Golden Stars

At first, I got a very delicate tasting tea… almost too softly flavored. It has a nice texture, it’s like a very thin broth. As I continue to sip, though, the flavors begin to define themselves. I taste the buttery notes, and a hint of citrus brightens the cup a little. The vegetative tone dominates the flavor, but even that is quite delicate. As the description suggests, it has an artichoke like taste to it. I taste more artichoke than spinach here … and I like that this is a mild vegetable taste and not so much a sharp grassy taste. The citrus intensifies as I continue to sip, it is a bright, lemon-y note that comes in near the finish and lingers well into the aftertaste. Very nice, I’m glad I gave it a chance after the first couple of sips… I like how the flavor has developed. It is still on the soft side, but, I kind of like the delicate nature of this.

Crazy. Three teas I’m the first to review! Perhaps I should see which others I can be first at reviewing, too! :P

This tea is composed of these adorable little stars that during steeping, swell up into mini flower-like things. So cute! It’s also nice and easy to measure out the appropriate amount, which is convenient.

I’m not getting much aroma from the tea, if anything just a bit of sweetness. The flavour is a sweet, light green tea, not really like any I’ve had before. The sweetness is kind of caramelly and delicious, which is quite nice, but the biggest bonus here is how incredibly smooth the tea is. No astringency or bitterness at all. Unfortunately, I’m tasting just a touch of what’s coming off as soapiness here; it shouldn’t be the cup nor the infuser, as the infuser previously held Spring Twist and was not washed with soap in between, likewise with the cup. It’s not terribly strong though. I do wish the tea was a bit stronger, so next time will probably try 7 stars instead of 5 in my ~8-10 oz. cup.

Definitely a tea with potential, but it has no chance against the two Butiki oolongs I tried recently, which were amazing.

Take 2 on this tasting note…my other one was biffed-off somehow!
Special Thanks to Liberteas whom I totally agree with on this one! It’s VERY gentle and mellow – almost TOO mellow – then – as I continued to sip noticed the lovely ‘thin broth’ texture and flavors come thru more – in my case – moreso the artichoke and non-puckery lemon hint.

This is delicate yet delightful!

Thank you Stacy for a sample of this lovely tea. :)

I really admire the aesthetics of these hand tied stars, they are quite beautiful.

I steeped the tea for around 5 minutes or maybe more, at 180f. The flavor of this tea is very mild and light, reminds me a bit of artichoke and has a slight sweetness in the finish. Someone mentioned brothy and I agree with that sentiment. It’s kind of nice for this warm sunny day. I guess when it comes to green teas I am more a fan of the japanese kind, but I’m glad I got to try this. Rating reflects my own personal preference…

What a beautiful tea! I love their shape and hw they blossom out when steeped. The flavor was very much like vegetable soup- I do pick up artichoke and spinach. It is the teensiest bit creamy and there is a distinctive, but light citric note. It also tastes very mineral toward the end of the cup.

So pretty I had to use my new glass teapot from Teavivre for this one—I can be a sucker for the appearance of tea leaves, particularly green ones, I admit.

It’s really delicate at first; this is one that builds up gradually the more you drink it until by the end of the cup you can smell and taste distinct elements. The second steep is stronger in aroma and darker in color too—makes sense, as by then the stars have begun to unfurl which I imagine would mean more area exposed (don’t quote me on that though as I’m no expert!). But even before the second steep I definitely smell some yummy artichoke, and the lemon really comes on at the end of the sip in a pleasing delicate way, no harsh acidity or anything like that. The site notes are right about it being refreshing; I appreciate the way it is without going into standard strongly citrus or fruity territory; it’s subtler than that.

It hasn’t been intentional but it seems somehow my prettiest teas come out of the cupboard Sunday afternoons. It’s the perfect time for them, when I can be slow and linger over a pot calmly before the craziness of the work week begins.

So…I had a bit of a rough morning, emotionally today. My hormones are running rampage…they have their own plan and I can see some of it, but some parts are still shrouded in mystery. Hopefully the outcome of this morning, and all the tears, are all part of a greater purpose. I just tell myself that. But I’m still upset. Perhaps I set myself up for disappointment.

I was going to have this immediately, but I still had some Pu Erh Maple Chai leaves in my steeper, so I opted to resteep those first, then have this. Once I finished that though, this was my next tea.

So, since this is from my free samples with the co-op order, I really only had one servings worth, and did not want to mess it up, so I measured everything and used a timer.

Something smells plasticy or strange…I’m not sure if it is the measuring cup I used to cool the water in first, the bag it was in, or the tea cup I pulled off the shelf that probably should have been rinsed before using (though it was the bottom one and shouldn’t have gotten dusty, and I’ve never had to rinse them before). I filtered it into a mug, and it seemed ok, but filled the mug only partway, since I only measured 8 oz for this. I put it back in the special tea cup.

Going beyond the plastic smell, the tea does taste normal (mostly)…very mild and buttery, and with the addition of a little sugar, almost caramel-y. It’s very light, and I can see where there might be a note of citrus. My tongue is sort of salivating, with this, and there is a little note of a sunshiny sweet tartness.

I’m going to try another steep, but see if I can prepare it a little differently. I might use more water and use my normal mug, as the leaves smelled just fine in my steeper.

I chose this as my sample from Butiki because I thought these stars were so cute. I was not disappointed – they are super cute! Picture: http://instagram.com/p/ZwdcMNRM3t/

The suggested steep time produced a very light brew that was buttery and sweetly vegetal. I liked it, but had a feeling I should do a longer steep. This was much better – it tastes much more full bodied and even more buttery. Slightly drying, but not bitter.

These are so cute! I don’t know why I didn’t try them as soon as I got my Butiki order. But whatevs!

Method: 6 stars, 10 oz, 180 degrees, 5 minutes, Dr. Who Mug

Aroma: mmmmm grassy!

Flavor: This is kind of interesting. I’m not a big fan of greens, so I really don’t know why I bought these. Probably just because they are so darn cute, if we want to be honest here. And they’re certainly adorable and spiky as they steep and open a bit.

I’m surprised and impressed by the flavor. They SMELL grassy, but I don’t find the taste to be overly grassy. They taste freshly green, but mildly so. There’s a buttery feel to this tea also. I’ll be adding this to the short list of green teas that I really like!

I’ve begun to feel guilty when I leave poor reviews for a tea. I think because the tea world can be a bit tightly knit and many of our tea vendors are private businesses run by very nice people the relations often feel personal to an extent and I feel like such a bad customer leaving a negative review of a tea. On the other hand, I think the feedback might help vendors decide which teas to continue investing in and which to discontinue, if sales numbers don’t speak for themselves, so I try to just be as straightforward as I can. It’s hard though not to feel a little bad for it sometimes.

As for Golden Stars, there is another review here that mentions the tea having a bit of a “plastic” smell. I am totally getting that. It reminds me of a painted yixing style pot I got recently that was not actual yixing clay, but painted to look more attractive. The paint has a faint plastic aroma to it and when brewing in that vessel you can smell and taste it in the tea. My Golden Stars were brewed in a glazed gaiwan that contributes no aroma or flavor to teas brewed in it and unfortunately they have a similar smell and taste that is sort of… “plastic”.

As best as I can, I will say the notes on this tea are butter, salt and green bean. The buttery flavor comes through most, with the other two backing it.

Rather than dropping a numerical rating bomb on this tea, I’ll just say I would not recommend it. It doesn’t taste clean the way high quality artisan teas should. I have no idea if it’s a part of the processing to due to the materials or process of sewing the leaves into little stars, or improper storage of tea by the manufacturer, or just a flavor present in the tea, but it is unappealing and the other flavors are so subtle they are masked by it. The tea tastes faintly like a salty broth/brine.