Honey Orchid Black

If I were looking for a tea that gives Laoshan Black a run for its money, it would probably be this tea. Honey Orchid Black does have its own qualities and subtleties. But the two teas are part of the same “family” to me. For those who have come to love LB, Honey Orchid Black is THAT type of black tea in my opinion.

I looked on their website and there weren’t brewing instructions that I could find. So in my limited tea experiences, I decided to wing it. I went with boiling water at 4m 30s. Obviously I was not disappointed.

Dry, this tea looks like bark or something. I updated the picture on steepster from their website and its way prettier than my sample looked.

Visually, it is not too terribly exciting but once steeped, this tea has a beautiful honey color and it smells similar to Laoshan Black (sorry to keep comparing but its the only thing I can compare it to). I get the same mouth feel as well. Yet after tasting this, I get honey, light floral and a touch of vanilla instead of those dark chocolate and brownie notes that I have come to love from LB.

I could easily drink this tea every week. The only major factor is the price. I logged on to see how much this bad boy will cost me and its around $20 for 2oz. Not outrageous for what it is but just a little out of my personal budget for as frequently as I would drink it. Regardless, I will order this tea eventually to have it on hand.

Thank-you SO MUCH Azzrian! You have introduced me to many great teas and I am very thankful. What the hell did I do before steepster? Fart in line at teavana? seriously.

Who knows if this will change as I try more samples but this is currently in my top favorite teas.

OMG! This is so good.

But I’m getting ahead of myself. First, thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me some of this tea, and thank you to Marcus from Golden Moon Tea for sending her some of this tea so that she could send me some! And thank you to the tea tree for growing these amazing leaves so that I might partake of this amazing tea.

I love this. I absolutely love this. If for some reason I could only have one black tea for the rest of my life, I would probably choose this. Yes, it’s that good.

The aroma is amazing, the flavor is sublime. I am mesmerized by how good this tea is. SO GOOD!

Oh man, is this YUM.

As you all know, I heart Golden Moon. Hard. GM pretty much jump-started my tea education with their sampler (the number one thing I can recommend to ANY tea novice). And now they’re pulling out the big guns, offering fresh and new varietals. Let me tell you, the excitement ensues!

Honey Orchid Black is a beautiful tea. When I opened the packet, I nearly squealed at how gorgeous the leaves are. These are huge. I don’t think I’ve ever seen a black tea with such full and gorgeous leaves. It’s kind of gnarled, kind of ancient-looking. Twiggy, leafy, and just full. Expensive-looking as well. This is no CTC. No these leaves look like they were carefully plucked from a tea bush with able, loving hands, and dried with the highest of care.

There’s a faintly sweet scent coming off the leaves. And when it comes time to steep this one up, I’m pacing around with excitement. Because as soon as the hot water hits the leaves, a delicious honey-like aroma floods my nostrils. It smells delicious. It smells like clean hay fields and honeyflowers.

I don’t think there’s a such thing as a honeyflower.

Maybe honeysuckle?

ANYWAY, it smells good. Great. Fabulous. And then the timer goes off and it’s time to drink!

The first thing I notice is how unusually colored this one is for a black. It looks more roasted-oolong (or an oolong on the darker end of the scale) than black. The color is a deep honey, nothing at all similar to the ambers and dark browns of a lot of black teas. I take the first sip and YES. This is what tea drinking is all about.

It tastes less heavy than I expected. This tea doesn’t assault you with its flavor. No, it’s subtle and smart. It coaxes a little smile out of you. It elicits a contented sigh. At the beginning of the sip is a delicious sweetness, honeyed deliciousness mingled with a light black tea flavor. Not at all roasty, and entirely smooth. Then there’s this floral component, a JUICY floral component, similar to the way jasmine has juiciness, but not at all the same flavor. It’s softer. Like gauze. Or gossamer wings. It’s lovely.

Then comes the delicious endnote, a whisper of sweetness that lingers and lingers and lingers.

It’s great.

I can’t wait to see how a second steep will go for this one!

First of all, thanks to threewhales for sharing this tea with me. This is really awesome! I couldn’t believe the smell of the dry tea: very floral and sweet. After pouring water over the leaves, the honey aroma exploded and I seriously stood over my teapot enjoying the aroma for the entire steep time. This tea is a very rich, honey color, but not at all what you would expect from a black tea. My first sip made me think I was dreaming. This tea couldn’t possibly be that delicious, right?

No, actually it is that delicious and perfect. I love this tea. As others have mentioned, this tea is naturally sweet and light. The taste of orchids is present throughout the end of the sip with the honey sweetness taking over at the beginning. I love that there seems to be a texture to this tea, almost biscuit-like yet smooth. This is certainly a treat and I’m looking forward to subsequent infusions.

This tea does remind me of the Honey Orchid Phoenix oolong from Tao of Tea, but this tea from GM is MUCH, MUCH better! Wow, I just can’t believe how delicious this is!

Whoa~~I have been experimenting w/gong fu blacks, Shangs fermented white tea converted to black, yunnans, keemuns, Ruby Black, and Hawaiian Oolong….. This is the most delightful, naturally sweet black tea I have had yet. This is the first selection in the Golden Moon tea club and I am glad that I joined. Marcus of GM mentioned in the forum about GM’s renewed dedication to quality and I would say that he did not disappoint.

I received this one today from Marcus! Thanks!!!

I had to jump right in!!! First…I will say that the aroma of the dry leaves smell like a honey-buttered whole wheat bagel I often have from my local coffee shop here. YUM!

The color of the liquor after infusing is quite light for a black! WOW! It’s surprising! BUT…it’s NOT light on flavor!

I guess the honey comparison comes into play because it IS smooth like honey and it has that natural sweetness of REAL honey…not that fake stuff! I really like the smoothness of this.

There is a chewiness to this tea as well…I REALLY REALLY REALLY like that little characteristic!

I would say the Orchid/floral connection would be just as you move the sip from the front of your mouth to the back of your mouth right before it ‘goes down the trap’…so to speak! The floral notes are subtle and refreshing in a way I have never tasted before!

As this cools it seems to become juicer – I think this is an interesting touch – as well!

This tea is more complex than I was expecting and I LOVE that! Marcus wasn’t kidding when he said he’s been putting more thought and stepping up the quality and standards for Golden Moon Teas! WOW!

Another thing I noticed with this tea is that the leaves are screaming for a 2nd infusion and I am going to do just that…stay tuned…in the meantime I am LOVING this tea!!! Thanks Marcus!

Just gorgeous. I’m watching the last episode of Downton Abbey and felt that I needed something a little special to drink this morning. Still on my black kick, I pulled this one out of my treasure chest. A huge thank you to Rachel from Iheartteas.com for sending this to me. I cannot recommend her products and services enough. I love being able to try out so many different teas without purchasing full bags. Please do check out her online shop :)

Ok, back to the tea. I love honey. And, I also love orchids. So it seemed to me that this should be a good match for me, right? YES! Most definitely!

Dry, this tea is sweet and mouthwatering, and the leaves are really big. Brewed, I was quite surprised at how light coloured the liquor was. Much lighter than I had expected, especially for a black tea. I began to wonder if I messed up the water to tea ratio lol.

Once I poured it into my cup, I took another sniff – still honeyed sweetness, but also a very light floral was emanating. Very alluring! To taste, this tea is smooth and light, but still full of flavours – in fact, it is quite complex. On the tongue, I can taste the smooth honeyed notes, and then the floral makes a complementary appearance, finally completing to a smooth, sweet finish. Honestly, the whole experience is a delight! I haven’t even tried adding anything to my cup, as it is beautiful straight.

It is a decadent tea that deserves a fine bone china cup, and I’m pleased to have chosen an old Double Warrant stamped Paragaon, decked out gaily in blue and gold. I’m going to finish my pot, and I already have the Golden Moon website open to place an order for more of this fabulous tea.

Lowest rating on this one is 84 points! GOSH! This must be some pretty awesome stuff then.

I will admit, it had me at the word ‘honey’. If I sweeten my tea at all, which is rare, liquid honey is usually one of my first thoughts. Especially if the tea itself already has a natural honey note to it.

Orchid… Not so much. I don’t really do floral. I’ve found some things in which it works, but I’m quite picky about it and it tends to be a detractor for me.

So I’m left with a cup of equal parts ‘Oooh!’ and ‘Meh…’ I wonder if it’ll come out neutral, then?

I’m sorry to say it does rather. The aroma is all thick honey and delicate flowers, but the flavour is… well… to be honest, it’s a bit weak, really.

It’s sort of top-flavoured. Imagine the sip of tea being layered on the tongue. Then the bottom layer is just water, the middle honey and the top tea. And that’s it.

Thin and watery, no substance that I can find. Considering the other posts about it, I have to say I’m disappointed. And surprised. How can my experience be so different from theirs? I used plenty of leaf, probably could have steeped it longer, but again, plenty of leaf, so longer than 1 minutes steeping is almost always bound to end badly.

As it cools a bit to a more drinkable temperature and the cup develops a little, the orchid comes out more, and it’s reminding me of the floral aspect of the orange pu-erh from Chi of Tea which also has some sort of flower in it. Floral works for me in that one, and now that I’ve found it here, it also works for me here. Surprisingly, considering my troubles with the other flavours of the blend.

The honey is putting in a proper appearance here as well, and it doesn’t feel so layered anymore. Or at least, we’re down to two layers. The actual tea itself still keeps to the top layer. It feels a little less weak and thin at this point, but I’m still nowhere near the experience everybody else has had with it.

Further development sees the honey and orchid take a step back again and the tea really come out. It tastes like a Chinese or south Indian type with a wooden note and some strong cocoa as well, but then that may just be the flavouring masking the base. I didn’t really find any of these notes in the beginnin when it was so top flavoured.

I don’t know… I’m definitely not seeing the same things in this one that others were, so I suppose I’ll have to resign myself to being contrary here and providing the lowest yet amount of points for it.

I’ve had this tea for a while, but wasn’t thrilled with it the first time around. Since that first attempt, I’ve learned how to lightly brew my black teas, which has resulted in a much more favorable outcome. Case in point, Honey Orchid Black.

The dry leaves smell lightly like pepper. They’re very long and light and it’s hard to get them measured unless you have a scale. I’ve been using 3g per 6 oz. of water. 195/1 min.

Now, the tea smells lightly of tobacco. I’m not certain where that’s coming from as I expected more of a sweet floral scent as per the name. The taste is lovely. It’s lightly sweet, yes, there is a hint of tobacco in the flavor, but there’s an aftertaste of something floral. Overall, it melds together quite well and I’ve enjoyed several steeps of this one, all of them very pleasant.

First, “Thank you, Marcus” for sending me this amazing delight. I just want to say that I truly feel privileged to have been able to try this amazing tea. I can’t describe my experience exactly, it is just so unique for words, but I can say it is hearty, robust, and thick. I get a bright splash of honey flavor from the start but it is mainly in the background. It fades leaving the same bold flavor from start to finish but then on the tail a slight floral note which is actually more prevalent than the honey notes. Delicious!

Wow, this really does taste like honey and flowers, so naturally, delicately sweet—very sweet without being cloying. Honeysuckle. Reminds me of summertime as a kid, when you go outside to play and end up sucking the sweetness out of purple flowers. Lovely. Brews up a golden honey color too. Next time I might steep a little longer or use a bit more tea (couldn’t find steeping directions anywhere); this is a tad delicate for something that smells and tastes so delicious. There’s a juiciness—bursting with more honey sweetness!—at the end of the swallow I really like. Really lovely afternoon or after dinner (on the weekend!) tea. Also, the delicate beautiful nature of this tea goes really, really well with biscuits (Dutch caramel wafers or hobnob-style cookies!)—I’m noticing subtle teas pair excellently with sticky flaky sweets.

As a birthday gift, my husband signed me up for Golden Moon’s monthly tea club. I just received my first shipment, Honey Orchid. When I opened the tin, I couldn’t believe how BLACK the tea leaves were — and how large. They even have a sheen to them. They look like they are made of black silk. It’s hard to believe this isn’t a flavored tea.

I brewed some water and steeped the tea for 4 minutes (the card said 3 min. 30 sec., but I always like to go a little longer). I’m drinking it right now. I normally put a few packets of Stevia in just about everything, but this tea needs very little sweetener. For a tea with such black leaves, it doesn’t even taste like a “black” tea to me. It’s somewhere between a black and an oolong in its flavor profile. It has an almost biscuit-like, sweet note and I’m definitely getting the floral and honey flavors as well. It’s smooth and has a sweet aftertaste. Really a lovely tea – but if you’re looking for a hearty or robust black, this isn’t it. It’s kind of delicate. I’m looking forward to the next steeping already!

I got tea samples from Rachel C, that I bought through Teatrade!! I was excited to try this one since everyone has enjoyed it so far.
This is a delightful tea! As I’ve said thousands of times before, I’m not a black tea drinker, but this is yummy. I can’t believe there’s no flavoring in it =P

Dry leaves are big, thick and really black, but only a slight roasty scent. Weighed the portion because so hard to estimate such a bold, fluffy tea. First steep 3.5 min, the honey and floral are obvious in the scent, and repeated in the flavor. Second steep, 6 min, less malty, but with more body and added caramel and roasted barley sweetness. Third steep, 12 min, used less water and got a decent cup, but added a bit of dark agave syrup to round things out. A very impressive tea. I liked the sweeter, 2nd steep best, with the strong roasted flavor toned down and the caramel notes developed.

This definately has a distinct somewhat vegetal honey smell which is pleasant. It is a light black tea with a subtle honey flavor to it. I am not sure that I brewed it with hot enough water so I don’t think all the flavors came out fully. I am going to try this one again before I give it a rating.

This is simply put, the best black tea I’ve ever tasted in my few years of drinking tea. There is a great light flavor of clover honey when you drink the tea, without there actually being any honey added to the tea. There’s a light ephemeral flavor of honey on the first steeping, but with repeated steepings, the flavor of the tea noticeably gets lighter. If you prefer a strong English Breakfast type of tea, this isn’t the tea for you. If you like Earl Greys or lightly scented teas, such as Jasmines, this may be the tea for you. If you’re a honey connoisseur, you’ll want to try this tea out just to see how much of a honey flavor can be imparted from a plant itself without anything added to it.

Simply remarkable, and now I need to figure out how to stock up on this, even though it’s way more expensive than I like for a regular tea, not strongly flavored enough for a ‘special occasion’ tea, and is merely a superior tea that lightly dangles a honey-flavored carrot in front of you, taunting you to keep reaching for a bear of clover honey only to withdraw in your mouth and leave you with a pleasant black tea experience.

Highly recommended.

The reviews on this tea certainly are intriguing. I’ve brewed it now on three different days, and in the end have found it rather disappointing.

I actually don’t like the smell of the fresh leaves at all. While there is a certain honey scent to them, there is also a very sharp scent that overpowers the honey. I suppose I could describe it as floral, so the fact that I don’t like floral perfumes in general might explain my dislike for the scent. The impression that comes to my mind is someone trying to cover body odor with stinky perfume.

Once brewed, luckily it looses the sharp scent. There is a nice black tea flavor, but I have a difficult time picking up any honey. I detected a hint of honey near the back of my throat as it cooled, but it was rather fleeting (since they describe the sensation as the front of the palate, this also led me to an interesting internet search to learn that taste bud mapping is over simplified).

The second time I brewed the tea, I didn’t use enough leaves and the result was very blah watery tea. The leaves are difficult to measure (I don’t have a scale) due to their very large size. Both the first and third time, though, I used plenty of leaf. The third time around I tried adding a small amount of honey to the tea to see if it would accent the natural honey flavor, but it didn’t really add much. The tea also left a bad aftertaste in my mouth.

All in all, I’m glad to have tried the tea and can see why some might enjoy it, but I think the description from Golden Moon of honey flavor literally exploding didn’t happen for me at all. I don’t generally sweeten my tea, but I do sometimes like a hint of honey in some teas. This one was a little disappointing for me at the end.