Premium Golden Monkey Black Tea

Another great tea and helping cup, this time its Golden Monkey! Its very much like Yunnan type black teas with a complex and layered flavors that seem best to come out during multiple steeps and playing around with temperature. It has a distinct flavor almost near to Assam which explains the sweet potato flavor with the amount of slight sweetness without it being to brisk on the palate. I can taste however the Yunnan qualities that works well with this tea, it gives a soily, maybe woody body, with smooth almost chocolaty on the back end of the palate. Just perfect!

To quote a wise person, “Oooh!” This was a pleasant surprise. Lovely caramel sweetness, with just the right amount of spice.

Lovely long leaves, with a good heady aroma. This is a good Chinese black tea.

Made this one this morning since I had a headache…I do seem to like my straight blacks on such occasions.

The first thing I noticed is how light and fluffy the leaves are, and how lovely they are with the golden tips. Now, perhaps because I have been heavy on the pu erhs lately, this tasted light and sweet. I did use my organic cane sugar, and a little milk.

I can’t really go into too much detail on the intricacies of this steep, as I was in bed with the headache, and this was at my bedside.

This sample was quite tasty though, despite the headache, and I’m glad there is more for me to have. I’m sure I’ll like the rest of the sample, so many thanks to Angel at Teavivre for sending this.

Measuring out the tea, I observe long, full leaves, consistent gold color and a pleasant sweet aroma. Mmm, nice. I anticipate an enjoyable evening with this tea. I’m curious about it-how will it compare to Teavivre Yun Nan Dian Hong Golden Tip which I adore, and Bailin Gong fu, running a close second. Without trying a sample of this first, I had gone out on a limb and ordered 100 gms. I’m glad I did. The drink is smooth and tannin free with notes of oven-roasted sweet potato. The low astringency and sweetness of this tea make it a great every day tea.. The price is reasonable and I’ve been looking for an economical everyday “go to” Chinese black. My experience with TeaVivre has been exceptional. Golden Monkey is a little less pricey, which makes it a tea I will likely keep on the shelf.

Never cared much for black tea until I tasted this tea this morning. I did a quick rinse and and 1 minute steep and it was heavenly. Absolutely no astringency or harsh notes. Seamless and wonderful with a nice medium body malty flavor and a touch of sweetness to round off the flavor. Will be placing another order for more as this was just a sample. Yowzer!

I haven’t been drinking much tea lately… but I think I’m about to get back into it. I woke up craving a black tea this morning. After carefully considering my options in my cupboard, I decided to give this one a try. This is a nice red-brown amber liquid that has just a little bite, a little smoke, and a tad of sweetness. The fact that I’m enjoying it so much gives me hope that I haven’t completely grown tired of tea, maybe I just needed a break to really appreciate all the nuances again.

If you enjoy Chinese black teas, you must try this one! Open the packet and inhale deeply – hay, cocoa, malt , maybe a little fruit. Smells delicious.

I used less than boiling water, as suggested by Teavivre in their brewing instructions – 2 tsp in 8 oz of water. Flavorful for 4 steeps (1m, 2m, 2.5m, 3m). The tea soup is a rich brown and it tastes fantastic. I cannot wait to serve this to guests. I’ll definitely be keeping this one on hand!

I like that when you order samples from Teavivre they tend to give you two packets (separately sealed for freshness woot!), so you can brew gongfu and Western style, with significant time in between. Very cool. Going to try to hold off half of each type I ordered until my gaiwan from Verdant (! yippee) arrives at the end of the month.

This tea is so fragrant, smells like very sweet delicious sweet potato (cleanly so, like a steamed or boiled one, not a roasted, caramelized, or heavily spiced version) and just a little like bread/yeast , especially while brewing. This one’s also pretty in the cup, a very fine dark mahogany. There is a tinge of astringency, but the tea is sweet and “clean” enough tasting to make it bearable. This is yummy! I’m happy to find it’s not heavy or intensely rich like Laoshan Black; I don’t think I could devote myself to both, ha. It’s stronger, deep-darkier though than Honey Orchid or Mi Xian too (can you tell I’m trying to get my bearings with premium tea via plot point mapping dimensions?). I love that it’s not like any other tea I’ve tried so far, but at the same time very easy to drink.

Oooh, as it cools it deepens, and a slight, mysterious muskiness comes in. It also takes on a slightly bitter component, but somehow it’s not unpleasant. There’s some hay.

This may be the first tea I’ve had where the tannin and astringency build up doesn’t bother me somehow, because there’s also a velvetiness to go with it.

1st resteep per Teavivre’s instructions on the website yielded a darker, more opaque cup that is maltier, breadier, less sweet potato smelling than the first. Also a bit more bitter, but totally manageable.

The first steep of this tea has subtle sweet fruit flavor that manages to shine above the malty flavors of the tea. Towards the end of each sip there is a nice toasted note that I expect will get stronger in later steeps. What I found interesting is that this particular Golden Monkey is missing is the subtle cocoa notes that I have seen present in many others and I find that I really miss them.

Make sure to check out the rest of my review on my blog:
http://www.notstarvingyet.com/index/2013/10/29/tuesday-tea-golden-monkey-black-tea-teavivre.html

I admit, I hated this at first. I told a fellow Steepster in a PM that the taste reminded me of chewing tobacco. This is my last sample bag of it and I decided to give it one more try, just to make sure I still hated it. I am glad I did. This time, instead of beet sugar crystals, I used regular table sugar and added cream until it was the color that I prefer my coffee. OMG, it is really good. I taste some hints of chocolate and the background of what I thought tasted like chewing tobacco accents it very well. I would have never thought I would have 3.5 oz of this in my cart, but I do. I just don’t know if I am going to pull the trigger or buy Fengqing Dragon Pearl Black Tea instead.