Golden Monkey Black Tea

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Cocoa, Malt, Sweet, Burnt, Dried Fruit, Oak, Smoke, Wet Wood, Roasted, Bitter, Honey
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by SeanLeBreton
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 15 sec 6 g 9 oz / 278 ml

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From Teavana

The finest China black from the Fujian province. This smooth tea with complex chocolaty undertones is extremely low in tannins, yet rich in flavor.

About Teavana View company

Company description not available.

30 Tasting Notes

3294 tasting notes

Some of us were talking about Black Dragon Pearls on here the other day. I was passing the mall, so I stopped in again to see if they have any. They didn’t, & he isn’t even sure if they’ll be getting them ever again!
He recommended the Golden Monkey, saying that it is essentially the same tea, so I bought some. It has basically been my tea of the day, not because it’s better than everything else, but because I’m busy, it’s easy to brew another cup, & I’m trying to decide if it really tastes the same as the pearls. And I don’t think it does. I know that’s probably absurd. Anyway, it is malty! It’s tasty in it’s own right, but I’m not getting the chocolatey essence. Still it’s not bad. Maybe I’ll add more tea next time, as I always use considerably more pearls than recommended.
Time to move on to something else…Next!

K S

With the TeaVivre versions I was just the opposite. The pearls were ok, but the golden monkey I absolutely loved. Strange.

ashmanra

The Teavana GM is not nearly as delicious as the ones from Teavivre and Harney and Sons. And it isn’t at all like Teavivre’s black dragon pearls.

Terri HarpLady

I’ve had TeaVivre’s Golden Monkey, which is of course way better than TeaVana’s.

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85
4163 tasting notes

thanks so much Amanda! I wanted a Yunnan at the moment, and I thought of this one I haven’t tried yet. It’s pretty decent. It’s Yunnan like anyway. ha. Though I wish there were deeper flavors after a five minute steep. A bit malty and chocolatey and peppery.. I’d say it has a medium body. I’d really love to find a yunnan that looks like a cup of coffee! I’m not sure they exist though… This might be the favorite I’ve tried from Teavana, but that is probably because this is a plain black tea and they can’t really mess it up by adding splenda or something.

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96
10 tasting notes

Sitting in front of the computer all day editing photos from June’s weddings and the weekends portrait sessions.. its a Golden Monkey kinda day!

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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88
318 tasting notes

My brother gave my step dad a bit of this and a gravity steeper for Christmas, but it appears it hasn’t been touched :(
It looked a bit lonely, so I decided to brew some up

This is pretty good! Medium body and not quite as “Fuijian-y” as most. Sweet brown sugar notes and also a bit of raisin and yam. A bit malty/roasty as well.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C

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96
14 tasting notes

let me just start by saying Teavana is a rip off and a high pressure sales environment that i detest and believe to be completely at odds with the vibe of tea. having said that, they do offer a small selection of some great teas one of which is their Golden Monkey Black Tea. this is one of my favorite black teas of all time. the flavor is intensely fruity with notes of pear, apricot, litchi, and green pear that is initially delivered with a wet mouth feel that ends with a surprisingly dry finish. if you are fortunate enough to find this tea offered somewhere else for a reasonable price in a comfortable customer is right situation then i highly recommend it. it is intensely delicious!

Preparation
Boiling 2 min, 0 sec
ashmanra

Theirs is decent, but for a real swoon you might try both Harney and Sons which is deep and dark and rich – I call it Batman, or Teavivre’s, which is equally delicious but different, more like a willowy princess who has it all – beauty, brains, and wisdom. Too anthropomorphic? LOL! I have both if you want to pm me your address and will be happy to send you some samples to try. Did you know that you can sign up on Teavivre’s site or just send them a message here on Steepster and they will send lots of generous samples of tea? FREE? They are truly worth the wait, and most of us end up falling in love with several teas and ordering.

OtherWillSmith

i loved your anthropomorphic digression! :-) i would love to get samples and thank you for the tip!

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87
314 tasting notes

Welcome to Monkey Monday

I’m sorry, but when I was doing sipdowns this weekend, I realized that I had a number of small samples of teas with the word “Monkey” in the name, and "monkey Monday is so much more alliterative than Monkey Saturday, so I brought several of them to work to drink down today.

So, on to the tea: The aroma is earthy with hints of cocoa. The taste isn’t terribly strong, but that may be due to the low density of the tea (I usually weigh my tea but don’t have a scale at work, so guestimate with a tea-spoon. The tea is very smooth and blends nicely into a medium-length finish that has the same flavors as the taste.

I tend to require complexity for a high score in a tea. This tea is reasonably complex, but is a bit more restrained than I would like. Still, a very good tea overall.

I had about half a cup in the teapot that I let steep for several extra minutes. This second cup was quite a bit stronger, as one would expect, but lost the cocoa nuance and had more of the earthy flavor, which i didn’t like as well.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp 7 OZ / 207 ML

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93
38 tasting notes

This is the first black loose leaf tea I tried and it remains one of my favorites. It doesn’t really seem anymore expensive to me than many of the other teas out there. I also have gotten several flavorful steepings out of it so I appreciate that.

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94
257 tasting notes

Yesterday, while we were out Christmas shopping at the local mall, I was again magnetically drawn to the Teavana store. My tried and true Teavana routine is to let the staff recommend what I should buy next. This time it was the Golden Monkey black tea.

After steeping this tea for three minutes at 195 degrees, a dark golden brew emerged. This tea is said to contain cocoa. I didn’t recognize chocolate in the flavor but this tea does have a nice sweet and malty taste. This is not one of the strongest black teas that I have tried, but there is sufficient flavor to satisfy my preference for the bold and beautiful.

While I enjoyed the milder but sweet and pleasing experience of this blend, I found myself longing for a scone or some tea biscuits to accompany it. This might have just been due to the throbbing of my sweet tooth. Or, maybe it was due to Christmas, the time of the year when sweetness fills our senses and our hearts.

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100
11 tasting notes

This is my favorite tea so far, let me show you it.

To me, Golden Monkey is the tea equivalent of a Riesens candy — caramel coated in dark chocolate. I can drown in the flavor, it seems to go on and on. Sometimes a tea will have a sour aftertaste to me, but Golden Monkey never does. It stays caramelly-chocolatey-malty. This to me is the definition of a fine black tea.

(This is not to say it will always be so, as I am just starting out on this tea thing. But right now, this is it. I am curious to see how Upton’s Golden Monkey will compare, or other Golden Monkeys from other suppliers.)

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 30 sec

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75
85 tasting notes

At this point in my learning about both life and tea, I would consider myself to be first and foremost pleasured most by oolong teas. But, this tea is a close second. I was disappoint that my previous favorite black tea at Teavana had been discontinued (Himalayan Majestic) and that I had wasted money on their English breakfast black tea. The salesperson did warn me that the Majestic was the champagne of black teas, and once I’ve tried something as smooth, rich, and lacking any type of bitterness, I can’t go back. In fact, I won’t and I never will.

I have tried many types of black tea but I’ve normally been ambivalent towards them. But, I had to try and replicate my majestic experience. Once I smelled the leaves for Golden Monkey at the store, I immediately picked up on this wonderful chocolate and soon thereafter I was a goner. I had to have this tea!

After spending the morning lingering over my monkey picked oolong, I went to this. What a juxtaposition! Once I brewed this tea I smelled its richness, saw the deep brown clear color and I was pulled back to black tea land. It is nice and smooth, and full-bodied. I love the malty taste too. I tend to enjoy teas that are malty and nutty and not too strong. I think that this black tea is not as strong as others, so if you’re palate is more partial to medium-strength, this black tea might be a good choice. Although I like the vegetal smoothness and contemplation that comes with a cup of monkey picked oolong, I appreciate the zing I get from a cup of golden monkey. I love my black tea with some sugar, and rock sugar worked its magic on this tea – brings out the subtleties and complements the complexity. Well done. A top 10 tea for me!

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 3 min, 0 sec

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