Golden Monkey

Archive-Diving and SipDOWN…this one will be missed
See previous notes…

Fair warning: This post is long and mostly not about this tea (Steepster should make a journal function so we can keep these personal posts away from our tasting notes)

I am a very happy person right now. I’m on break from school so I have nothing to stress over. I simply get to sit at home all day and relax.

I’m getting really into tea lately, and that makes me happy too. I mean it also makes me really sad sometimes because I have zero money to spend on it, but I’m starting a tea savings account and I can’t wait until I’m able to buy tea without my parents helping out. That being said, my wishlist is long. I mean really long. Like “I typed it up on a word document and it’s on to three pages and I’m not finished yet” long. On one hand that’s good because I can keep track of everything easily and easily add/change it. But on another hand that’s bad because (again) I have absolutely no money to buy any of those things so it’s a constant reminder of my financial backings (or lack-thereof).

I’m taking AP Art History through an excellent online course program called Virtual High School, and I absolutely love the program. Next year I plan on taking AP Psychology through it (it will be my third class, after this and the Latin 1 class I took last year). A few things I don’t love though:
1.) Everything is due on Tuesday nights at 11:59 and there are not set due dates along the way (like there are in traditional classes) so it really pushes the procrastinator in me to the extreme.
2.) There are no breaks like there are from traditional school so I have to do it all. Today. While I’m on break. I’m trying to start it earlier today so that way I can relax tonight and not have to worry about it, but as I said above I spend all my time looking at tea instead of being productive (at least in the “outside world” ‘s sense of the term. I think looking at tea I want is very productive [I’m wrong])
Other than that, though, I’m content!

So back to the tea world. I am continuing to work through the box that I bought from LiberTEAS online shop. Previous to today I would look through reviews here on Steepster to see what I want to try. But, no more! I’m trying to just reach for a tea in the variety I want (I finally organized it this morning) and I just brew it up. I have no idea what it will taste like and so I can properly judge it. That’s what I have done with this tea and I will continue to do. I think this will help propel my knowledge and taste of different teas.

So, we are finally at the point where I actually review the tea!

The dry leaves smell slightly salty and vegetal, a property I usually associate with a green tea even though this is a black. I brewed in my Noble mug with boiling water for four minutes. The resulting brew is a semi-dark amber color that smells malty and slightly sweet.

The tea tastes nice! It tastes a lot like it smells, though the mixture is a bit different (I realize that makes almost no sense, but I’m not so good yet as to putting exactly what I taste in words). It’s slightly sweet and fruity with a nice, strong malty backing. I like it a lot!

I realize that the review for this tea was very small compared to my rant, but I hope you enjoyed!

This is a fantastic Golden Monkey. Very sweet and fruit-like. Citrus-y! One of the more distinctly fruit-like flavors I’ve tasted from an “unflavored” tea. Not as robust or bold as a typical Yunnan – this one has a crisp, light character to it.

Very nice!

i picked this tea at NYC Coffee and Tea Festival yesterday. i did my little homework before i came and I was going to pick this tea. I have several Golden Monkey (Teavivre, H&S) and I wanted to compare.
Dry leaves: greenish with lots of gold silver and hairy. Teavivres are black and gold.
As usual gongfu treatment
1 heaping TBS 150ml gaiwan 195F( I did the same parameters as for Teavivre’s GM, but the company suggests 212F) Maybe I’ll try it next time
rinse 5/10/15/20/30/45/1
This tea is great. Rich and malty. Not as much chocolaty as Teavivre’s. No sweet potatoes detected. But has grape notes and some slight sourness which is delightful. Some bread notes in later steeps.
To conclude, this tea is amazing. its quite different from Teavivre. And its a good thing. i wouldn’t be happy to have identical teas in my overflowing cupboard. i picked only 1oz (surprisingly they had such small amount, other vendors were pushing a lot of tea on you). When I run out of it i will definitely pick some more.