my choice for a morning picker-upper. I always turn to darjeelings to give me a good boost with breakfast. This was a good choice. The dry leaf is an assortment of autumn colours. I can spot dark greens, browns, brass, and tarnished silver tips. The dry leaf has a subtle oak scent. I brewed this up in my tetsubin western style. The aroma from brewing this tea is so enticing. The scent is like a sweet currant. The flavor is however much different. The initial sip is heavily wooded and slightly astringent. This brew leaves you with an amazing aftertaste though. I can get notes of a ripe grape sweetness in the back of my throat. This was a perfect brew to wake me up!

This is one bitter ass tea… I drank it after my shower this morning and it surely woke me up, in a way that I wasn’t expecting… had to spit this one out.

This was a pleasant surprise.
The lovely nose is floral and fruity. I would have guessed this was a 1st flush, not Autumn!. Soft, fruity taste is really pleasant. Approachable but not at all weak. A bit too tannic at the finish, but otherwise a marvelous tea.
I immediately followed this with one of my favorite first flushes, which made clear the difference. This has a lot of first flush characteristics, but a darker autumnal character underneath. Still, it made a perfect morning tea.