Golden Fleece

Interesting!! cocoa, malt… and something I can’t quite put my finger on. Carob?
Three steeps and it was still going strong. On the last one I started to get a slight tingle, an inkling of the spice to come should I have the time to do another steep. But… it’s almost bed time so sadly it shall have to wait for another day. Perhaps a Gawain experience? So far, not my fave tea but it is superb and worth the extra expense. No questions about that! in my memory-lapsed brain, it reminds me of Golden Monkey, but then I’d need to do them up side by side to be sure.
Sorry for the short note. I’m pooped after spending the afternoon with the fabulous Kittena and Sil!! (in alpha order only, they are both amazing!)
I came away with just as much tea as I doled out, so sadly my purge tea mission backfired, but then on the plus side… I have more tea to try. yay!!
Rating: 90

In retrospect, I shouldn’t have brewed anything new up tonight, because I am not at all in a mood for writing tasting notes. But I did, and it’s expensive stuff, so I shall write something.

Trying this again as I wasn’t fond of it the first time, but since then my black tea preferences have evolved. The aroma from the bag was quite sweet – I think I may have noted this before, though. I’m primarily tasting what I think might be raw sweet potato. I’m not really getting much chocolate, and there’s a bit of astringency/sourness on the sip as well, although to be fair I did give this one a full minute.

Either way, it’s alright, but I’m definitely way more into the chocolatey blacks.

ETA: Second infusion, same parameters (but half the water): still tasty enough, but I’m just missing those chocolate notes. :(

It’s been a very long time since I had this tea, and it’s been a messy experience. This is one tea where I will go the extra mile and brew it in one cup adn messily transfer it to another, since the result is much better when brewed this way.

Anyway, I made the first cup iwth a generous ammount of leaf in an 8 oz. double-walled tumber, and let it steep for 15 seconds. After transfering it and letting it cool for a while, I got to enjoy the exquisite taste. The silky texture, sweet and subtle spices, and pleasant aftertaste/mouthfeel make this an unparallel tea expereince. The spices are still weak and muddled, so I won’t speculate on them, butthe foretaste is dominated by the spices and a bit of honey, which fades to a honey/raw sugar taste which then fades to an interesting gently-tingling mouth-feel. Ugh, now I need to resist the impulse to buy more of this tea immediately.

Sedcond infusion, 10 seconds, ~200 degree water. This tea was subtly yet significantly different than its predecessor. For one, cinnamon flavors have asserted themselves a bit, so that they stand out from the the rest of the flavors in the fortaste. Secondly, the aftertaste has developed a bit, and there seems to be bit of vanilla mixing with the sugar, resulting in a very pleasant tingling that lasts for over a minute. I don’t know how long it actually lasts, since I can’t seem to restrain myself from taking another sip for more than one minute. Anyway, the developments were a pleasant surprise, especially since I can’t remember some of these from last time I drank this tea, so I’l really excited to see whatcomes next.

Third infusion, same preparation as the second. The tea continues to develop, especially the clove flavor. I can definitely taste and feel the interesting taste/mouthfeel that I associate with cloves. It’s faint, nothing like an actual clove, but iot’s a nice accent to the other flavors. The vanilla has also gotten a lot more prominent, and the cinnamon balances out the rest. Sadly, the silkkiness that made this tea truly unique has pretty much faded, which is a bit of a disappointment. Anyway, it’s still delicious, and I can;t wait to see where the development is going to go from here!

Cup four was the best by far. It was the perfect mix between sweetness and spices, with a pleasant vanilla aftertaste. I’m having a hard time putting the experience into words, but it just tastes perfect. The mouthfeel is resergent, but the only thing I changed was the steep time, which is an interesting observation. The spices are perfectly balanced, with cinnamon and clove being supported by muted vanilla, which smoothly transitions to the delightfully tingly aftertaste. Truly an amazing tea.

Music of the day: Mischa Maisky, Bach cello suite no. 1 in G
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mGQLXRTl3Z0&feature=related
A very pleasant piece of music, played by an absolutely superb cellist. I actually first ran into him when I bought an album featuring him playing the Shostakovich piano trios. He really makes this piece come alive, unlike some recording which sound so mechanical and stiff.

Momentous occasions call for the best tea..and today is definitely the day. I wrote my last final of my undergraduate university engineering degree this morning! I am done! (providing I pass everything, but that is very likely haha) So to celebrate this excellent day, I decided to try this tea. I’ve had a sample of this tea for ages, from one of my first Verdant orders last year. I have been waiting for the right time, and it is here.

The dry smell is excellent, it reminds me of Master Han’s Yunnan black, a light hay scent with a hint of honey. I decided to do this tea gongfu, so I put in a bunch of it, almost half the sample bag, and did a short rinse. Good lord, the rinse smelled so good!! I was like why am I pouring this away! Lol, and then I steeped for just a few seconds and poured it out. The resulting liquor is the most beautiful golden color, and it smells like sweet potatoes dipped in honey. Mmmm. A sweet, delicious scent.

My goodness.

The taste is so. good. The sweet honey flavor, the sweet potato richness, vanilla, sparkles, sugar. Like a yunnan white but so much richer and smooth. I have decided, I really enjoy yunnan teas. This one is the king though. I just love that honey aftertaste. So good.

Overall, this is one heck of a treat. So happy I finally opened up this sample. Might have to get more of this, but this is definitely a savoring tea, one I want to save for special occasions. I cannot say anything else about it without repeating other reviews haha. I know my tasting note isn’t very in depth with flavors or anything, but this is just a tea that is so tasty I don’t even know how to say it enough. If that makes sense. I will enjoy many steeps of this this afternoon. I should probably eat something first, though, as I will be tea drunk in no time if I don’t!

Well HELLO my fuzzy friend!
Thanks Azzrian for a bit of this! I have been hearing so much about it and was really excited to try it!
Sure – to the naked eye – it’s a bit fuzzy – much like a Fleece Sweater! Warm and Cozy! YAY!

Since this has been so highly spoken of and because it’s been described 7 ways to Sunday – I’ll be brief(ish).

My tasting experience was a combo of flavors including but not limited to:
a smoother cinnamon, a bit of pepper, musky mushrooms, sweet caramel, bready notes, cigar notes, etc.

Pretty good, indeed! I can see why most would enjoy a cup of this!

I wanted a special tea to cheer me up after I aborted my long run due to the major tummy troubles all week. My first thought was Butiki’s Potato Pancake and Applesauce, but I had that in my room in the attic and I didn’t feel like dragging my butt up there to get it, so I sifted through my Verdant teas and settled on this one.

I steeped it this time with twice as much leaf for about 3-4 minutes. I added just the teensiest tuvh of raw alfalfa honey. I loved this tea so much this way! It’s like dessert! Sweet, bready, full of spices, and just downright delicious!

Second steep : I get the honey notes promised and I am more than happy.
The herbal taste diseappered for my pleasure.

I’ve been particularly impressed by the colour of the second steep : very dark ! even if the steep wasn’t long, that’s funny because we don’t expect this from a dry leaf almost pale yellow.

This is really a lovely tea

Backlog:

I’ve enjoyed this a couple of times now. I’m really glad that I broke down and ordered this one, as it is OUTSTANDING. Stellar! Amazing!

Here is my full-length review of it: http://sororiteasisters.com/2012/06/15/golden-fleece-from-verdant-tea/

This is probably super rambly but I’ve been drinking this for almost an entire day now.

I finally did it. I opened my sample. Now or never, what good is the super special tea you can’t afford sample unless you brew it?

There’s a lot of hype around this one, that’s for sure. You just say Golden Fleece and I think people faint thinking about it.

I decided to go with the gaiwan in a basket hybrid steep because I absolutely suck at being able to pour water in the gaiwan and then pour out the tea within 3 seconds. I barely have put down the kettle at 3 seconds. Maybe I just need two more arms.

So 4g in a basket with one of my glass cups where the basket reaches the bottom just right works perfectly. With the glass being 8 oz it’s pretty easy to guess 4 oz.

At first I was not impressed. All the hype. Then…it started to taste just like vanilla ice cream and that coarse decorating sugar. Not fair.

As I’ve steeped it over the past 20 hours, its’ gotten a bit earthy which I don’t really care for. I am not a fan of mushrooms at all and that’s precisely what it tastes like.

I am not really blown away by it but if I could just have those first 1-3 steeps over and over…

I will say that the scent of this tea no matter what just …I want to bottle it up and wear it.

Ok I almost gave up on it, but it’s gone back to being sweet as whipped cream. I don’t even know how many times I have steeped it at this point. A dozen?

I’ll be steeping it until my boyfriend comes to get me so I can leave my car at my apartment complex hopefully in about 2 hours…and at that point I might stick it in my travel mug and cold brew it for the car ride to Clearwater tomorrow.

cold brew update: I think this did not really work because my stupid travel mug lid would not get rid of the cinnamon from the previous, DAYS ago tea…it was far more subtle than it was brewed hot, but it still had that amazing lingering taste at the end, so I did drink it after all.

Really want to make another tea now and sit on the balcony out facing the water. But I am in a food coma and I also strained a muscle in my neck/shoulder sleeping last night and just want to lay here.

I decided to crack open my sample of this today and made one big pot long steep (+3min steep) and one little glass pot steep (15sec).

15sec is light and smooth, but on the bright and sweet side. My roommate tried some and asked if I added a little sugar to it. Big pot has a thicker flavour, and yielded honey nectar syrup. I don’t really pick up any spices from either session but long steep has something musky about it that may be reminiscent of cloves.

For me this is a very sweet tea. Maybe that changes in later steeps, but I won’t find out until later tonight.