Golden Monkey

This tea is absolutely intoxicating – raisiny, chocolatey – so rich and full bodied. I love it. BUT! it does not taste anything like any kind of Golden Monkey!!!! It reminds me of Harney & Sons Panyang Congu to tell you the truth! The leaves don’t even look Golden Monkey-ish. I will give this a high score for an amazing black tea which is delicious with nary an addition (but I bet it can stand up to milk and sugar!), but Golden or Monkeyish it ain’t. Even though I’m trying not to do too much online ordering, Teas Etc.’s Golden Monkey is still my gold (har!) standard for this tea.

Now, it’s story time!

The Wandering Tea Drinker has returned home! I haven’t visited my local tea shop since JANUARY because of all the online ordering I’ve been doing (and I feel TERRIBLE about that – our shop is a treasure as far as I’m concerned!). I had decided that I could do better than my little teapot with disposable filter bag for work use – I was almost out of filter bags, and didn’t really want to keep buying them, and my teapot sure did leak when I poured if I didn’t have the top on just so. I thought that a brewer mug would be much more convenient for work, and I could use my little tea for one pot at home when I wanted a cup but my husband didn’t.

Premium Steap had a great selection of mugs, and I decided to get this one:

http://www.amazon.com/Asian-Style-Tea-12oz-Marine/dp/B003F6MO3C

The color is more purpley blue in person. The things that sold me on it: I love the super fine mesh infuser basket, the fact that the lid acts like a saucer for the basket, and the little rubber section in the middle – makes for a good grip, and helps with the heat. I am sipping from it now – and it is working great!

I also had a really fun time in the store. The owner and I had a nice conversation. Here is the tea talk we had:

-She was all out of the Royal Golden Yunnan (that’s what I originally wanted instead of the Golden Monkey) and has not finalized her order yet because the droughts were so bad in China. She feels this year’s is not going to be so good, and wants to do further tastings before buying. (How nice to have someone so particular about her stock)

-She recommended to me the Emperor’s Red. My brain said Ding ding ding – this must be in the same vein as the Imperial Red that I love from Silk Road Teas! So I got some :) I’ll review it next week. She said the food editor from our city’s major newspaper is nuts for this one :)

-I told her how much I’ve been enjoying teas that don’t need milk, so she threw in some Margaret’s Hope FTGFOP 1 CH SPL Darjeeling 1st flush, Spring 2010 for free. She said it’s good plain, but “the Germans love it with a little sugar!”

I won’t repeat the talk about my job and the weather ;)

Now that was a fun lunch hour!!!!

EDIT: Three delicious steeps, just so I know for future reference, each one a minute longer than the previous.

I had Jacqueline’s breakfast today! My first bagel in 31 years since I tried them when I was really young and went “bleh.” I could eat this! I mean I could eat this regularly! A Panera bread opened here just a few days ago so I bought an everything bagel for myself and a Cinnamon Crunch for hubby. We had it for breakfast with Golden Monkey That Tastes Like Panyang Congou and Goes Really Well With An Everything Bagel. It does, it does!

I resteeped the leaves skeptically, because there are not that many black teas that are strong enough for me on the rebrew. This one does it nicely, though. There is still plenty of flavor to keep me interested in my cup. First steep was 4 minutes, second was 4 1/2.