Golden Star Tea Co.

blows dust off of Steepster account

Hello Steepsterites!…. It’s been quite a while since I’ve been on here to log and review teas…. I’ve been drinking a bunch of tea and have been on here lurking and reading everyone’s reviews, I just have been a bit too lazy and haven’t had time to write on any of the tea I’ve been drinking… I have been keeping busy with work and random things. Just recently during the end of summer/beginning of fall I took a trip to visit Brittany in Japan. After staying with her for a bit, we both went to Taiwan for a little while. While in Taiwan, we visited Pinglin, being there was a tea lover’s paradise pretty much, being able to go to where Pouchong is grown and produced was just awesome. While there, we visited the world’s largest tea museum, went to some tea fields, drank tons of tea, ate tea related foods, ate tea itself, and more! It was a blast…. I will have one of my upcoming reviews on one tea I purchased there and it will include tons of photos from our time in Pinglin.

Anyway…. About this sparkling tea….

I had to go to Whole Foods to get some Tofurky for next week. Last year around Thanksgiving I waited only a couple days before which was a bad idea, but I was lucky enough to get the last box of a Tofurky dinner, this year I made sure to give myself plenty of time, so they had a bunch in stock. Anyway, after grabbing my Tofurky along with some other things, I made my way to the registers, but something had caught my eye…. I thought the bottle/package design looked amazing…. And when I looked a bit closer I read “White Jasmine Sparkling Tea”…. I thought to myself “Sparkling tea!? That sounds pretty interesting, I wonder what it tastes like….” So the tea lover in me forced myself to buy it even though it was pretty expensive…. I told myself that I’d only buy it if I had it for Thanksgiving, but….. that didn’t happen… I caved….

Like a lot of people stated, it is kind of similar to white sparkling grape juice. That is pretty interesting considering that only silver needle jasmine tea, organic cane sugar, and water were used in the making of this. I guess something in the fermentation process causes this. When you first take a sip, you get the sparkling grape juice sense from it, but then the aftertaste hits you, and it has this subtle hint of jasmine with it. This tea isn’t overly-sweet but there is a slight sweetness to it. I love jasmine teas, so part of me wishes it was more prominent, but for what this is, I really enjoy the taste of it.

Like the label and description state, it pairs well with food and is the perfect accompaniment to any meal or celebration. This went great with the persimmon-cranberry fried squid that I made…

I would definitely purchase this again, but only for special occasions like Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Years, etc… It is far too expensive to drink on a regular basis ($9 a bottle).

I would recommend this if you are looking for something new and exciting to try and don’t mind splurging a bit.

There’s nothing that beats the rejuvenating powers of a hot bath and a glass of wine.

Unless you don’t have a corkscrew on hand.

In that case, you may find yourself staring down the alcohol section of the grocery store, scratching your head as you search for something else to drink. If you were me, you would have found this.

I’m going to agree with most of what everyone has said here. There’s a distinct white grape note and it reminds me quite a bit of sparkling apple cider. The aftertaste is where the tea flavor comes in for me. Occasionally I get a hint of jasmine, but it’s pretty fleeting. It is, indeed, sweet, but I wouldn’t call it saccharine by any means.

I’m a sucker for pretty packaging, and Golden Star has definitely given theirs some careful attention. Come an event like New Years, I might consider bringing a few bottles of this out for those not inclined to drink alcohol. [This does contain traces – less than 0.5%, according to the label.] In regards to regular consumption, however, there isn’t enough of a tea flavor for me to keep this in the fridge.

It was nice to try something a little different, though! And when it came to classing up my bath, it did the trick.

Sweet but not overly. Didn’t really taste a lot of Jasmine, I wish there was more of a presence. I did notice a white grape sorta taste to this. Ok but could be better.

Oh, god. We sell this stuff at work (Whole Foods) and I LOVE IT. Yes, it is sweet, but not cloyingly in any way. The light carbonation and slight flavor of fermentation remind me vaguely of GT’s Kombucha, but sweetened up for a normal palate (read: ex-soda drinker). It does taste like jasmine, not in an overly perfumed way, like with Rishi or Teavana jasmine teas, but in a pleasant, non-overpowering way. Like I said, I love it. Any time we crack open a bottle I’m first after the customers with a sample cup in hand…the only downfall to me is the price.

So this is likely intended as a substitute for alcohol or cider, and I had it at a Christmas party tonight. I found it to be very sweet, and rather than smelling or tasting like jasmine, it reminded me so much of white grape that I turned the bottle around to look at the ingredients, only to find filtered water, organic white tea, and sugarcane. As a gimmick, or substitute for dessert wine, I suppose it was fine, but as a tea, it just seemed like the typical corporate, mass-produced, oversweetened stuff you get in a bottle.