Golden Teahouse

I ordered this tea because I am still looking for a perfect combination of peach flavour and green tea (or oolong) and because the company stresses on their webpage under this tea specifically that they use “certified organic essential oils and natural flavourings”. As peach or apricot flavour in teas would usually involve (chemical) flavour enhancers, this tea seemed an exception. I ordered it from Golden Teahouse (a Canadian company) but on the bag that arrived, it says “Anjing. anjingteas.com”, so I do not know who actually produced it. And unfortunately, this tea did not live up to my expectations. I cannot say it tastes bad or smells bad and I can imagine people who could like it more than I did. The apricot pieces are clearly visible and seem genuine. But for me, there is too little apricot. The apricots are somehow there but this tea still tastes more of something else than what I would hope for. Or perhaps, it could be very ripe and sweet dried apricots. The taste is quite full, even rich, but it lacks the freshness and the slight, barely traceable acidity I would expect from apricots. The same goes for the smell. On the basis of this (no specifically strong apricot taste or smell) I would suppose this may be an honest green tea and apricots blend without a flavour enhancer. Overall, a mediocre tea for me, but it has its quirks and a recognisable taste.

The first thing I noticed when tasting this beautiful-looking green tea was its remarkable sweetness (given that it is a non-scented green tea). Absolutely mild-tasting but strong presence and recognisable, perhaps even soothing character. Very light green colour. A neutral but not unpleasant aroma, tending towards sweet (both in the bag and after brewing.) My girlfriend, who tasted it too, also emphasised its remarkable mildness for a green tea but said she also felt a barely distinguishable bitter aftertaste, which I did not feel at all. For me the long-term aftertaste was a bit drier than usual for a green tea, though. This will not be my everyday tea but as of this moment, I think I would buy it again. Overall, a pleasant experience.

This was my first online order from Golden Teahouse (a Canadian company) and these jasmine pearls are not their premium jasmine pearls. What makes me a little wary is that in their own description of the tea, they say “scented five to seven times with fresh, aromatic flowers (mostly jasmine)”, “mostly” being an indication that there may be magnolia flowers involved in addition to jasmine. Whether that is really so or not, I cannot say as I did not see any purple traces of magnolia among the pearls. Nonetheless I found the tea quite all right (jasmine teas are my favourite). This tea was not perfect as for me it seems that the jasmine (or possibly magnolia?) dominates a bit in the smell, making the smell more sweet than fresh. But the tea tastes good (rather mild, somewhat sweetish) and I used up the first 50 gram bag I had within a little more than a month quite smoothly without any bad emotions. Not sure if I will buy it again but maybe. Overall, a decent jasmine tea but not special.