Thanks so much to Angel Chen and Teavivre for this sample. When I first tried a Golden Monkey, I like it ok but I didn’t love it. This was of course before I had a black tea revolution and fell in love with Fujian blacks. Even though I started exploring tan yangs and bailins and others, I never really was interested in going back to golden monkey because for some reason I had already decided I only liked it ok. After seeing quite a few steller reviews for this tea, I decided to ask for a sample of it.
I will often split the little sample pouches Teavivre sends into two cups for the black teas, but today I decided to go for a whole pouch at a shorter time to see how it turned out. I will also definitely try this with my ‘usual’ parameters to see how it fares then too. This cup is dark and smells richly of grains and a bit of molasses, although not as honeyed or caramelly as bailin gongfu, for instance. There is a bit of yamminess in this one as well, something I typically associate more with Yunnans than Fujians.
The flavor is very smooth; I had been concerned that it might have gotten a bit overleafed from the scent, which was quite strong, but it seems fine. There is almost a fruitiness to this one, and I couldn’t place the aftertaste until I read K S’s note where he talks about a wine note, and yeah, it does give me the sense of something like a Malbec maybe. It’s sweet and malty, but not in a different way than the other Fujians I know. As I drink it more I am definitely getting an almost pseudo-smoky note to it, not dissimilar to some Keemuns I’ve tried. I interestingly just got a kind of burnt-cocoa powder note from one particular sip, and as it cools its getting even more cocoa powdery, like I made an unsweetened cup of hot chocolate out of dutch-process cocoa.
I’ll give this a preliminary rating but of course that may change as I try out different steeping parameters. Right now it’s meant to reflect that I enjoy this cup, but I’m not in love with it. Which I suppose reflects the rest of my golden monkey experiences. Guess I am just more of a tan yang girl when it comes to my Fujians.
