Name: Golden Monkey Organic Loose Leaf Black Tea
Brand: Teas Etc
Type: Black tea
Form: Loose leaf
Cost: $7.95 for a 1 ounce tin, quantity discounts available.
Review: Golden Monkey is one of my favorite teas and I even have a Yixing teapot dedicated to its preparation ( I call him “George”. . .as in Curious George of the children’s book series.). When Teas Etc was kind enough to send me a sample of their Golden Monkey, I was excited, and immediately hauled out little George to brew myself a pot.
I was underwhelmed.
The tea didn’t taste bad, but there wasn’t much to it. Golden Monkey can be a “soft” tea, so I thought I didn’t use enough leaf, or steep it long enough. I tried brewing the tea again and again, and each time it simply didn’t “turn out”. I found this perplexing, particularly since I’ve tried other teas from Teas Etc and found them most tasty.
Finally I decided to just prepare the Golden Monkey in the “standard” way. Traditional teapot, 8 ounces of water, and 1 teaspoon of tea.
It worked.
The beautiful, downy golden leaves and tips possess a soft cocoa note with a slightly floral backnote. They infuse to a rich golden brown, medium body, dominated by soft cocoa flavor and a honey-floral backnote. This is probably the most complex Golden Monkey that I have tried: New flavors kept emerging with each sip.
Recommended, but see preparation tip below.
Preparation Tip: I don’t recommend a gong-fu preparation for Teas Etc’s Golden Monkey: I actually think a greater dilution makes its nuances more accessible. There is a lot of subtlety to this tea which is lost at higher concentration, making it seem one-dimensional.
Affiliate Links in this Post?: Yes
Sample provided by retailer?: Yes
_64.gif)
{ 1 trackback }
{ 1 comment… read it below or add one }
Golden Monkey (in my experience) is DEFINITELY a “soft” tea as you described it. You gotta hit that stuff hard!
.-= TeaCast´s last blog ..Meeee =-.