Golden Monkey

I’m wanting more Wee Snaily Yums, but trying to save the last of the sample, so I decided to try out this tea.

This want reminds me a little less of bread, and a little more of raisins dipped in molasses, drizzled with a bid of honey, and sprinkled with crushed whoppers (I never used to be a fan of whoppers, and I didn’t think I liked malt, period, but I’ve discovered that I like malt in tea, especially with cocoa). The front of the sip it rich and malty, maybe a touch bready, and then theres this dark fruity rasin like note, accompanied by thick dark molasses, and morphing in to a malty cocoa note at the end of the sip.

Thanks Cameron B

Additional notes: So this note is for the current harvest of GM that Nicole was so kind to parcel out for a few people – thank you so much! I can tell right away that this is a different harvest. Rather than like a traditional black with hints of gold leaf, this one is mostly dark amber and very very fuzzy. The flavor is less like my favorite golden monkey (deep chocolate, caramel) and more like tomato soup than chocolate or caramel. I’m a little sad about that. It isn’t the same tea, but it also isn’t a bad tea. I just wish it was the sammmmmeeee.

Thanks Veronica for sending this my way. I was curious to see if it lived up to the hype!

Each sip starts brisk and bold with the flavor of citrus fruits. There’s a little astringency, even though I used water under boiling. (I steeped for 3 minutes instead of my standard 2.) That initial punch of bright citrus transforms into deep, rich notes of cocoa and heavy malt. Heavy, heavy malt that has me licking my teeth and thinking of chocolate cake. It’s crazy rich! There’s a lighter flavor like sweet potatoes and caramel. A little bit of hay, I think. Some honey. (Especially as it cools down.)

Holy wow. I think I would really love this if I tweaked the brewing parameters a bit. Maybe lowered the temp a little more, steeped for shorter times…yeah. I’ll do that with the rest of my sample. No rating until I get it right! I see potential. That initial brisk, biting citrus flavor doesn’t jive with me. Astringent = no. I just hope it’s not a finicky tea.

Good morning Steepster! Okay, so it’s almost noon, but this is my first cup of tea so too bad! :D This is out of the pile of Harney samples that I realized I still haven’t tried. I can be such a slacker… I wanted a straight black and this was the first one I saw, so voila! I think the name describes this tea very well, the leaves are small and curly, half golden and half dark brown. I can totally imagine these being the coat of some adorable curly-haired monkey. Okay, that doesn’t make much sense but too bad! The smell is unlike any other tea I’ve had so far. It’s extremely strong malt and almost savory, but there’s definitely a hint of honey in there too. It definitely piqued my interest. Kind of followed the average parameters on here and steeped for 4 minutes at about 200 degrees.

It’s interesting, as soon as I took the lid off of my brewing basket, I definitely smelled a strong fruit note. However, when I took the basket out and sniffed the tea, it wasn’t there. I discovered that it was coming from the leaves, which I thought was interesting. The brew itself smells strongly of crusty bread with a small bit of cocoa and maybe some honey. Oh my goodness! This tea is just like eating that dark wheat bread that steakhouses serve you with honey butter! I was floored by how spot-on it is. Needless to say, it has a very strong bready flavor, specifically dark wheat bread. There’s also a strong malt taste, which makes perfect sense as the yeast in the bread! And then a touch of cocoa just to make it a tad rich. I got a sesame seed note at one point, but it wasn’t something I picked up on during every sip. The aftertaste is all malt. I know honey is a very common descriptor for this one, but I didn’t really get that. There was definitely some sweetness but I guess I associated that either with the dark bread or cocoa notes. Sweetener might have brought that out more but I wouldn’t dare with this tea!

I think Golden Monkey may have been one of the five free TeaVivre samples I chose, and now I really hope it was because I would love to try another version of this tea! So yummy and satisfying.

I found out late last night about the recent passing of John Harney. I have enjoyed teas from Harney and Sons for years and years (Hot Cinnamon Sunset was one of the first teas I fell in love with!), and I thought I would make my morning tea another H&S favorite as my way of saying thank you to Mr. Harney.

Golden Monkey is a jewel of a tea. The leaves are beautiful. Black and gold, kind of small, and tightly twisted. Once steeped the tea is malty with a honey like sweetness and notes of caramel and cocoa. I wouldn’t describe it as a thick tea, but it does coat the mouth with a light sweetness that’s very nice. The interplay of flavors here is so enjoyable. This is one of the teas I could drink all day and enjoy every sip.

Thanks again, Mr. Harney.

T&C TTB Tea #1 May 23rd Backlog

My notes on all the TTB teas I’ve tried are written point form in a real notebook. This one was awesome, what a way to start.

It was dark and rich with honey notes. A silky, smooth mouthfeel.

Malty and bready and super tasty!

I drank it after eating an omelet and used filtered water. I also followed the steeping recommendations others put. Just FYI.

I drank it so fast and immediately wanted more. I resteeped once. Yum.

Definitely will purchase if H&S ever has a shipping discount!! Wishlist tea!

I do a good chunk of my tea drinking at work, but for some reason I have convinced myself that I should only drink flavored teas, or teas that can take a beating here, leaving a lot of the wonderful oolongs and blacks at home. This tea however sits in a tin in my desk at work and I keep finding myself going directly to THIS tin. My 3oz tin is over half gone in less than a month. Maybe I need to rethink my tea strategy?

This tea is so comforting. A great morning cup, a great post lunch dessert it is all around perfect. Thanks for getting me addicted MzPriss

Tea of the (actual, yet early) morning. So I got the MOST beautiful little tea set yesterday (thank you for the inspiration TeaFairy!). It is pink-flowered and girly and just lovely. I love the convenience of my brew-in-a-mug thingie. It’s efficient and not fussy.But.

There is something just so civilized and deeply soul-satisyfing about brewing beautiful tea in a beautiful pot and pouring the beautiful tea from the beautiful pot into a beautiful teacup.

This is beautiful tea and I am having it from my beautiful tea set. This tea is everything me (and everyone else) says it is: smooth, caramelhoney sweet, malty and delicious. I am just purring with contentment.

And it’s FRIDAY!

Trying this one again, but with a little raw sugar this time. It really enhances the pecan flavor! There are a lot of background flavors too, giving body to the tea. I can’t really pinpoint them though — I have a feeling this tea is more complex than my palette is right now.

Thanks to boychik for the sample! I tried this tea both Western and Gong Fu style.

Western: 3.8 grams to 8 oz. of 195F water at 2/3/4/8 minutes. Wonderful aromas of malt and fresh baked bread (pumpernickel in the first steep!). The malty aspect comes through in the cup and the honey-like sweetness increases as the cup cools. A lively citrus note emerged in the second steep. The last two steeps were pretty mild but still tasty.

Gong Fu: 4 grams to 130 ml of water just off the boil and 8 to 10 second steeps. I don’t get the malty aspect with this method, but the sweet and citrus notes build very nicely. Unfortunately a strong spice note emerges in the middle steeps and builds throughout the remainder of the session, becoming quite strong around steeps 8 and 9 (my notes referred to it as a spice bomb!). The tea might have reacted differently at a cooler water temperature, but the sample is gone so I was not able to try that.

I liked this tea much better Western style. To me it’s similar to the Teavivre Golden Monkey, but the H&S had richer aromatics and slightly stronger honey notes in the cup.