Name: Golden Monkey (Panyong Wang)
Brand: Drink The Leaf
Type: Black tea
Form: Loose leaf
Review: Golden Monkey is one of my favorite black teas. This probably has something to do with my fondness for cocoa (I like chocolate, but have been known to snack on plain cocoa beans right out of the package.), and Golden Monkey is known for its cocoa notes.
The dry leaf is dominated by golden tips with a few dark grey/brown leaves. The nose is of cocoa…as Drink The Leaf’s own description says “Cocoa, Cocoa and more Cocoa”. The cup infuses to a lovely medium amber (looks like maple syrup to me), with rich cocoa notes that dominate the nose and palate.
I infused this tea according to package directions in my glass teapot from Jing. I also prepared it in my little Yixing teapot, “George“, which I purchased from Dream About Tea. Both methods worked well, with the Yixing teapot producing, as expected, a more intense brew.
One thing that I did notice about this tea is that it was fairly one dimensional: I didn’t pick up any spicy notes as I have in other Golden Monkey teas that I have tried. I greatly appreciated the warm, rich, comforting cocoa-intensity from this brew (as well as the freshness that I have come to expect from Drink The Leaf), but found myself missing the complexity of something like Teaism’s Golden Monkey, which balances the cocoa with lovely spicy notes.
On the other hand, if you are a cocoa-head who prefers to avoid artificial flavoring in your tea, you could do far worse than Drink The Leaf’s Golden Monkey. This is a very tasty and accessible tea which is certain to make tea-converts among your more suspicious friends.
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It’s just amazing to me to read this and ponder how processing of teas brings out such intense flavors. And it’s no less of a wonder how teas are made to taste like other foods and flowers and such.