Golden Tips Teas

Delicious, served for Elinor and myself with The Sound if Music. Smells a bit like Cinnamon Toast Crunch, tastes great

I wouldn’t call this a smooth cup of tea, the Assam in this blend gives it quite the metallic aftertaste. But this is quite drinkable, the Darjeeling in the blend smooths out the rough edges of the Assam. I’m not sure I’d like either tea on its own but together it works. It’s not very complex, just coppery and astringent with a pleasant finish. I’m not sure I’d buy this again, but will do my best to sip down this bag.

Pretty regular, uninspiring black tea. Not bad by any means but nothing to write home about either. Very basic. Boldness/caffeinness is mid-range.

From the Puerh Plus TTB. Not the strongest black I’ve had, but pleasant enough, with floral and biscuity notes coming along with a slight bitterness that would probably be great for helping me wake up in the morning.

Here’s Hoping Teabox – Round Six – Tea #35
I wish I knew what herbs were included here but any info anywhere is impossible. I can’t get their site to work. I noticed some roses but it didn’t taste too much like rose. Mostly herbal. Not the best cup or the worst.

A lovely muscatel, almost floral tea. I re steeped this Darjeeling a few times and each cup was engaging. I’d recommend it!

Sipdpwn!

Strong figgy taste. Black for lunch, tsp of sugar in the evening. I liked it enough to recommend it, but there’s better Assams out there to drop cash on.

You don’t see flavored darjeeling very often, so I was intrigued when I first saw this blend. The flavor of the bergamot is bold and citrusy, just the way I prefer my Earl Grey and it doesn’t have any of the sharp, bitter notes that I see from time to time in the teas made with the more traditional Yunnan Dian Hong or Ceylon black tea. It’s smooth, citrusy flavor immediately made it one of my new-favorite teas to enjoy. I’ve managed to drink my way through half of a 100g package in the last two weeks, so it’s a good thing this is affordably priced.

You can read the full review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2015/11/17/tuesday-tea-earl-grey-citrus-black-tea-golden-tips

This is the first flush SFTGFOP1 picked on Apr 3, 2015. 3g for 10oz of water, 90deg, for 3min.

First flush darjeelings are so unlike any other black tea out there. The dry leaf was a blend of green, grey and brown leaves, with an intensely floral aroma. The liquor is golden, also with a floral aroma. The flavour brings in more vegetal notes, like crisp cucumber and fresh peas. The overall impression is very airy and aromatic, light and fresh.

A-MA-ZING.

Added 100gr. to my last order from Golden Tips to complete the amount for apply for free shipping.

Will gladly order again. Love, love it. A stronger darjeelings that I am used to drinking –
this one is very, very addictive.

This is a not too strong english breakfast. I have tasted the twinnings (sachets) and this one and this is softer than the twinnings one.

It’s malty, with some bitter and sweet after taste.

I only give a 80 rating because I was expecting something stronger of an english breakfast.

This is my favourite tea when I do my own massala chai with cinnamon, cardomom, clove, black pepper and milk. I brew the CTC tea with all those ingredients with boiling water and then I add some milk. Is delicious.

This tea alone is really malty and strong, perfect for those who like a strong and malty lack tea in the morning. I can feel the cafeine punch after drinking it.

I have to say this first: my colleague liked this best, out of the four teas we tasted today. This one was my least favorite.

Dried, not-yet-brew tea leaves smelled smoky to both of us. I also smelled
charcoaled dark wood.

I found this tasting astringent, no sweetness, golden, a little bit smoky, a tiny little bit malty.

Brewed tea leaves looked to be broken leaves to me.

I don’t like the astringency in this one.

It’s sweet, light, a little green. I tasted green beans, seaweed.
My colleague smelled blueberry, and I smelled very floral notes and soy beans in the dry tea leaves.

My colleague LOVED this tea. I like it alright, I certainly can have this again.

This is a very nice, authentic masala chai.

Since I was at the shop, I didn’t have a stove. I tried to make it as close to the real thing as possible by steeping it in the hottest water I could get, and then added steamed milk and some sugar.

It was good, but not as good as the Tulsi Basil version. My colleague liked the robust CTC Assam tea base in this 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 one was plenty strong but not overly harsh. Malty, though not as much as some when hot. Maltiness seemed to intensify as the cup cooled. Medium sweetness and some fruity notes in the background. Not a replacement for the Assam Enigma, which is still sadly out of stock, but this was an excellent sample included in my last order. This is the kind of Assam I wish for when I order Assam at an afternoon tea but never do get. The kind of Assam I’d have at my afternoon tea shop. :)

I was ordering their Sample of All Teas, and asked for a sample of their Earl Grey Black Tea. Instead of sending the 3 grams I asked for, they sent me a whole package of 100 grams of tea. Incredibly generous of them.

I am very grateful.

However, the tea was not as good as their customer service. I wish it was.

Although Golden Tips Tea Co. said they used natural bergamot oil in their EG, the bergamot flavor smelled and tasted a bit artificial and overpowering, not exactly pleasant nor elegant. The Darjeeling tea base tasted astringent but not very flavorful.

Conclusion: I have had better Earl Grey tea with Darjeeling base than this one.

I decided to steep this in the gaiwan today, because… why not? So, 4g of leaf in a 4oz gaiwan, boiling-ish water, several steeps in the 20-40sec range. It’s tasty! Very malty and a bit fruity. I’m not sure if it’s appreciably different than it was steeped western-style, but I’m also not really paying enough attention to notice subtleties. It’s a nice, consistent, versatile blend though.

This is a tasty Indian black tea, with some nice fresh, crisp notes that I suspect are from the Darjeeling in the blend.

The website says this is an assam blend, which is interesting, because I would have guessed that there was some darjeeling in there as well. The dry leaf has a really lovely aroma, all floral and woodsy. By contrast, the aroma of the brewed tea is pretty mild. I find this to be a fairly smooth, slightly sweet tea, with malt and floral and grape skin notes – it definitely has that “Indian black tea” character. There is a touch of astringency in the finish, not unpleasant, just a slight drying in the back of the throat. I didn’t feel particularly inclined to add milk to this, which I found a bit surprising for a breakfast blend. Nice to drink, but not overly interesting.

Edited to say: I tried it cold-brewed overnight, and that brought out some surprising fruity notes! It was fairly light, not very malty. Are we sure this is an Assam blend?? :)

Today’s Assam of choice from my remaining Golden Tips samples. This one is a second flush assam, picked on 27th June 2014. It’s a single-estate variety, from Mankota. Looking at the dry leaf, I’d say it’s about two thirds black-brown leaves, reasonably thin and twisty, and a third golden leaves. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk.

To taste, this is a fairly ordinary assam. It’s malty, for sure, but not as malty as some I’ve tried. It’s delicately sweet, with a grain-like flavour lurking in the background. There’s just the slightest hint of molasses, but it’s not strong or particularly defining. It’s a very smooth cup, for the most part, although a little tannic towards the end of the sip.

This makes for a solid, everyday kind of assam. It’s not particularly unique, I don’t think, but there’s nothing wrong with that. It’s tasty, if a little forgettable.

My sweetie is out of town this weekend and I am tempted to just stay at home and drink tea! I haven’t done that for a while. I definitely plan to have a few sessions with some of my yixings.

I love a good assam in the morning. This came from Marzipan tea lover and is really hitting the spot on this foggy morning. It has a nice, malty heft without being muddy or flat. I am picking up a slight fruit or wine type of note. I definitely would recommend drinking this with milk. Mine was good with Silk Soymilk! I found I didn’t need to add sugar to this. Would consider having this around as sort of a standard every day assam. But I do like my old stand-by, which is the Organic assam from Harney & Sons.

thanks again Marzipan!

Good morning fellow tea lovers! This was my prime choice to wake me up during breakfast. I will always have a special spot in my heart for Darjeelings. I brewed this up in my tutsubin western style. This was really nice. It would make for a good everyday black. The dry leaf carries a slightly woody and dark grape scent. I prefer first flush and monsoon flush Darjeelings, but this one was still pretty good. My brewing vessel yielded a tarnished bronze colored liquor. The initial flavor was very woody. The brew has a darkwood mahogany taste. The flavor broadens to a light currant and oak flavor. This was a delicious morning brew, and it paired well with a hearty breakfast.

Much stronger cup of assam than my last, full of malty yumminess. Helping me get through one of my last finals I’m studying for. Good for a pick me up.