Emperor's Gold

LOVE!

This is so good. So rich and flavorful. Rich with chocolate-y tones, caramel-y notes, a tone of earthiness that melds deliciously with the chocolate notes to create a very rich, inviting cup of tea.

So very good.

Thanks Liberteas!

This sort of smells like pasta noodles that are boiling with a hint of caramel.

The taste is extremely yummy! Rich with sweeter cocoa powdery type taste! I’m also picking up some dried apricots hints, too…which I LOVE…When I was a toddler – dried apricots was one of my favorite foods! I know…I was a strange kid! LOL

Regardless – I’m LOVING this tea. Wish I had a whole bag of it!

This week has been kind of rough so I just don’t have enough brain power left to do a strong review. But I’m still having new teas so I have to write something down. So I’ve decided to use Magnetic Poetry to write my review.
http://pinkness.danzimmermann.com/2010/08/because-im-dork.html

Translation:
It reminds me of Tea Etc’s Golden monkey, though it is more peppery and fruitier. It’s smooth and gentle with a great smell and aftertaste, both of which hang around once the cup is done (and the cup was gone pretty quickly).

A sick-day sip down. Even the dust filled bottom scoop of tea is smooth andsweet. It feels like there’s a scoop of apricot compote in each sip. I took a big whiff from the tin before I brewed this pot. The rich honey scent will be fondly remembered.

A rather tasty Yunnan. The leaves are soft, long, light, and a pretty yellow color. The resulting brew is a little bit opaque, not crystal clear (but not ‘cloudy’ either), with an orange-amber color and a sweet, roasty Yunnan smell.

Someone else said ‘floral honey and apricots’, and I agree. Get the right amount of leaf and the right steep time, and it’s really very tasty…sweet after you swallow, and the sweetness lingers; the apricot flavor is separate but very, very prominent.

Another tasting note mentioned astringency on the finish, and I find that this varies for me…sometimes I have it, sometimes I don’t. More leaf and a shorter steep time tends to be helpful.

Wasn’t certain about this one when I plucked it from my cupboard at random this morning, but I’m glad I had it, now!

Oh, Jin Cha, how you’ve ruined me. I had a note for this up from several months back, but it was in error. That was actually a note for the Tippy South Cloud – a Dian Hong. Totally the wrong tea. This…was a Yunnan Gold Bud with everything I loved about the tippy tea. Honey-ish texture, fruit-ish lean, creamy finish. No black tea negatives. Again…I should’ve picked up some, but I wanted to try it first. Next time. Next time. Oooooh, so yum!

As the leaves are so large and airy, I doubled the amount of tea I used to 2 teaspoons per 8 oz and the resulting cup was liquid honey. The liquor was a deeper gold and the sweetness was much more pronounced. Floral honey and apricots. Tao of Tea recommends 1 -2 teaspoons. I think 2 is the winner. This is how I’ll be brewing this tea in the future.

I am so in love with this black tea. It doesn’t seem to matter how long I steep it (though I never steep it less than three minutes), it never gets bitter and is always good for one more resteep. It smells great and tastes really mellow. Thanks for turning me on to this, Sara.

Enjoying a flask of this #tea, one of my faves of all time. If you haven’t tried this one from TaoOfTea.com you should! Yummm!

The leaf is gorgeous. All uniform mostly golden and some black threads. Very fresh. Scents of orange, spices, golden raisin.
The wet leaves all turn chocolate brown and smell fresh, not briny. Very nice leaves.
The liquor is deep brown and smells creamy and sweet like honey.
The flavor is creamy, rich, not too sweet, no bitter and no astringency. There is a sweet note when you breathe out of dried apricot and a bit of date.
This is a beautiful tea!!
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8/4/14
Had some of this Gong Fu style this afternoon. This tea is not too sweet. I caught a smoky note today.