Honey Orchid Black

Wow, this really does taste like honey and flowers, so naturally, delicately sweet—very sweet without being cloying. Honeysuckle. Reminds me of summertime as a kid, when you go outside to play and end up sucking the sweetness out of purple flowers. Lovely. Brews up a golden honey color too. Next time I might steep a little longer or use a bit more tea (couldn’t find steeping directions anywhere); this is a tad delicate for something that smells and tastes so delicious. There’s a juiciness—bursting with more honey sweetness!—at the end of the swallow I really like. Really lovely afternoon or after dinner (on the weekend!) tea. Also, the delicate beautiful nature of this tea goes really, really well with biscuits (Dutch caramel wafers or hobnob-style cookies!)—I’m noticing subtle teas pair excellently with sticky flaky sweets.

As a birthday gift, my husband signed me up for Golden Moon’s monthly tea club. I just received my first shipment, Honey Orchid. When I opened the tin, I couldn’t believe how BLACK the tea leaves were — and how large. They even have a sheen to them. They look like they are made of black silk. It’s hard to believe this isn’t a flavored tea.

I brewed some water and steeped the tea for 4 minutes (the card said 3 min. 30 sec., but I always like to go a little longer). I’m drinking it right now. I normally put a few packets of Stevia in just about everything, but this tea needs very little sweetener. For a tea with such black leaves, it doesn’t even taste like a “black” tea to me. It’s somewhere between a black and an oolong in its flavor profile. It has an almost biscuit-like, sweet note and I’m definitely getting the floral and honey flavors as well. It’s smooth and has a sweet aftertaste. Really a lovely tea – but if you’re looking for a hearty or robust black, this isn’t it. It’s kind of delicate. I’m looking forward to the next steeping already!

I got tea samples from Rachel C, that I bought through Teatrade!! I was excited to try this one since everyone has enjoyed it so far.
This is a delightful tea! As I’ve said thousands of times before, I’m not a black tea drinker, but this is yummy. I can’t believe there’s no flavoring in it =P

Dry leaves are big, thick and really black, but only a slight roasty scent. Weighed the portion because so hard to estimate such a bold, fluffy tea. First steep 3.5 min, the honey and floral are obvious in the scent, and repeated in the flavor. Second steep, 6 min, less malty, but with more body and added caramel and roasted barley sweetness. Third steep, 12 min, used less water and got a decent cup, but added a bit of dark agave syrup to round things out. A very impressive tea. I liked the sweeter, 2nd steep best, with the strong roasted flavor toned down and the caramel notes developed.

This definately has a distinct somewhat vegetal honey smell which is pleasant. It is a light black tea with a subtle honey flavor to it. I am not sure that I brewed it with hot enough water so I don’t think all the flavors came out fully. I am going to try this one again before I give it a rating.

This is simply put, the best black tea I’ve ever tasted in my few years of drinking tea. There is a great light flavor of clover honey when you drink the tea, without there actually being any honey added to the tea. There’s a light ephemeral flavor of honey on the first steeping, but with repeated steepings, the flavor of the tea noticeably gets lighter. If you prefer a strong English Breakfast type of tea, this isn’t the tea for you. If you like Earl Greys or lightly scented teas, such as Jasmines, this may be the tea for you. If you’re a honey connoisseur, you’ll want to try this tea out just to see how much of a honey flavor can be imparted from a plant itself without anything added to it.

Simply remarkable, and now I need to figure out how to stock up on this, even though it’s way more expensive than I like for a regular tea, not strongly flavored enough for a ‘special occasion’ tea, and is merely a superior tea that lightly dangles a honey-flavored carrot in front of you, taunting you to keep reaching for a bear of clover honey only to withdraw in your mouth and leave you with a pleasant black tea experience.

Highly recommended.

The reviews on this tea certainly are intriguing. I’ve brewed it now on three different days, and in the end have found it rather disappointing.

I actually don’t like the smell of the fresh leaves at all. While there is a certain honey scent to them, there is also a very sharp scent that overpowers the honey. I suppose I could describe it as floral, so the fact that I don’t like floral perfumes in general might explain my dislike for the scent. The impression that comes to my mind is someone trying to cover body odor with stinky perfume.

Once brewed, luckily it looses the sharp scent. There is a nice black tea flavor, but I have a difficult time picking up any honey. I detected a hint of honey near the back of my throat as it cooled, but it was rather fleeting (since they describe the sensation as the front of the palate, this also led me to an interesting internet search to learn that taste bud mapping is over simplified).

The second time I brewed the tea, I didn’t use enough leaves and the result was very blah watery tea. The leaves are difficult to measure (I don’t have a scale) due to their very large size. Both the first and third time, though, I used plenty of leaf. The third time around I tried adding a small amount of honey to the tea to see if it would accent the natural honey flavor, but it didn’t really add much. The tea also left a bad aftertaste in my mouth.

All in all, I’m glad to have tried the tea and can see why some might enjoy it, but I think the description from Golden Moon of honey flavor literally exploding didn’t happen for me at all. I don’t generally sweeten my tea, but I do sometimes like a hint of honey in some teas. This one was a little disappointing for me at the end.

this is a sample from very generous ifjuly . Thank you so much!
I decided to try it today,its last day for free ship on GMT. I have this sample for a awhile but wanted to sample just before placing the order.
The leaves are gorgeous long black twisty its hard to measure with a spoon so I dump the whole sample, my guess at least 5-6g. 8oz boil 3min steep
produced dark golden brew. the taste is strong of honey and roast. i say roasted buckwheat drizzled with buckwheat honey. very smooth. I love it. as I read other ppl reviews complaining about pale color and not enough taste i came to conclusion that they underleaved it. Seriously, this tea is nothing short of flavor. Havent noticed any flowers, it reminds me more of Laoshan Black smell. Cocoa, honey,roasted buckweat.
2nd steep. @ 4min less honey,still roasty and some rye bread notes.
I’m sold. if ifjuly wouldn’t give me a sample I really dont know if i blind buy it. its not cheap and not offered as a sample.
Thank you ifjuly for being you!

Thank you ifjuly for sending me this sample.

This is one of those “I don’t get it” teas. This says black, but in my mind “honey orchid” is oolong. I’m not sure if it’s just me not being able to wrap my head around it, but this seems like oolong to me. It steeps really light in color – like an oolong, it tastes like a really mild oolong. I’m not really getting anything that screams black tea. Dunno if it’s just me, or that’s the way it is. In my world this is one of those “cross over” teas, a little oolong, a little black.
Tons of honey in this one though – really sweet.