Golden Needle King

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Dried Fruit, Lychee, Malt, Tea, Bread, Hay, Molasses, Grain, Honey, Brown Sugar
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Shang Tea
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 2 min, 15 sec 5 g 8 oz / 230 ml

Currently unavailable

We don't know when or if this item will be available.

From Our Community

1 Image

31 Want it Want it

  • +16

17 Own it Own it

  • +2

31 Tasting Notes View all

  • “Fantalicious and awesometastic. That’s this tea in a nutshell, really. A short while ago I alluded to having been exposed to some really awesome customer service and I’ve been sitting on that story...” Read full tasting note
    94
  • “Took me a moment to find this here on steepster because my sample package says “Golden Needle Red Tea” not Golden Needle King – but the description is the same so I will log it here: Well I steeped...” Read full tasting note
    93
  • “It’s a sad state of affairs when one’s crazy work life prevents one from trying new teas. It is an absolute tragedy that my abbreviated routine prevented me from trying this wonderful tea for more...” Read full tasting note
    96
  • “This is the second red tea I’ve had in the last week (the other one was at Taste SF – a local tea place) and I’ve discovered I like them! This steeps up to be a beautiful reddish-brown and it has a...” Read full tasting note
    90

From Shang Tea

Note: This tea is 100% Organic

Shimmering golden buds create a crisp and robust red tea made from fermented white tea leaves. Most red and black teas are derived from the green tea variety bush; this tea is derived from a white tea plant achieving a smoother touch.

Golden Needle is a red tea made from fermented white tea leaves grown on Tai Mu Mountain. A unique and new tea, Golden Needle is so named for its long narrow golden tipped leaves. Golden Needle is a rich full-bodied red tea with a rose-flavored finish.

http://www.shangtea.com/Golden-Needle

About Shang Tea View company

Company description not available.

31 Tasting Notes

100
790 tasting notes

Has become my go-to daily drink. I love this tea. Brisk, full, lovely color, smooth and good hot or cold. Fantastic quality tea.

Preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 15 sec

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

100
28 tasting notes

This is a special and delicious red tea: sort of radiant, energetic, warm, and almost sweet but not quite. I suspect that the fact that it’s made from the white tea plant contributes to its special, elevated and elevating quality.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

431 tasting notes

Backlogging I got this from either Azzrian or Nicole in of the free christmas offers. Sorry I am not good at keeping track sometimes who specificly sends me a tea. So please I hope you don’t feel insulted or offended. Thank you very much for gifting me this.

This is a good tasting black tea that is a tad strong to what I used to. Its still good though and kind of tastes like a yunnan tea. And has a good brisk flavor. And I did add some sugar.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

100
38 tasting notes

The first time I tried this, any cocoa notes eluded me, sadly. It was fine, a nice tea, but nothing to justify the price tag. The second time around, I got the cocoa and flavor explosion and I’m not sure what the difference was. Lower than boiling temperature with shorter steep? I think that was it. Really a beautifully smooth and complex tea for those moments where I can appreciate more in a tea.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Lion

I definitely get much finer results steeping this at 194F than at boiling. I think that’s what dit the trick. Shorter infusions work very well too, lending to the lightness of its white tea origins.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

5 tasting notes

Very strong read – high caffeine, great start for mornings!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

88
1704 tasting notes

Sip down. I needed something thick like a black tea, and nuanced like a white, so this was the best option I had to finish. Cocoa and bready goodness is present dry, and enhanced brewed. First few steeps had light amber, malt, and honey in the profile. Caramel came up in steep two, and the grain notes typical of a Shang Tea popped up. I got the lychee in the third steep, but the rose quality was not really there, but there was an aftertaste that reminded of rose water texture. The tea was always viscous, and as everyone else has said, this hong cha is a refined lighter one.

Again, I think that this tea is something that everyone on here should try especially if you are looking to see what Black can offer. My only hesitation is the price, but then again, you would not want to drink this tea all the time. I personally can only drink it if I am in the mood for it.

This is one of the better hong cha’s I’ve had, but it’s not the best in my opinion. I agree with the consensus on this one and will rate it an 88.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

95
4169 tasting notes

Thank you TeaTiff for this one a while back! The sample pouch had a not-at-all full two teaspoons so I went with that. I thought this was supposed to be one of those golden teas because of the name, but it almost looks like Teavivre’s Bailin Gongfu. The leaves are dark with only hints of gold occasionally and smell very grassy. The flavor seems to be the Bailin mixed with a high quality keemun. There is a lovely almost floral like fragrance even before taking a sip from this rusty colored cup. Keemun is always tough for me to describe. But the flavor is delicious — a medium bodied taste, but no smoke like a keemun. It’s like flowers, wine, biscuits, hay. Really it reminds be of Teavivre’s highest quality keemun mixed with their Bailin. The second steep seemed a little too much at those parameters. I thought it was a mistake on the packaging that is called a white tea and a red tea but it’s actually made from a white tea plant? But I thought all tea comes from the same plant anyway? It was good and then it was gone.
Steep #1 // 2 tsps. // 12 min after boiling // 2 min
Steep #2 // just boiled // 3-4 min

Shang Tea

Hi Tea Sipper, thanks for the review! To clarify your question about white tea on the packaging, yes all tea does come from the same plant, but like any plant there are hundreds of different cultivars of the tea plant. In China these different cultivars are considered to be almost completely unique tea plants. When we say it comes from the white tea plant, we mean that it comes from the Da Bai/Da Hao cultivar which is the traditional cultivar for white tea production in China.

tea-sipper

That helps to explain things, but I have a lot to learn about tea! Thanks for reading my tasting note!

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

93
306 tasting notes

I’ve had this tea quite a while. I usually don’t think to review Shang Teas because I am impressed by really everything they offer and have at one time or another owned most of their teas. I don’t need to rate and review them to know them well. I’ve become pretty connected to them. I forget that others might like to know about their qualities. This review comes in the wake of a yixing crisis that led me to rediscover this tea.

If I’ve caught any of you yixing lovers’ attention now, what I mean is that I recently got a new yixing pot. I’ve been using it a few weeks now with some Gui Fei oolong, and while it has built up the most caramely, rich, sweet aroma and flavor, I have to admit I found myself wondering if the tea was really as good as I remember it from when I first brewed it in a gaiwan, so I got out my gaiwan and tried it in there. Sure enough, it was better than in the yixing pot. Whaaaat? I was sure I’d used it enough to be seasoned and not still extracting flavor?

Research led me to find that the type of yixing pot I have is thick-walled and low fired, so not only is the heat retention a bit too high for greener oolongs, but it is porous enough to steal their aroma. I had to put a lot of thought into how to re-season my yixing pot as the shape and thickness and clay type of it make it ideal for high-temperature teas, particularly red tea or puer. I don’t really drink a lot of either, so I had to decide which one I’d enjoy having more often and enjoy exploring more of (and sharing with friends). I went with red since I thought it would be better complemented by the sweetness already built up in the pot from the Gui Fei, and a friend mentioned the red color of the tea would complement the blue yixing clay well, which I agree with immensely. I’m reminded of Icelandic volcanoes when pouring the deep red-orange drops from the deep blue pot that is etched with a golden crackle design.

So out comes the golden needle to re-season the pot. It took to it well and blended well with the sweetness from the gui fei as I thought it would. I did the “un-seasoning” process of boiling it in just water for about half an hour to get the original tea scents I used in it out, but it only half did the job. I knew it wasn’t all gonna come out. Either way, it works well and in time it will grow to be more distinctly “red” and less “sweet oolong”.

As for this golden needle, it is really a mellow tea, even when using a lot of leaf. The flavor is light and there is really no bitterness or astringency in it like you might find in some Yunnan red teas. It’s just smooth and zen, the slightest bit tart. The flavor is malty and really this is one of those teas that isn’t super flashy with elaborate notes. This is a tea that tastes like tea and in that since it is humbling and simple, easy to appreciate. It has a little note of lychee, though that may be a lingering effect of the Gui Fei I had in this pot before, which has strong lychee notes.There are also little hints of dried fruit.

The second infusion of this tea is my favorite. It is rather sweet and syrupy. Really flavorful and forgiving. No bitterness or drying sensation. It’s a very juicy red tea, a real joy to drink. This could easily be a real favorite of mine if it was a hint sweeter, but I’m not about to go make it in a mug with some sugar. It’s great just how it is.

Flavors: Dried Fruit, Lychee, Malt, Tea

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 6 g 6 OZ / 170 ML
Red Fennekin

The tea sounds really delicious! I’m sorry to hear about your Yixing crisis though :(

boychik

any chance to post a pic of your Yixing?

boychik

i love Golden Needle King btw and many other teas by Shang ;0

Lion

I will try to get a pic of my Yixing soon. And it’s not a big deal, Red, I am happy with the outcome even if it isn’t the original tea I had imagined using the pot for!

Red Fennekin

That’s true and fair :-) I’m glad something good came of it all!

Lion

Just a little update on the Yixing… it is looooooving these red teas. Holy cow I never knew red tea could taste so good. Maybe due to the sweetness of seasoning it once with Gui Fei, or maybe just due to the clay continually sapping some of the flavor from the teas, the red teas I have been brewing in it have all been coming out so much sweeter and mellower than if I brewed them in a gaiwan. It’s really impressive! I am glad I made the switch. I think I’ve found this pot’s tea match.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

218 tasting notes

I must say, while this is definitely a delicious black tea with the aroma of honey, it is a little bit too ‘dark’ for my tastes. By ‘dark’ I probably mean bold, but also slightly bitter and tannic-y? I wish I knew what I mean most of the time.

Anyway, there’s just something about this tea that doesn’t sit well with me. I think what happened is that I actually brewed it wrong, overleafed or oversteeped. I am not sure. I think I will try to resteep the leaves for a rather short time and see what comes out of it.

EDIT: Okay, so I let the re-steep brew for 2 minutes. Now the tea came out a little on the bland side but it doesn’t have these bitter elements in it that I didn’t enjoy. I think I will have to brew it at a slightly colder temp next time for a shorter time with less leaf. I am not rating it yet either.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Cameron B.

Hmm, that is odd. I think I did a 3 minute steep at 200 degrees when I had this tea.

Kat_Maria

I might try that next time. What I initially did was 3 min. @ 205. Now I am having a re-steep that steeped only for 2 minutes, when it cools down I will add to this review what I think of it.

Cameron B.

Huh, I wouldn’t think 5 degrees would make that much of a difference. Maybe I got lucky? :P

Kat_Maria

Haha, I think it’s a combination of things! But it won’t hurt to steep it at a little colder temperature next time. Did you like this one a lot?

Cameron B.

Apparently I liked the resteeps better, so many try a 2 minute steep the first time? I thought it was very grainy and delicious and it kind of reminded me of white tea.

Login or sign up to leave a comment.

424 tasting notes

From HH TTB 2.

This was a white tea? Huh. I totally didn’t get that. I had it pegged as a black and was comparing it in my head to other medium bodied blacks.

But hey, if it’s a white, I think it reminds me a bit of White Rhino. I liked it, and I was excited to try it since this brand is new to me but usually reviewed well on here. I drank the last little bit in the box so I’ll try to get another steep out of it.

Cameron B.

Technically it is a black tea, it’s just made from a white tea cultivar. Love it! :D

boychik

Love Shang Tea.

Shang Tea

Thanks for the clarification Cameron! You are correct, we use the white tea cultivar (Da Bai/Da Hao) to make a red tea (hong cha) or what most refer to as a black tea :)

Login or sign up to leave a comment.