White Licorice

I don’t like licorice. At all. It’s evil. Oddly enough, I don’t anticipate liking this tea. But I’m a glutton for punishment so we’ll give it a quick go.

The dry leaves smell horrid – exactly like licorice. The juice smells like someone dropped a licorice candy in my tea to dissolve. Those bastards. It’s not as strong as the dry leaf but still smells like licorice so it’s icky.

But oh my gosh. The taste is… good! What the what what? There’s a faint sweetness and a little hint of licorice but not actually licorice. Not icky licorice. A sweetness that lightly melds with the (silver needle-tasting?) white tea giving it an almost dark nectar-y, somewhat floral taste.

I’m really really shocked at how delicious this is. I don’t know if this needs to go on the ‘to buy’ list but it has potential. Sadly, I only had enough leaf for one cup but I’ll see how the resteep goes. Because this was really quite yummy!

ETA: The second steep was more licorice tasting but not in a bad way. It was more identifiable but without the cloying… stickiness that I associate with licorice. Really surprising how good this one was.

Golden Moon sample No. 4 of 31, randomly selected. Patience isn’t my strong suit and every drop I have of it goes to my small kids, so it shouldn’t be surprising that I do things like pick the next random sample even if I may not drink it right away, just so I know what it’s going to be. I was lucky tonight, I picked back to back whites — so I can get away with trying another one before I go to bed. (I hope.)

I’m guessing the same white tea is the base for this as was for the Persian Melon. Looks the same in any case — I won’t repeat the visual description here. These do have that anise/fennel smell of licorice, but it is far more mellow and earthy than I’d thought it would be. I’m finding that in flavored teas, the smell of the dry mixture is often much more intense and concentrated than the smell of the steeped tea, which I suppose makes total sense. I am visualizing a textbook style diagram showing little bubbles of aroma-containing particles wafting upward as the tea evaporates and having more and more space coming between them the farther away from the liquid they go. Here, I’m wondering how much flavor there will be in the steeped tea since the licorice fragrance in the dry leaves doesn’t seem strong enough to sustain infusion, but then, licorice is a pretty strong flavor and I should give GM the benefit of the doubt for knowing what they’re doing.

Color-wise, the liquor is very similar to the Persian Melon as well, pale golden yellow. The licorice component of the steeped tea’s aroma is mild and mellow.

Taste-wise, it is as well. It’s definitely licorice, but soft, smooth, gentle. Which is great, because if it were stronger it could get scary and become Tazo Cinnamon Spice minus the cinnamon. Where in the Persion Melon the white tea seemed to add a fermented note, here it lends more of a earthy note. Together with the anise, the earthy note brings to mind tarragon. And now all of a sudden I’m thinking of Samuel Beckett. I wish that hadn’t happened right before bed. I enjoy thinking about Samuel Beckett, so now I’ll probably want to stay up and read.

But back to this tea. As a licorice tea, this is v. nice, but do I want/need licorice tea? It’s not my favorite flavor, I never crave it. I enjoy it if I’m in the mood and it’s presented to me but I wouldn’t ordinarily seek it out. I think that sums up how I feel about this tea. Unlikely to crave it, unlikely to seek it out, but if it was presented to me most likely I’d drink it and enjoy it.

Unfortunately there isn’t tea-on-demand capability, where you can open your magic beam me up Scotty fax machine and pull out just the right amount of leaves so that you don’t have to order a #*^!load of something you’ll want only once in a while. If I had one of those, I could see requesting small samples of this from time to time.

So who is going to invent that, please?

From the looks of it, I’m one of the few people here who actually like licorice. The dry leaf smelled quite delicious. The tea smells more herb-y (as in parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme, not the horrible Lindsay Lohan movie with the talking car) than licorice-y.

This is very pleasant! The licorice doesn’t smack you in the face, so there is no need to fear this tea. Up front there is just a taste of general herb. The licorice is only a very quick note on the tail end. It leaves your tongue feeling heavy and tingly (and in my case, happy).

I could certainly see myself buying this again. It’s light enough to enjoy as a hot summer tea, but the mouth feel is curious and heavy enough to enjoy this in the winter, too.

I’m not sure how I feel about this one, which is in all probability unsurprising as I have a long, long history of disliking licorice. I suspect that this probably deserves a much better rating than I’m giving it, in fact, but I’m having trouble hopping over the mental hurdle of ‘oh no, licorice’.

I was more worried before I opened the packet than I was afterward, actually. The smell wasn’t so strong that it punched me in the face, but it was still strong enough to leave me wondering why I was going to pour hot water on top of it at all. I sort of dumped the entire packet into my glass infuser cup, and watching it brew I realized that there are a ton of twigs in this blend. It’s not a very pretty blend at all, and there are more than a few fannings drifting around the bottom of my cup right now. Assuming that’s the non-tea stuff, though.

I was pretty gratified to find that the tea, once brewed, stayed soft and unassuming on the licorice front. The taste of the white tea — which brews to a pretty silvery-gold — reminds me of the silver needle I have from Adagio. Every sip has a little bit of licorice, but it’s…very mellow, and reminds me more of the background note of licorice you can sometimes get from bagged ‘medicinal’ teas, like the Yogi teas, for instance…it’s drinkable even for someone who viscerally rejects the strong scent of licorice. It does create a sort of weird feeling on my tongue and soft palate, though; not numbness, per se, and not a coolness like mint, but something that makes me think of both of those things on a much smaller scale.

I confess that I’m sort of baffled as to where to rate this. The rating should probably be considered very soft.

Sadly, there’s not any better place for this, so I’m just going to write about it here.
This cup is so win: http://www.teavana.com/Tea-Products/Tea-Cups-Mugs/Glass-Tea-Cups/Yves-Glass-Tea-Infuser-Mug.axd
There are only two points of potential annoyance: the first is that stuff sometimes gets stuck in the little glass vents. I find that a toothbrush and about a second-and-a-half of effort are enough to take care of that…I never spend any time standing around struggling to get them cleared out. The second is that occasionally you have to pause your pour to allow the water to vent through when the tea is small enough to clump against said vents, but again…10 extra seconds doesn’t really bother me. Your mileage may vary. I use this thing constantly. I definitely use it more often than my iron teapot; almost every cup of tea I make is a new flavor, so I feel like there’s less fussing, and it means I get to see the tea brew…and they get nearly the whole cup to unfurl in. The lid that comes with it flips over to make a pretty good infuser-saucer between steeps. Plus, it’s all glass, so it doesn’t retain any smells or flavors and I don’t have to worry about chemicals leeching out of plastic bits into my hot water. Not a bad deal for 15 bucks. I like it so much that I ordered two more.

True, it ain’t no sorapot (where the heck is my sorapot, btw? It still hasn’t come in!), but for 16 oz. of tea brewed for a steep-voyeurist and a minimum of effort it’s a good choice.

I AM BACK — WITH A VENGEANCE, STEEPSTERITES!
(Read: my life is finally basically under control. Ish.)

Full disclosure: I abhor licorice. When I opened the tin sampler, and smelt (through my already-unable-to-smell sick nose) a punch of herbs and licorice, I felt a little nauseous and considered opening another pack. But to my pleasant surprise, this tea is delightful — almost flower nectar sweet, and very light! The coloring is very pale, and the tea is soothingly smooth, like butter. Definitely more grassy than I anticipated, but I’m thankful the licorice taste isn’t overpowering, for one.

If this is the worst tea Golden Moon has in its sampler, I’m in for a treat! Definitely could see ordering this again for myself or for my mum, who loves peppermint tea. To be honest, I’d rather just hold it in my mouth than swallow it. This leaves my mouth a little dry, but there’s no bitterness. (Now now, no dirty jokes, kids.)

At my age one should not stay up all night. Yep my pulling all nighter days are long over on Wednesday night (technically Thursday morning) I woke up to the saddest dog crying ever and I had to sit up with him all night or he would start up crying again. So imagine this its about 3:00 am and me and my neapolitan mastiff (about 200lb) dog are sitting on my bedroom floor (well he was laying) with his head in my lap and he is in a weird miserable position I’ve never seen him in sorta tangled looking. He’s crying and I’m crying I mean he is my BEST FRIEND EVER and I can’t stand to see him in misery. I sit there and comfort him thinking about when the vet my open and if he will make it until then and lo and behold he is pulling through (Thank you God).

Anyway on to the tasting note I just had to let you all know where I’ve been the past couple days and what I’ve been going through if you’ve ever loved an animal you completely understand I’m sure. On to this tasting note I needed something soft and comforting and I thought why not go with this white licorice so here we sit me and the white licorice tea and all I can smell in the dry leaf is star anise which doesn’t remind me of licorice but pizza yes I said pizza when I was in H.S. I would rush home from school to eat and most times the easiest thing would be to throw a totino’s party pizza in the oven and wait well the sausage pizza had star anise so I’m thinking that’s why I think of pizza.

While I’m not tasting much of the white tea I do somehow know it’s there but mostly I’m getting the pizza star anise flavor and I don’t know that I like that in my tea. No I do know I DO NOT like that pizza spice in my tea. If you like star anise you probably would enjoy this tea unfortunately I do not.

P.S. Thank you to all of you who have been sending me your heartfelt wishes for Massimo I appreciate you all.

Oh my god Golden Moon, I think I’m in love with you.

Honestly, I popped this one open because I figured I’d HATE it. But I really, really wanted another cup of tea, and I wanted something white. I really, really dislike the taste of licorice. But anise is mildly better (they do taste different!). Still, I smelled the tea and shook my head. There it was. The scent.

I probably used about a teaspoon and a half of this stuff, and there’s about that much left in the little sample. These leaves pretty much look like… leaves. There are brown stems and green buds and it’s all very pretty, if not a bit rustic.

The resulting jus de tea was very pale in color, a pretty beige. I took a hesitant sniff. More anise. And then I braced myself, grimacing, and took the first sip.

Oh. My God. This actually tastes good. No, it tastes delicious! I’m actually pleasantly surprised. No, rather, I’m really shocked. The anise lends a very delicate flavor to the white tea, but doesn’t overwhelm it in the slightest. In fact, it almost tastes “scented,” which I know makes absolutely no sense, but it does to me! There’s the absolutely WONDERFUL sweet-nectar-white taste that envelops your mouth, and the anise almost makes the blend soft and warm. The tastes linger on your tongue in perfect harmony and complexity.

I don’t really know much about tea, but from what I’ve tasted so far, Golden Moon really knows how to blend their stuff. You can taste the individual components, yet at the same time, they meld together to create a unique and wonderful sensory experience. I’m just amazed. I would definitely have this again, no questions asked!

I can’t quite place the taste in this that isn’t licorice….It totally reminds me of something…hay? It’s not bad but I won’t be sad that I can’t make more. I gave my daughter a taste and her words were “mmmm hot water”. I measured not quite 2 teaspoons and used the whole thing with 6 oz. water. By the way, although I don’t necessarily love licorice. the black jelly bellies are my favorite so I thought I’d like this more than I do.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #6, selected at random

I was glad that I picked this out rather early in the evening. I would have tossed back a very robust tea into the “ocean” of the basket.

I don’t hate licorice, but I’m not a huge fan. I found this tea more pleasant than anticipated, but I don’t think I would feel a need to keep it in stock. If I knew a big licorice lover, it might make a superb gift.

Pleasant and light, the anise flavour shone through but was not overwhelming. It was a great one-note white tea.

From http://www.itsallabouttheleaf.com/2383/tea-review-golden-moon-tea-white-licorice/ – It’s all About the Leaf

There are over 5 million ways to divide the world into two groups. Licorice is definitely one of them. People either adore black licorice or hate it. I personally fall into the “love it” camp – unless it’s salt licorice. Because it’s just.. odd. Blea.

There are a few ways to get licorice-like flavors. There is the traditional licorice root, but anise, star anise, and fennel all contain similar flavoring agents. All these plants contain the chemical compound anethole which provides that signature flavor. And while all are similar, there are subtle differences. Licorice root is sweeter, anise is more aromatic, fennel is milder, and star anise has a bit of a bite.

This tea uses star anise to get it’s licorice flavor. On first sniff, the leaf smells very much like standard licorice. But once it started to brew, the notes of star anise come out much more strongly. It develops into a very light yellow brew – likely due to the white tea. On first sip, the licorice is very mellow, soft. Almost more plant-y than standard licorice. The hay-like features of the white tea blend well with the plant-y features of the star anise to merge together into a nice mellow cup.

Of all the various plant anethole-delivery systems, star anise is my least favorite. I don’t like the small, strange bite it delivers. I like all the others (I even have this amazing bread dip recipe that uses fennel*) much more, but even with this mark against it, this tea does not disappoint. It’s mellow, smooth, and yummy. Because it’s not so strongly licorice-y, even those who fall into the camp of licorice hater may like this tea. Good blend.

special bonus recipe!

*G’s amazing bread dip
1 tsp fennel seed
1 tsp white pepper
1 tsp salt
4-5 turns of fresh ground black pepper
1 tsp chopped garlic
Olive Oil

Take the first four ingredients, grind in a spice grinder until they’re a fine powder. Blend with the chopped garlic in a mortar and pestle until you get a nice paste. Blop the paste into the center of a shallow bowl or deep plate. Pour olive oil over the paste, stir slightly. Serve with fresh bread. And drink with strong tea – because any other type will be overpowered by the dip.

Golden Moon Sampler Tea #26
Like…well several other people, I am not a huge fan of licorice, so this was not a tea that I was looking forward to. The tea itself has giant honking pieces of star anise in it, and smells VERY strongly of licorice. Not reassuring! Proximity-to-slow-cooker induced sauerkraut smell would actually be an improvement.

The first cup (the shortest steeping), however, was pleasantly not licorice/anisey at all. So that was nice. Subsequent cups and cooling have let the anise taste come out. Nope! Still not a fan. There’s just something about the taste of anise that makes me think of plastic. I don’t want to be thinking of plastic while drinking tea!

Objectively speaking however, the flavors are very nicely balanced. White tea is, after all, very delicate and if you like anise or are at least indifferent to it, I could see the flavors complementing each other quite well. Still, (obviously I’m biased, but) I think the melon + white tea combo works better, simply because melon is a pretty delicate flavor to begin with, whereas you have to be careful with anise. Although apparently not THAT careful given how huge the pieces in my sample were.

Also this tea cooled really fast. I have GOT to get that tea cozy made.

Yummy flavor. I followed the label instructions and got a very light golden tea. Nice anise flavor, especially lightly sweetened with some agave nectar. The second infusion was very good as well.

I was hoping that this could replace my licorice without having the same worries about blood pressure, etc, so I googled start anise side effects. Did you know there are two types of star anise? There is a Chinese star anise, which is used as a flavoring, and a Japanese star anise, which is used solely for decoration. The Japanese star anise is deadly. AND you can’t tell which one you have by looking at the dried seed pods. The FDA issued an advisory against consuming teas containing star anise in 2003. Chinese star anise is also used in the manufactor of tamiflu. All very interesting stuff. It tastes good enough that I’ll ignore that FDA advisory.

Oddly…this dry leaf mix reminds me of brand new denim jeans and a bit of flowers…maybe sun dried. Yeah…I know…I wasn’t expecting that either!

Anyhow…As I sniff the aroma coming from the cup of infusing tea I smell a fresh breezy type floral scent with the licorice starting to come thru. The longer I steep the more wood-type smell I get so I will stop between 2.5 and 3 mins. The wet leaves outside of the liquid smell more earthy…grassy-almost, but not quite.

The liquid is an average white tea looking brew.

The taste is light and alittle sweet. Floral tasting at first but then sweeter at the end. If you inhale and sip at the same time you can smell the star anise and on the exhale and end of sip more the licorice but not much. I’m very pleased with the way the licorice turned out in this blend…it’s just enough!

CHEERS!

I love licorice. But I’m pretty sceptical of licorice in tea, because it tends to coat my tongue in a really unpleasant, icky way. Pre-steep, these dry leaves smell like licorice and tea, instead of just licorice. In fact, the licorice was pretty subtle. It came out more post-steep, but still wasn’t really strong.

If you’re kind of on the fence about licorice, you might like this one. The tea has a pretty balanced flavour, and it does a respectable job of not coating your tongue in that icky way. I think I would’ve liked it more with a touch of sugar, but I’m trying to wean myself off sugar/sweeteners (sadpanda), so I left it out. To its credit, I can actually drink this one without sugar; normally, I can’t tolerate more than a few sips of unsweetened tea.

I don’t like licorice. However, out of all teas with licorice I’ve tried so far this one is best by far. Really goes well with white tea flavour. I hate it for example when they make a chocolate flavoured tea then put in licorice. Then I just get that scent of artificial sweetness out of the licorice. But his combo when the tea is all about licorice flavour is really much better.
I don’t hate licorice anymore :) I just hate it sometimes now. Kinda like jasmine. At this very moment while drinking this white licorice tea I’m enjoying licorice. Never thought I’d say that ;) Yep yep licorice ain’t all that bad…

I had a cup of this tonight and it was like candy! Perhaps that’s because of the sugar I added. Really, it smelled just like anise to me, and tasted like licorice tea. It also was really pretty while steeping. I recommend this, while listening to Jump, Little Children.

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

I think licorice is an acquired taste. I know, as a kid, I thought licorice tasted totally gross. :P

But now, as an adult, the taste is growing on me—as if my palate is growing ever more “sophisticated” with age. :) I can now appreciate—and even find delicious—the flavors I used to detest—like liver, mushrooms, olives and dry red wine.

This smells strongly and sharply of licorice—of pure anise. Reminds me of the tea version of ouzo. But the flavor is more “pillowy” and soft and nicely sweet. It pairs really well with the white tea!

The tea itself tastes almost veggie-esque and “brothy”—like cauliflower and potatoes (and I mean this in a good way :) ).

Suprisingly yummy overall. It may even convert licorice-shunners. ;)

Wow, I did not expect to like this tea, as I’m not a licorice fan, but this is different. First, all the flavors are muted and subtle. The tea is smooth, no green grassiness. The anise provides a hint of woodiness and a hint of licorice. Something is providing a bit of a sweetness. Overall, this is a good departure from my usual fare. I don’t know that I’d go order a bunch, but having an ounce or two on hand would be nice.

Yay, back home and back to sampling real teas!

I pulled this one out to start with something that has the potential to show how a gentle white tea can be married up with a flavor that could easily overpower it. I opened up the packet and got a strong whiff of licorice/anise, which though I’m not crazy about it, I do like it enough to find appealing. Also a little worried though, because I know how strong licorice can get (for some reason I got addicted to the really salty licorice they have in Sweden on a trip there last year, and kept popping the little lozenges all day).

I think they’ve done a good job of balancing the flavors here. I taste the white tea, and I taste the licorice, and they are amicably shaking hands. Neither is shoving the other out of the way to grab the spotlight. The licorice does a better job of leaving an aftertaste, but it’s not overpowering at all, just a light and lingering sweetness. Nice one.

Another Golden Moon sampler (I’m trying to work my way through the pack). Great licorice aroma from the dry leaves, but it is a little strong. The licorice mellows out in the first brew and actually balances out quite nicely with the white tea. I’m a sucker for licorice, but I don’t know if this could be an everyday brew for me. Too much of a good thing, you know? But I’m pleased with this. Very nice.