Sinharaja

Smooth. I have missed drinking this…added a bit of sugar crystals in brew basket. Three minute infusion. Yum.

I wanted to try this tea sweetened but I only realized as I brewed the cup that I only had cherry-flavoured creamed honey, lol! It doesn’t seem to have hurt the flavour of the tea though – if anything the cherry sort of enhances that little hint of berry flavour. The biggest change I tasted was that the natural honey/molasses flavour of the tea was really brought out by the honey – now I’m beginning to see what people are talking about. ;)

So I’ve been wanting to try the GM Sampler for a while now. However, yesterday I opened up the mailbox and SURPRISE! Ricky had sent me some tea! The package included the two Golden Moon teas that I wanted to try the most – and this was one of them. So this tasting note is dedicated to Ricky and his awesome generosity and his ability to make my day!

I was so excited about this that I forgot to smell the dry leaves. I made this with a tiny pinch of sugar and a little bit of 2% milk. Let me tell you guys, I love black tea and this one smells delicious! I can tell I’m going to like it and I haven’t even tasted it yet.

Wow… this one ranks pretty high on the Nom Scale. I know for sure I’ll be ordering more of this once I get the cash (although I’ve vowed not to order any tea during the month of April. I got my credit card bill yesterday and oh boy). Yes, it’s delicious all right. It’s very smooth and full-bodied, with notes of honey and possibly some nectar. Underneath everything is a very nice Ceylon. The aftertaste is sweet and it leaves me itching to take another sip.

So congrats, Ricky! You’ve made my day twice in a row! Thank you!

Tried this one with a little longer steep time today, bumped it up to four minutes (we usually do our blacks at about 2-3). It made this one a little more heady, and definitely a lot more malty. Upped the astringency notably as well, but that is to be expected. Still quite a good little black tea from Golden Moon. Quite enjoyed this one from the black sampler.

If you should find yourself looking for the black tea sampler from Golden Moon though… stop. Don’t do it. You can buy all four of the teas in the same 1 oz packages for about $6 cheaper than buying the sampler itself. Granted, if you do that you’ll be able to stop and go “Why the heck am I paying $9/oz for tea?”. I think they really just want to discourage people from getting samples. For $42, you can get one ounce each of four black teas. For $52, you can get four ounces each of those same four black teas, in handy little tins. The math just doesn’t work out.

Full Review on http://sororiteasisters.com/ today at 6 central time but here are snippets:

The aroma of Sinharaja from Golden Moon Tea is delightful. It smells rich, robust, sweet, and full of molasses. Yet to balance out this sweet tea we have an almost spicy, woodsy flavor. It is quite delicious. Now I can’t say it is the most robust black tea, nor the heaviest in the mouthfeel. Actually I have had teas with far more depth of flavor than Sinharaja, however I do love this tea. I like the subtle astringency indicative of a breakfast tea, without the ability for it to easily become bitter when oversteeped. Let’s face it, if I am going to over steep a tea it is going to be when I am barely awake, in the mornings. Well in honesty my mornings are more early afternoon, but you get the idea.

There is a earthy yet sweet balance in this tea that keeps drawing me back. Chocolate notes that seem almost creamy as the cup cools some present. Bright berry notes do liven up the cup giving an almost sparkly like sensation to the palate. The berries taste more red berry, perhaps even a slight cherry or perhaps raspberry note to the cup. Based on the sparkly sensation I am going to have to go with very sweet raspberry.

Golden Moon sample No. 31 of 31. I just looked back at the note for sample No. 1 and I started this journey 28 days ago. So almost a month here, too, Ewa. This seems like a really nice tea to end on, as it has a lot of love here on Steepster. It’s one of the ones I’ve been most looking forward to trying.

It’s probably not the best idea for me to be drinking this at 9:30 p.m., but at least it should keep me awake to finish my workout, which was interrupted earlier today at about the 1/3 mark.

I love the look of Ceylon leaves, that twiggy, delicate, dark brown bird nesty thing they have going on. The only other pure Ceylon I’ve had is the Samovar, and like that one, the dry leaves of this one smell a little tobaccoey and a little fruity. But I’m getting an interesting mocha-java note too.

Wow, what a beautiful color! It’s not that different from a black “tea colored” liquor really, but it has a rosey hue to it, like someone dropped a few drops of cranberry juice into it. I want a sweater this color!

The aroma is totally nommy. I get the molasses in a big way, but underneath the sugary sweetness is something else. Something that smells like that red color in the liquor, but that I can’t give a name. I think it is what the company describes as berry. The more I inhale it, the more I realize: it’s raspberry, and I don’t have to throw my mind out of focus to find it as I did with the Samovar.

Taste: I like. Lots. This seems to be among the fuller bodied Golden Moon black teas, the opposite of my experience with the Samovar Ceylon, which I found to be less deep and rich than the other Samovar black teas I’d tried. It’s smooth, and it has a character that reminds me of a lighter red wine. I get the toastiness, and some sweetness, but not too, too much. Despite its depth, it still manages to have a freshness to it without being astringent.

It was indeed a special way to conclude my voyage under the Golden Moon. Now, I must go place my order, the one I grandfathered into my lockdown by virtue of starting this trip almost a month ago.

It’s not goodbye, Golden Moon. It’s hello, again.

The leaves are so pretty. Dark and almost velvety looking. And they smell like cocoa? Of course, I just ate some clementines so my hands smell like them and that could be throwing things off.

The tea itself smells like it has been sweetened with honey. It smells light and fruity and sweet. And wow. The taste is… like maple or cane syrup. The end tastes just like raw sugar. This is really sweet and almost rich. I was so surprised that I called the husband in to make him taste. After one sip he gave me a shocked look and grabbed the cup back to have another sip. He said that it tasted like there was cream in it. After another sip, I’d have to agree. The smoothness gives it the feeling that it has been spiked with a little milk.

This is really good. All sorts of sweet, natural tastes combining into one yummy tea. This is probably going on my ‘to order’ list!

additional notes: Sinharaja was also mentioned in ‘The Seven Moons of Maali Almeida’ so I thought it was the appropriate time to dig out this old tea from the stash as I finish the book. Surprisingly the dry leaf has a fragrance of chocolate that I don’t remember at all and it’s even in the flavor. Possibly this is aging and changing? So old yet so good…
Also, tea is not really mentioned in the book except for one of the characters not really liking tea, and Maali’s mom adding alcohol to her teapot…

Finally back to tea! My mom came to visit this weekend and she loved the iced Rainbow Sherbet tea so that was pretty much all we drank when at my apartment! I have so many samples and things I need to try, and it should finally cool off for a little bit. I’ve got my patio door open right now and it’s so nice. I’m hoping it’ll rain soon. I just planted some flowers and herbs out there and I’m really excited about them.

I got my mom to order Golden Moon’s black tea sampler and split it with me…hoping maybe if I leave her with enough tea she will drink it on her own. I took this and the French Breakfast hoping she might like Darjeeling as much as me. I’ve always wanted to try this tea so I’m so happy to finally have it.

In the bag, it smells like molasses, but steeped it takes on more of a honey scent. I let it steep about a minute longer than intended but no harm done. Tastes sweet, and I even get notes that remind me of Darjeeling but in a richer black tea. In fact it just tastes really sweet, I can’t even imagine adding sugar on top of it. It tastes perfect as it is!

The aftertaste reminds me of my orange blossom honey. I am really getting citrus from this rather than berry.

Since I have some milk, I added it and it really cut all the flavors out, so I had to add the sugar. Now it is definitely reminiscent of caramel and I do get a bit of berry. I definitely prefer it without the additions though.

Very nice for a Ceylon (but I have to say I did like Andrews and Dunham’s Ceylon better – it had more pizzaz despite it being a Ceylon. I keep wanting to type Cylon – but I won’t go there!!). This could be because I like milk and sugar in my black tea, and this tea just didn’t stand up to it in the way I like. I guess that’s why I am an Assam and Panyang Congu type of gal!

Oh! and this is tasting note number 100 for me :) Neat!