Premium Golden Monkey Black Tea

While I’m not disappointed in this tea I will say that both the dry leaf and the brewed cup smell better than the actual taste of the tea. The first steep was stronger than the second, and I was quite generous with the leaf. I should probably try and gongfu or grandpa this next time and pay more attention to the flavors. It’s just a yummy chocolate caramel cup, without a whole lot of sweetness. A very good example of a golden monkey, but I think I prefer Happy Lucky’s for repurchase.

this tea is bitter even when flash steeped it only gets sweet after about 6 steeps not really recommended, i really prefer jinglong tea factory black tea road brick

Very nice. A ton of reviews on this so I knew what to expect.^^

I did get lots of dark cocoa, chocolate, honey, yams, fruity, malty tastes notes as many described. Also got a lot of baked bread notes in the beginning. The bright orangish-red liquor had mainly a sweet potato aroma. Recommended. :)

Gongfu with 194℉, 5g in 110ml, 8 steeps: rinse, 5s, 10s, 15s, 20s, 25s, 35s, 60s, 90s

I didn’t realize until looking up the tea to post this tasting note that Teavivre had a “Golden Monkey” AND and “Premium Golden Monkey.” My sample is the later. The leaves are very furry and delicate, though not quite as tiny and golden as Teavivre’s Tanyang Gongfu. Like the Tanyang there is a slight smokey aroma.

The taste is very mellow and smooth. Tastes of malt (in a lighter way), sweet potato, brown sugar, a faint fruityness, and just a hint of smoke in the background. Very velvety mouthfeel.
Gets tart, but not really bitter when overbrewed. Very different from the Golden Monkeys I’ve had from Teavana and other vendors. This tea is sort of like the missing link between Teavivre’s Tanyang and Bailin Gongfu.

Wow. I got it as a free sample and it was quite an experience. The tea looks stunning dry and smell incredibly sweet and complex. The complexity persists in taste. There are so many different components that all blend so nicely: wild honey, caramel, rose, graham crackers, flowers and many, many other things. Every time you take a sip you pick up on something new.

And yeah, it has a long, sweet aftertaste. This tea is just such a show stopper on so many levels. It is a poster child for why you need to drink tea without milk, sugar or any other additives. And it priced very reasonably for all it gives. I am ordering it now.

Nice tea on a nice morning! I think I have one more sample of this left.

This is my first order from TeaVivre (excellent company by the way), and this is the tea that I chose to brew first.

It has a lovely, clear, golden hue to it. It looks fantastic in my fancy new tea mug. The aroma is very faint.

I probably could have brewed a tad longer, but by Jah is this a lovely tea. I wasn’t sure what to expect (I’ve recently fallen in love with Assams and have been drinking them all day non-stop) but this has a certain… something to it.

It’s kind of hard to describe. It’s like a savoury, slightly creamy, mellow, and very light and clean cup of deliciousness. I think that I also want to say caramel?

I can totally see myself ordering a large bag of this once my sample runs out.

Tasty sweet tea with a fantastic flavor, very fruity. Can be intense for people without a sweet tooth. Shipping took a while.

I don’t feel like I can give this a fair rating for tonight’s tasting. I think I overstepped for the first steeping which kind of threw everything out of whack.

After the rinse I did 4 steeping: 30s, 40s, 20s and 120s. The first steeping came out fairly bitter but not astringent. It tasted like a somewhat milder version of English Breakfast Tea. Drinkable but not anything interesting. Kind of like a song with one note.

The second steeping wasn’t as bitter but also didn’t do much for me but I think my palate may have been a bit overwhelmed by the first cup.

I heated the water back up and decided to do a shorter third steeping to see if perhaps I was just doing steeping that were too long. This one was much thinner. No bitterness but not a lot of flavor either. Figuring the tea was going to need a bit more time I did the fourth steeping much longer and in many ways this was the best of the lot. It at least finally washed the bitter taste out of my mouth.

I’m guessing that I probably should have started with shorter steeping or a smaller amount of tea. If anyone has a suggestion I’d love to hear it!

Thank you Teavivre for these samples! This is the first one I’ll be reviewing, which I honestly chose just because of the ratings on steepster, and frankly the dry leaves smell amazing, like cocoa, wood, earth, sweet potato, almost smells like grapes?

Anyways, so the first steep is relatively reminiscent of the smell, without any of the sweet potato; chocolate, earth, wood, theres quite a fruitiness to it, like grape and maybe peach?

Ooh, wow the second steep is quite different, it’s a much darker chocolate taste, with a lot of woody notes, plus a nice richness, and a kind of maple-ness, it has a really thick texture, like syrup, just a little astringent, still with its grape notes,

I think I slightly oversteeped this one, it’s very woody, less complex, there’s very light cocoa in the background, quite astringent, it’s still nice though

Yeah, the fourth is much sweeter, grape, chocolate, earth, less wood.

I can finally taste a bit of that sweet potato in the fifth, quite astringent, sweet, cocoa starting to fade too.

The astringency does get quite strong for me, my mouth is drying out a bit, but it still tastes really nice, the grape is gone now.

I reheated my water, which was actually quite necessary apparently. I’m getting a bit of marshmallow notes, the cocoa is almost gone, also the yam and earth. It’s even a bit grassy, I’m actually getting notes of graham crackers, and yeah so uh no I know you’re thinking s’mores but it doesn’t taste like s’mores. Even with all 3 components, its like I’m having each one separately. Also they aren’t very strong compared to the earth and yams and uh some cinnamon I just noticed. I got a bit of banana flavour here, that’s interesting. I’ve never seen banana notes in a black .. or in a tea actually well alright then. It’s a bit like chocolate chip banana bread, after I don’t know how many steeps
Raisins! Also raisins