Nepalese Afternoon Tea

Realized that I needed to reintroduce black tea into my world — especially on freezing cold mornings. Just a nice black tea. I am noticing some more astringency this time around, but it could be because of not having a whole lot of control over the prep of it here at work. Plus I’m only on my second cup. NE

I’ve had this sample for a little while now, and decided that I wanted a nice relaxing afternoon cup today. This is really quite nice. It is one that I think is best if you let cool for a few minutes before drinking. The first couple of sips actually seemed a little harsh but after it cooled for about three minutes, the flavor became much smoother and actually quite lovely. I could taste the floral tones distinctly, but they weren’t sharp or bitter. Just very calm and smooth.

Steeped as instructed – love sandalwood so much. This was just NOT okay.
Bitter astringent – wonder what I did wrong. It seems like the flavors were there … but I fear I messed it up somehow. I mean I could taste the POTENTIAL … hummm

I’m actually really enjoying this one this morning.

When you bust open this package, lemme tell you, this tea smells delicious. I kept inhaling. There are some cocoa notes overlaid with honey smells, and a dash of a floral component as well. It smells three-dimensional and it beckons you out of that awful stupor upon waking up.

And the dry leaves themselves? People have mentioned this before, but they’re absolutely adorable! Very wiry with golden and brown hues. So pretty! Little curls, some in almost an eyelash shape. So I put a tsp. of this in my IngenuiTEA (which I just marked with a Sharpie in increments for 6 oz. and 8 oz., so I feel pretty special) and watched it steep up. I figured that the leaves wouldn’t do much and… they didn’t. Just sort of floated around.

The wet leaves smell more like a regular black tea with some honey blended in. And the infusion smells just as good as the dry leaves. The cocoa is a bit subdued, but the honey and floral scents are still there. Now, I’ve never had lotus or sandalwood anywhere near me, so I can’t speak from experience of those two scents/flavors. But I’ll try and explain how it tastes.

It’s fairly light with a bit of spice. I’m not getting any bitterness, but many floral and honey components, melted into a traditional “default” tea taste. This almost tastes similar to the Keemun Imperial I had by SpecialTeas the other day, if you tripped out the smokiness and added floral/honey components instead. At points I’m thinking this is full-bodied; at other points, it feels a bit watery. My cup doesn’t really have any astringency; Ancient Emerald Lily had much, much more than this. There’s a subtle sweetness underneath it as well, and some spicy qualities. I can’t pinpoint what spices, exactly, but it’s that feeling of warmth that comes from some of the more comforting spices out there.

Overall, really enjoying this cup. I’d rate it higher, but I don’t think the flavor profiles and components are really going to stick in my mind. It’s like that one acquaintance that you have that always remembers your name. They come up to you and say, “Hi, teaplz!” And then you feel awkward because you can’t for the life of you remember theirs. So you stand there and go, “Hi…. hi.”

And then the rest of the night you’re trying to deduce their name. You’re eavesdropping on their conversations with other people just on the sheer chance that someone might say their name. And if someone does, you’ll remember it that night. But after that night, it’ll be gone. That’s sort of this tea. I bet two weeks from now, I’ll probably forget I even tasted it.

The dry leaves’ scent does seem like sandalwood! “Honeyed sandalwood”, like the description implies—delicious! My anticipation of the actual tasting increases!

First sip….

The taste is super mild and subdued. I’m not getting much taste, actually.

Sadness! :(

Maybe the heat of the water is obscuring the flavor. I’ll wait for it to cool down.

After slight cool down…the taste is a little nutty, a bit woods-y, a tiny hint of sweet.

Conclusion: A very soft and quiet tea. It seems to require a lot of focus to understand and much patience to unravel its nuances. Which means it’s either very mysterious….or very insipid. ;)

Sampler Pulled out at random—perhaps #15

I loved the aroma of the dry leaves: it was sweet as if the tea leaved had been infused with honey (although there was not physical evidence of that). It’s a very nice tea; it’s a better than nice tea. But it did not establish a very strong identity with me. I would certainly drink it—it’s a good black tea. But I did not make a note to purchase it. I would, however, recommend that people give this a serious test or consider ordering a sample if you are placing an order with Golden Moon.

Golden Moon sample No. 15 of 31. About halfway through my random grab bag and loving every minute of it! Today I have a sick kid home from school with me, and had a hectic working morning, so for my lunch break I wanted something distracting and, hopefully, soothing and stimulating at the same time. Fortunately, yesterday after the caramel oolong, I hooked this tea on my random line.

The leaves on this one are really pretty. Some are very dark and brown; some are lighter and green; and some are silvery white. It’s identified as an organic black, though, so these colorful variations are all the more interesting and even a little puzzling. They smell to me like wood, and somewhere between the wood of a living tree and that of an unfinished board. It’s a dark, sweet scent, with a roasty/toasty tang.

V. pretty red/gold/brown clear liquor. The aroma is of vanilla and brown sugar with a woody undertone.

Wow. It tastes not a lot like it smells, but I like it. The note that the taste and smell have in common is wood. I find the taste hard to describe in comparison to other blacks. It’s almost easier to describe what it isn’t than what it is.

It’s not sweet except through the finish where I can taste some maltiness. I don’t get vanilla taste at all, nor do I get a strong floral taste. It’s like a super concentrated version of a high grade “tea-flavored” black tea. It’s super concentrated, without being overly strong or bitter. Oddly, despite its strong flavor, it doesn’t seem full-bodied so much as medium-bodied. But I am noticing that I am finding the Golden Moon blacks I’ve tasted medium-bodied in comparison to blacks from other companies. I also don’t think I’d call it smooth so much as “brisk.” Though it isn’t overly drying either.

I like it well enough to drink it as a staple black, I think, at least until I hone my tastes in black tea a bit more.

Drinking this with breakfast that was thankfully provided for us this morning. I rarely eat breakfast because the option of sleeping 10 extra minutes is more appealing. Of course those 10 minutes can often turn to 30, but that is a story for another day.

Back to the tea, it goes wonderfully with food. Doesn’t take away from food but doesn’t disappear either. Just a great compliment to a meal. May just have this with lunch too.

Didn’t realize I had so many teas left in my Golden Moon sampler! Picked this one out to go with a mediocre chocolate chip cookie this afternoon. This tea made the experience more than mediocre. There are sweet honey notes that I am really enjoying in this tea. I am getting something else too, but I can’t quite put my finger on it. It’s a little woodsy, but not in the same way a rooibos is. I love being able to enjoy a black tea in the middle of the afternoon, and this one made for a tasty treat.

Decided to make the rest of this sample up. I wasn’t all that impressed by it last time so I didn’t think it would be much of a loss to drink it now. Golden Moon has plenty of other teas I love.

I put honey in it this time, which I normally wouldn’t do but it’s actually good this way. It’s a very light black and has some woody and citrusy notes to it. Probably not going to be buying it, but it’s not bad at all.