Orchid Temple

Smells stronger than it tastes. The dry leaf made me think it was TGY. Not as strong as I would like it. The leaves are huge once unfurled. I resteeped it 3 times, stood up nicely too all steeps. Last steep was the best…mmm. A good tea, just wished it was stronger.

So I got the gold moon sampler for myself as an early YAY YOUR DONE WITH FINALS present. Actually getting around to trying it now. Very light in flavor almost like a green tea. Slightly buttery. Very enticing floral smells. Taste is lacking a little.

I’ve had this across two tiny teapots, with one resteep each. It’s a decent oolong, but not as good as I was hoping for. I think maybe the name was fun enough to up my expectations, whereas if it were just “oolong” I’d probably have liked it just fine. So far, my fav from Golden Moon is the caramel one… I know I’m ordering tin of that!

Photos: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lauren_pressley/tags/orchidtempleoolong/

I am working my way through my first box from Golden Moon Tea. I thought about the sampler but there were a lot of teas I thought I wouldn’t like, so I made my own. I couldn’t resist anything with temple and orchid in the title, so here I am.

The instructions say freshly boiled, so that’s what I did. And since I just used the higher end of GMT’s range on a jasmine and it turned out bitter, I set a time for 2 minutes (range 2-3) and steeped it exactly that long.

The scent is a pretty, light floral, rather jasminey, actually, more like a very, very soft lilac. A little soapy, like another reviewer mentioned, but not unpleasantly so. Just like really good soap is lightly fragrant, not fake. It’s good cold, too. Not so amazing that I have to buy a pound of it, but it’s nice. Really nice. Might sample it again.

The leafs smell like Japanese green tea. I don’t like Japanese green tea. As the tea cools a touch I can smell the buttery quality coming over the green.
Taste… It’s not that strong for sure. I get the usual oolong taste, there is a element of the green sitting over it. So far not bad but nothing special… As the tea cools though, the green comes out stronger.

Second steep is the same as the first for me.
Oolong always grows on me, it starts at the first cup as annoying me this the similarity to green but the other elements always win me over.

So I went and got the Golden Moon sampler, and this is the first tea I’m trying from it!

The flavor is very subtle, but the taste itself is sort of odd. It doesn’t scream oolong to me, but I don’t really know exactly what it does taste like. It’s very soothing to my stomach though, making it a great choice after dinner, but the aftertaste is a little odd. Like others have mentioned, it has sort of a buttery mouth watering taste, but I’m not really liking that too much

Well, as it slowly gets a more warm temperature I’m tasting more flavors. I think I really do have a cat’s tounge! Still, it just seems like it’s lacking something.

Edit. Second & third steeps were much better. Definitely increasing the score. It’s not something I’d purchase a whole lot of… but man my body feels so much better after drinking this tea. Yay for the power of oolong!

Very floral aroma, buttery brew. Unfortunately, the floral grows and the butteriness fades quickly. Somewhat bitter afternote. Not horrible, just not as good as hoped.

Sample. Disappointed. Okay, but didn’t detect any floral notes. But after reading other reviews can see that maybe it’s because of the boiling water. Darn. Wish I could try again!

Floral, like jasmine, but not. Is this what orchids taste like? Very clean and smooth on the tongue, I like the floral mixing with the crispness of the oolong. It’s a nice assault on the senses!