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.
