Nine Dragon Golden Needle Black Tea

Thank you Jason for this tea sample!

Yesterday I Oolanged about. That languid frame of mind I have about Oolongs. There has to be some peace and quiet when I sip them.

Black tea on the other hand is best in the morning when I have things to accomplish! No need to settle my spirit first. A good black tea is like my favorite jeans.(Ok, some are truly elegent. And Exeptional!)

Jason has read enough of my reviews that we connected on the mutual enjoyment of Black Tea. When we did a recent sample swap (easier to do when you live in the same State) I was delighted that he remembered to include some favorites including this tea.

Bonnie likes her Black Tea Strong! I doubled the recommended steep time of 2 minutes to 4 minutes (hee hee) which was PERFECT for my taste!
No astringency whatever. The beautiful dark golden brown liquor was
like velvet in my mouth, smooth but rich. The taste bright and young with an orange pekoe flavor and soft malt. There was no smoky flavor.

I drank one cup and refilled my mug again…now I was discovering a honey, warm homemade bread taste with a vanilla cream finish. Sigh.

I sat still when my 3 mugs of tea were gone. I was satisfied and full. The flavor was not only lingering but tingling on my tongue…prickly little nettles…reminding me like a tiny tempting voice that I could resteep and drink again.

I could do that. I want to drink more of this tea to begin my day but… I have to set up a Hooka Bar date with my 18 year old granddaughter Schey ( she wants to go with me…) and tomorrow the 16 year old Megan wants to go to A Taste of Fort Collins downtown, and my Rav4 is up for sale, and I have to learn how to ride the bus (ugh), and review more tea!

But, I think I have some time for another cup of THIS tea! Thanks Jason!

So… my 8 month old daughter had me up until about… ah i don’t know, FIVE am… kinda sucks but a rather great time to enjoy a warm cup of tea. i always reach for my nine dragon golden needles when i need to cal my nerves. However, as of lately i am almost afraid to drink anymore of it. I got on the teavana website to order more and, much to my surprise, ITS NOT ON THE WEBSITE ANYMORE… terror ran through every inch of me. So without further ado the question of the night: Does: A. anyone know if the nine dragon golden needles is discontinued? and B. Does anyone know of a fair replacement for it if, indeed, it is at an end. i don’t like to think this way however i don’t see much of a choice. As well, i am thinking about venturing out. as of thus far, i have only enjoyed teas that can be purchased as you local Wal-mart/ kroger and from my Simi-local Teavana. I was curious upon Adagio and there array of teas…any suggestions? thanks all.

Many thanks to Autumn Hearth for her incredibly generous samples of this and so many other teas! I cannot wait to sink my fangs into the box :)

I started my day with this tea. I figured, as it’s not your typical breakfast blend, and it’s a Chinese instead of an Indian black, I’d be okay with it in the morning and drinking it without milk or sugar. I was more or less right. It got a bit heavy towards the end of the mug as it cooled, but I didn’t really have time to focus on steeping it perfectly.

Parameters: ~2tsp/12oz, 180 F, ~3min.

These are the notes I took in class:

Smell: Wheaty, with whiffs of dark chocolate, like the chocolate bread at the bakery I used to go to after ballet class. I never really liked that chocolate bread (I much preferred sticky buns!) but my sister got it fairly often.

Leaves: Long, dark and twisty, with streaks of gold running through the space.

Liquor: golden-brown, kind of a chestnut color.

Taste: There is a definite taste of salt here, something I’ve never really experienced in a tea before. It’s predominant at the beginning of the sip, but I didn’t always get it. It’s wheaty, as expected. Kind of dark and heavy. A little bit of astringency, especially as it cooled, but not a whole lot. There’s some sort of dark berry here too, maybe currant or raisin? It’s not a juicy, fruity tea, but there’s something there.

After visiting the dentist yesterday, I started bleaching my choppers last night. If I had known in advance that this process requires a temporary halt to tea drinking (two weeks! – yeah, right, like that is gonna happen!), I would have postponed the bleaching indefinitely. The rebel in me was not about to let the dentist’s sadistic demands prevent me from trying this Teavana tea. Necessi-tea is the mother of invention, so today’s tasting note comes to you while I suck this Nine Dragon Golden Needle tea through a straw.

I steeped this tea at 195 degrees for three minutes. A nice nutty aroma emerged while brewing. The color was a bright amber.

The flavor of this tea (even through a straw) is nutty and woodsy. The taste also has the underlying earthy characteristics that I’ve begun to recognize in other Chinese teas from the Yunnan Province. I haven’t encountered any bitterness. In addition, there is a slight sweet honey quality to the flavor.

I wouldn’t call this a strong blend. There is plenty of steady flavor, though, to never question its identity as a solid black tea.

This is an enjoyable black tea. I’m looking forward to experiencing it again. I know it will be even better without a plastic tube middle man between the cup and my lips.

NOTE (Addendum): This marks my 50th (golden?) Tasting Note since I joined Steepsters in August of 2011! I’m ready to celebrate! Break out the party tea! Pass me another straw!

Cold brewed this for the husband today, 6 heaping teaspoons (bit difficult with the long needles) in 6 cups of water for 6 hours. Husband though it was a tad mild, I thought it was lovely. I let the remaining 2 cups of liquid sit in the leaves in the fridge and lo it got stronger and more delicious! Excellent honey notes. So I’d say a touch more leaf and time and we’ll be golden. Now back to my regularly scheduled yabao.

This is tea #3 from the selection of four I first talked about in this post: http://steepster.com/annchen/posts/184829

I’ve had various golden needle teas before, but I’ve never brewed them myself. The long, spiky leaves aren’t really ideal for a one-cup infuser, but it worked out. I was struck by a brief wave of OCD desire to steep them vertically, but I managed to control myself.

Dry, this tea is very much a noseful of hay. Not dry, dead, hay, though, but grassy, sweet and springy. In the cup, it’s a very nice, smooth, elegant black. This is the kind of tea I’d keep at home, if I wanted to have a good basic black tea around – not overly characteristic, but with more sophistication and appeal than the average bag of leaves.

But, as it happens, I don’t feel much of a need to keep a good basic black around. I want more complexity and more surprises. I’ve finished the cup, and it was definitely nice and smooth – yes. I can see myself finishing the roughly 2 oz. I have left, potentially in a breakfast situation – yes. But it doesn’t really excite me, and there are many teas I would pick over it. My lower rating, in other words, has to do with my own preferences and not so much with the quality of the tea itself.

[Purchased/gifted at Teavana in Honolulu, January 2013.]

This tea was on clearance at Teavana and the only way I could buy it was half a pound already in a tin. I was really nervous about buying that much of it as I normally drink flavored teas. But all my family loves tea, so I was planning on sharing.

This tea is AMAZING!!

It’s very mellow for a black tea, and very smooth. It doesn’t kick you in the face like some black teas. It has a light, nutty flavor and if you inhale through your mouth after taking a sip, you taste the natural sweetness. I shared about a quarter of the tin with my family, but the rest is ALL MINE!!

This is the reason why i started drinking tea. This is just simple straight black tea. I do not know what else to say.

Backlog from yesterday. I decided to go with this one in the morning, because I wasn’t feeling very adventurous (took a small break from the traveling tea box, but I’m just about through trying everything I wanted to try from it, and I can’t ship it until Saturday anyway, because I’m not at home, so I don’t really feel any rush about it). My little girl was awake for a lot of last night, which put me in a pretty bad funk. I am not fun to be around when I haven’t gotten the sleep I need. So this tea was a nice little cup of “hey, it’s a new day, take a deep breath, and carry on.”

I have to admit, I was TERRIFIED to try this. I got into loose-leaf tea through blends, and all I remember of straight black tea is a little lipton bag steeped with waaaaaay too much sugar, that I muscled through at my grandmother’s kitchen table when I was little because I DESPERATELY wanted to be a big kid. So, I held off on trying it… In a fit of bravery, I grabbed the bag and opened it up.
My first impression- “Wow. Hay.” Seriously. All I could smell was hay, with an underlying sweetness. Brewed, it smells a bit like hay, and a bit like wheat bread. A bit intimidating for someone who tends to fruity or spicy teas. Still, I wasn’t going to waste the leaves, and took a sip. I am so glad I did. This tea tastes a bit like honey, maybe with a caramel-y note to it? (my palate is so not refined.) Granted, I did sweeten it with rock sugar, because I am still a bit of a sugar fiend and take everything with a bit of sweetener.