Premium Golden Monkey Black Tea

This was served at tea party two weeks ago. Based on my guests reaction, I HAVE to order it! It was fantastic.

This is an awesome tea. I had to order some

OOh, I was adding teas to my cart for my Teavvire order tomorrow because I need more dragon pearls and they are on sale tomorrow. Now, I added this sample to my cart too! Thanks

Thank you for your review. It really wet my appetite, so I ordered some from Teavivre today. Actually it was my very first purchase of loose leaf tea anywhere, along with some samples of other teas (just to get free shipping, of course: I wouldn’t want to waste money on shipping, when I could be buying tea with it.

Brett: did you see that you can sign up on the page for free samples? They send lots of them, too! They have so many excellent teas.

Brett, reading your notes it looks like you are on much the same tea path as I have been travelling. I still enjoy my Ahmad tea. I think you will love this one. Frankly almost everything by TeaVivre is excellent.

K S, Kudos for a highly detailed wonderfully descriptive review. Just reading your tasting notes for TeaVivre’s Golden Monkey is enough to cause one to salivate and grin from ear to ear in anticipation of what is yet to come! Well done!

looseTman, thanks. I used to think I didn’t much care for straight black tea. TeaVivre really changed my mind. I pretty much have loved every China black tea I’ve tried. This one hit that sweet spot for me of combining everything I like into one package.

You’re welcome. Your review was obviously inspired and a pleasure to read! It’s also a great example of how to write a tasting note!

Your quartet makes sense to me. I’ve never been one for brash instruments. This tea rates 100 with me. Work some Iommi crunch riffs in with this quartet and I’m in heaven.

Your path to peace is beautiful as well. Happy birthday to your mom and dad.

Happy birthday to your mom and dad!

:)

A belated happy birthday to your Mom and Dad!

It’s heartening to hear that you found a path to understanding and peace with your Dad. That may be one of the most important things you could do in this life. Song lyrics, journaling, honesty, acceptance and forgiveness are all powerful tools. You followed a difficult and potentially painful path, which speaks of your inner strength.

I recently went through a similar experience with my parents growing older. Mom and I always got along great, but it took decades to heal most of the distance between my Dad and myself. We both put forth an effort and made great strides, which I am immensely grateful for.

Their health began to decline around Christmas a year ago. I flew to Pennsylvania every month for nearly a year and watched them decline both mentally and physically, becoming more of a caretaker with every visit.

Mom passed in mid November before I could get there, but I was able to stay with my Dad as he slipped away over the next eleven days. I had the honor of holding his head and talking to him as he crossed over.

Later I went back to my hotel, made a cup of tea, and meditated on the feeling of being at peace.

Even though you can’t get to Florida very often, phone calls are a good way of staying connected. I truly hope you enjoy the time you have left with your parents.

Sorry to hear of your parents passing, but so happy to hear that you also found a path of peace with them & was able to be there.
One of the fun things regarding my relationship with my Dad is that when I was young, he strongly discouraged my musical path, but as he got older he revealed that he had wanted to be a musician, & was never able to pursue it, so there had been some resentment there for him. (sidebar: Mom & Dad both played banjo ukeleles & the night they met, they both walked into the door at a party, each carrying a banjo uke, knew all the same songs, & basically spent the entire evening jamming on folk tunes!).

So I started giving Dad piano & music theory lessons, mostly over the phone, several years ago, & whenever we visit, it’s a long long lesson every day. His desire to really understand music theory & how to apply it has been fun to satisfy :)

Very cool story about how your Mom & Dad met! It’s unfortunate that your Dad had to suppress his dream, but at the same time it’s uplifting that you have been able to connect with him on that very level. Giving music lessons over the phone takes patience and dedication on both your parts. My Dad got his first computer 20 years ago in the days of DOS and WordPerfect, and I taught him over the phone several times a week for about a year. Although frustrating at times, it was also a rewarding and bonding experience. It sounds like you are having a similar time!

well, this does make me feel better. :) Though I think I do have a mild form of OCD. I’d glad you’re someone I can invite over without having to worry about cleaning first.

Now that sounds like my idea of a kitchen. Wish I wasn’t old and lazy, cuz I can get down with all things like homemade pickles, kefir, bread, muffins and fresh farm eggs. My comparatively empty countertops testify to this, or maybe a testimony to no longer having young children around to feed. A lovely read! I’ll be over to your place tomorrow. :P

As honest as you’ve been about your kitchen – I can’t even begin to tell you about mine – mine is all taken apart – because I am going on a purging binge. I am getting RID of things and I have pulled things out of cabinet and closets and I have stuff stacked everywhere. I am planning on it all going away after I start my vacation next week. I’m jealous of your produce :(

Overflowing tea baskets pretty much everywhere, fried pies, turnovers and an apple crumb tart from the farmers’ market; a ziplock bag of expired coupons; mail we don’t quite know what to do with; a platter of assorted vitamins and supplements; a dish rack stacked with drying stuff like Jenga because nobody wants to put it away; colander full of banana peppers (and that’s just the stuff that isn’t in its rightful place).

I did, however, start on a reality-check clothes closet pitch. Shirts so tight they cut off circulation in my upper arms now in brown-bag purgatory awaiting their second (third?) life at Goodwill.

My kitchen counters are loaded with bubbling crocks of various culturing veggies, crockpots & dutch ovens awaiting their next episodes, a dehydrator, piles of tomatoes (even though I brought 5# worth of them to Tony’s because we’re making a batch of sauce tomorrow), a bread kneading area with sack of flour, because although I can’t have gluten, one of my sons has really gotten into making bread. There’s a dehydrator, from my raw foodie days, which I still use, a coffee maker that the kids (who are adults) use, a bowl of fruit, a dish draining wrack, a large compost bucket, & lots of spices, & a mortar & pestle. The Table, which is in the kitchen, has an electric kettle, a tea towel where I dry my various teapots & cups, a pile of cookbooks (because although I don’t generally follow recipes, I love reading them, LOL).
Most of my tea is in my office, along with my teapots & other paraphernalia.
The Sunroom windowsills are piled with tomatoes, all kinds. There are also 3 wonderful large baskets that I use for picking produce (one is currently full of zucchini), & there are buckets with gardening tools, & the little table back there is covered with seeds, my garden journal, & other gardening stuff.

Keep it coming, everyone! I love this! Cwyn, I wish you could come over. We would have a tomato sandwich and let the juice run to our elbows!

MzPrizz: I have been contemplating a real clean out. We have lived her for 21 years and things add up. Some things are not really needed anymore, like cute cake pans of trains and lambs, but what if I get grandchildren? LOL!

GMathis: I left out my thee tea stashes. One is on shelves on the wall, one is a chest under those shelves and there are two spots in the cabinets with tea, as well as a super old cast iron Dutch oven with samples in it. Oops, and another basket under the fruit basket. Oy.

TerriHarpLady: I am making pickles right now, so my Kilner jam pan is sitting on the bread table. Underneath that table are buckets: hard red wheat for cookies, hard white wheat for bread, soft white wheat for cookies and pastries, Kamut for waffles and pancakes, oats to flake, and hard red winter wheat for the chickens. There is also frequently a jar of seeds sprouting for the chickens, though they just ate the most recent batch.

You guys are making me want salad.

My turn. Produce from farmers market on island. I cannot put tomatoes or peaches to the fridge. Pecan pie, croissants . Counters are loaded with 2 gaiwans, 2 tea baskets and 1 glass gongfu pot, strainer. All waiting for their resteeps. Thank you for posting this.

…and then there’s the wire Basket O’ Condiments, stuffed with leftover ketchups, mustards, and whatevers from take-out…

Oh fancy! Sounds like a pretty great day.

it was nice…nicole hasn’t had girl time or even a day outside the house in the past 5 months or so…so we spoiled her.

What an awesome day!

it was nice…though i’m betting all of a day before my nail polish starts chipping lol i usually only ever get pedicures to mostly get rid of all the ick factor on my feet :) E was like..oh hey! your feet aren’t ripping my legs now lol gee thanks…love you too :P (followed by a comment about how he should just send me to get one every month…)

Ahahhaha. I had a pedicure once and I liked it because I like foot rubs by people who know what they’re doing, but I feel like it was totally wasted bc the person just wanted to talk to me the whole time and I just wanted to relax. :P Next time I’ll go where they don’t speak english. Ha.

But that’s really cool you able to get her out and doing fun things.

Cavocorax, I only go to Chinese places. They smile, very friendly and only talk to each other. As long as I don’t understand it doesn’t bother me.

For awhile my daughters & I had an annual pedicure tradition going on. Their birthdays are March 14th & 28, exactly 2 weeks apart. We’d go for breakfast, then starbucks latte’s, then pedi’s, then lunch! It was great, but we haven’t been able to get our schedules together for the last couple of years.
Add to that, my grandaughter’s birthday is right in between their’s, on the 21st. We’re having her party today, & I’m thinking we need to really try to get the pedi thing going again, & include her in it.

I always get the same nail polish, “I am not a Waitress”, hahaha, & Sil, it never lasts very long :(
But the foot soak & rub is a fun luxury! Nothing like a day out with the girls!

That sounds like so much fun! I hope you guys manage to make it happen again, even if you’re a few weeks later than the birthdays!

Cavo – I’m happy to do a girls day out with you at the spa. There are a few places here we can go where they will leave us alone and that aren’t too expensive :)

Terri – it’s nice isn’t it? :)

Looooove pedis. And if I can pair it with a massage…heaven. My pedis always last forever since I am not allowed to really be without shoes since my foot injury. But I don’t even bother with manicures – I can’t not be in the kitchen or doing something that ruins those in less than a day at most.

nicole – yeah i don’t bother with manicure’s most of the time but this was just for my friend. i’ve already managed to chip part of it hahaha

A sacrificial spa day for a friend. That’s tough. :)

yeah…the things i do..

I think I am anticipating the same oolong bomb :D

Me too, yay oolongs soon!

Hey dinosara, is it you who has the gooseneck bonavida kettle? (I thought it was kittenna, but turns out she doesn’t have it, so I thought it might be you LOL).

Yes, I have the Bonavita Gooseneck!

Oh perfect! I knew it was one of the people I’m following. Do you love it? is it perfect? Is there anything about it you don’t like?

I have one too and I love it. I don’t really have any complaints, either.

Oh thanks, Stephanie. I think it’ll be my kettle of choice, especially because it seems to be both small and accurate. Do you like the spout?

I do love mine. I wish it had a bell or something to indicate when it reaches the set temperature, but I love that I don’t have to worry about it too much because I can just hit “hold” and it will hold the water at that temp until I remember to go check on it. I like the spout, especially for gongfu as it has a very precise pour. It does take a while if you are filling a large teapot (but I pretty much never do that).

Wonderful. I think I’ll get itt!

ohhhh, yum!!

Sounds like the BEST combination!

I haven’t tried this one yet, but I strongly suspect that it’s very similar to the Tan Yang.I’ve never really been able to work out the ‘Golden Monkey’ name because it seems to show up on several different teas.

I’ll be curious to know what you think of it! I’m also going to do some tea-search (haha. I kill myself sometimes) so I’ll see what I figure out!