Golden Monkey

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Caramel, Cocoa, Honey, Smoke, Sweet, Astringent, Bitter, Hay, Malt, Sour, Bread, Wet Earth, Creamy, Wet Moss, Wet wood, Earth, Apricot, Chocolate, Dried Fruit, Pecan
Sold in
Not available
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Jack
Average preparation
200 °F / 93 °C 3 min, 15 sec 11 g 12 oz / 357 ml

From Our Community

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9 Want it Want it

144 Own it Own it

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109 Tasting Notes View all

  • “I have to be out the door for a rehearsal in 15 minutes. Usually I’m still in my room doing yoga right now. So I’m attempting to shove food in my face & get some caffeine going too. According...” Read full tasting note
  • “My first impression – not as good as Harney and Sons Golden Monkey but twice the price. Sticking with Harney and Sons. It does have some of the character of Harney’s GM, but I don’t think it is...” Read full tasting note
  • “I missed you, Steepster. And really, I’m not back yet. I’m still down south, where I’ve been since the 22nd (and somehow it’s still absolutely freezing outside…why do I feel cheated?). I was...” Read full tasting note
    80
  • “I’m bumping this ones rating up a bit because it’s a solidly nice tea. I finally have a day off work, and I’m trying to organize my teas a bit and give some away which I know I will never get...” Read full tasting note
    79

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.

How to Prepare
Use 1 teaspoon of tea per 8oz of water. Heat water to 195-205 degrees and steep for 2-3 minutes. 2oz of tea equals 25-30 teaspoons.
Ingredients:
Pure Chinese black tea (from Fujian province).

About Teavana View company

Company description not available.

109 Tasting Notes

109 tasting notes

Chance placed me in a Teavana store this afternoon-for only the second time ever and the first time in 3 years.

They had 6 teas available for sampling, but zero black teas. Then they had the nerve to tell me that they didn’t carry Assam because basically, it was crap and they only carried the best. Considering all that cheap Rooibos they sell, that was a rather ridiculous statement. However, I was not in a confrontational mood and let it slide.

This was listed at one of their top-rated teas on Steepster. Well, we know that they don’t sell in amounts smaller than 2oz, just because. So, I paid $5 to try this as a “to go” tea (in store), my first Golden Monkey. Now I see that there are TWO entries and it seems it’s not so well-liked after all.

I did briefly see the leaves before they brewed them, but I failed to take notes. Who knows what parameters they used. It was small and crowded so I couldn’t get that info. Not ideal tasting conditions. It tasted pretty good. Kinda chocolately and maybe notes of butter or caramel. I would have bought one ounce to try some more, but I wasn’t paying $18.50 for 2 ounces of something I wasn’t really sure about.

They didn’t once take me over to the cast iron teapots or suggestive sell too much and they understood that “no, thanks” meant “no, thanks.” However, they tried to overpour my 2 ounces of Strawberry Paraiso-2.85 ounces is not “about” two ounces. They had 5 employees sharing one scale and one register, add in the customers and it was a mess, so you really had to keep an eye on them trying to overpour.

If they ever get around to selling samples or at least selling one ounce of tea, I would give this another try. However, the end result of this is I will probably try a few golden monkey teas from other companies who sell their tea that way.

Overall, I’d say this was an okay shopping experience-I did get some rock sugar because I wanted some and it was there. AND they had no minimum on how much to buy! I’d go to this store again if I was around to get a to go cup of a couple of their teas, but they don’t have a lot that really excites me.

Autumn Hearth

Teavana retired a straight Assam as well as a tropical blend with an Assam base a little less than a year ago, so of course the claim that it wasn’t highest quality is bogus, it just didn’t sell well enough, mostly because they were at the bottom of the tea wall, the employees were trained to top down sell (they were both quite affordable) and though the Assam Breeze was mostly a mango black tea it didn’t have the name mango in it. I was once scolded for selling 2oz of it to a woman who came in looking for a mango black tea and only wanted to try a bit. My manager was like “why did you pull down that tea?” and when I explained she asked “why only 2oz? 2oz is nothing, if you’re going to sell that tea, you need to sell a lb”. So yeah, no wonder they were retired. Everyone I worked with was so excited when they release Sakura Allure because it had mango in it and customers were frequently asking for mango flavored tea, but you really can’t taste it, Assam Breeze was quite delicious, but we were even discouraged from drinking the cheaper teas as employee beverages. End rant.

Scott B

Not having “mango” in the name is a sure marketing error-people love things with mango in it.
I prefer straight Assams and I suppose quality Assam is cheaper than quality oolongs, gyokuros and such. Probably not as much profit margin. Besides, the types of teas Teavana carries, and the way they are marketed is probably not conducive to getting lots of straight black tea drinkers in the door. I’m surprised they still sell Keemun and Copper Knot.

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79
36 tasting notes

A warm and rich flavored black tea- gorgeous aroma and flavor! Perfect on this snowy afternoon with honey and a touch of sugar!

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

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189 tasting notes

I have not been a Teavana customer, but I found myself with a couple of Starbucks gift cards courtesy of co-workers and decided to see what the coffee giant has done with the place. The Pittsburgh location (I spent the holidays there with my wife’s family)was glitzy and the selection weighted towards flavored teas. I always love a good golden monkey and thought I would give it a try (though it was overpriced).

Let’s just say that I was a bit underwhelmed. The tea was fairly weak and I really had to breathe in while drinking to grasp the flavor profile (cherry tobacco/red wine/nutmeg). A frustrating experience—like straining to run in a dream and flailing.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 4 min, 0 sec

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38
355 tasting notes

Got this as a Christmas gift from my future brother-in-law. Apparently he walked into Teavana and told the clerk that I liked black tea, and this is what he recommended.

Honestly? I’m disappointed. I’ve been meaning to try a Golden Monkey for awhile now, enticed by the promise of a cocoa flavor and some maltiness. I tasted almost no cocoa in this, and the maltiness was bitter and overwhelming. I’ll still drink this with cream, but I’m sad that it didn’t live up to its promise. As another reviewer said, Black Dragon Pearls are everything this tea should be.

LENA

That’s still pretty good for a “future” brother in law. Imagine what you will get when it’s official. hehe :)

Bethany

I know! My sister said he didn’t look at the price before he told the clerk he would take the recommend 2 oz. :) Teavana is a tricky place.

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65
65 tasting notes

This was a gift from someone who knew I liked tea, but didn’t know what to get me. I was shocked to find out that this is one of the most expensive mall teas. It’s good, but it’s certainly not great. I think it smells a bit like the tobacco my stepfather used to chew when I was a kid.

Preparation
3 min, 0 sec
CHAroma

Tobacco?! Oh dear…

sierra

Yes! Maybe I’m just not the best tea taster yet (I’m quite the coffee taster after working at various coffee shops all through college, though!) but I can definitely smell tobacco.

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81
100 tasting notes

Very smooth with dry notes and a bit of a bite at the end that reminded me of a Keemun.

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 2 min, 0 sec
Honey

Hello Jean-Luc Picard!

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24
30 tasting notes

Generic and overpriced. There are better Golden Monkeys out there. Teavana employees recommend this tea to you because they are trained to tell you that this tea, along a few select other teas, are their personal favorite.

If you were going to drink this tea, make it iced so the bitterness that might come through doesn’t appear. Also, if you do drink it, it blends really well because its so basic.

Not an angry or a troll review at all, I swear. I just don’t think its a great tea. There are better out there Sorry.

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 3 min, 30 sec

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85
5 tasting notes

This is hands-down my favorite black tea. It is so incredibly smooth and doesn’t taste like any other black tea I’ve tried. Oddly enough, it reminds me completely of a Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab scent called Iago, which contains black musk, wet leather, and vetiver. If you could combine those into a tea, this would be it. (I hope that sounds as appealing to other people as it does to me).

I would like to try a version of this that doesn’t come from Teavana, however, as it was incredibly over-priced. I’m sure I can find something even more high quality for the same price or less somewhere else.

Preparation
3 min, 45 sec

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21
49 tasting notes

The number of golden buds is a testament to the high picking standard of this leaf. Other than this, I do not have much praise for this tea. The aroma of the brew is pleasant, the appearance of the wet leaves are rather broken (could this be from poor processing, transporting, distribution on a large/small scale, or a combination of these?). For a tea that fetches a price such as this, the leaves should be relatively whole, and there should not be many broken leaves. This is not near the case for Golden Monkey.

The flavor of the first brew tasted simply like lipton, with a bit more roundness. Subsequent brews left me unsatisfied with a thin flavor.

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76
85 tasting notes

There are two separate pages for this tea. Hmmm. I still love it. So smooth and delicious. Light enough for my tastes!

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

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