I received this tea in a swap from Missy and Dylan. (You have no idea how excited I was to find out how to make bold print. It is ridiculous how “techie” I feel.)
I have reached that very special age where things with small print have to get further and further from the face to be read. I thought my eyes were worse than I knew as I puzzled over the label on this one. Finally I called my youngest over and asked her to help me with the label. Yes, it said Golden Imperial Lotus. Yes, it said Teavana. But did it really say, “OMG! Tarantulas!”? LOL! She confirmed that indeed it did!
Opening the package, I get it! These are little hand-tied bundles of gold and brown tea leaves like Golden Mudan which used to be sob! carried by Harney and Sons. Cute! They said you don’t have to use a strainer but I did. I may try it without next time.
I tossed three spiders in my pot, poured boiling water over, and steeped for four minutes. The aroma is one of the greatest strengths of this tea. It is rich and thick and molasses-y. :) The taste is so smooth. There is no astringency or bitterness. It has medium body and could really have been steeped longer I think without doing any harm to the taste. The liquor itself is orange/ amber and mine was the tiniest bit cloudy like an Assam, and there is a light malty note as well though this certainly doesn’t taste like an Assam.
I think this is probably the same thing as Golden Mudan which I loved. Too bad I missed out on the sale! A big thank you to Missy and Dylan. I will definitely be resteeping this!
