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From high in China’s Fujian province comes this great black tea. It has large black leaves with gold woven in. It produces a ‘round’ cup of tea with a nice level of complexity including honey notes.
Favorite of all time! (Have I given that title to another already?) Worth the price of admission. Wonderful black tea, adaptable, smooth, and so delicious.
Delicious
OK so to add a few more tasting notes, this tea is very well rounded and sweet with very little astringency. It is also quite light, but also has complex flavors. I like how this is a full leaf tea (the two leaves are attached after being brewed). Very high quality. If you are looking for something assertive, this may not be your cup of tea. : )
This tea has me confused! I think I like it. I liked trying it. But it isn’t at all what I expected.
I was trying to find a substitute for A Southern Season’s Super China Black Zhen Quo which is as smooth and mellow as a Ceylon, rich and full-bodied without being strong. Golden Monkey comes from the same general area, the Fujian province of China, Wuyi mountain region. The appearance was very similar, but Zhen Quo has a lot of fuzzy golden buds, the fuzziest I have ever seen.
I expected Golden Monkey to be very similar in taste, but it is VERY different. I expected a honey taste from the other reviews I have seen, but I didn’t expect a strong clover honey aroma and taste without sweetness. That isn’t bad, just unexpected. The tea changes as its temperature changes as well.
If you smell the wet leaves, you will note the honey aroma, almost a caramel scent, and the barest hint of smoke. As the tea in the cup cools, you can taste the smoke, but only a little.
I will have to say this is a complex and interesting tea with a lot of personality, but not the smooth and soothing cup to cradle when I need to de-stress that I was expecting. My friend who tasted it with me liked it and felt that it grew more and more like the Zhen Quo in flavor as it cooled. It is worth a try. If you love oolongs, I think this is a black tea you would love.
I think when I make this one again I will use a slightly lower water temperature, as this tea seems to delicate for a full boil.
Golden Monkey is a fabulous tea, and this one from Harney and Sons is far superior to the Teavana version to me. This particular year’s harvest was especially rich, full bodied, and dark. Last year it was a wee bit lighter because of the drought, I am told.
My guest said she thought there was almost a molasses taste or something similar. I think of it more as malt and rich, chewy raisins. The tea was paired with apple dumplings from that easy peasy pinterest recipe that has been going around, and it was delicious!
For the apple dumplings, just spoon either Comstock Apple Pie Filling or Stouffers escalloped appled onto a Pillsbury crescent roll, sprinkle liberally with cinnamon (I used Vietnamese), roll up tightly so the juice doesn’t leak out, bake for 12-15 minutes, and serve while warm, drizzled with Hershey’s caramel sauce. Yums!
This was the final tea for tea party yesterday. I can’t wait to open the new tin and see how the newer harvest compares to this one!
Jacqueline requested pics of the dingo and pups. I hope I did this right!
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Youngest and I are having rat lunch, which Jacqueline and a few others will know is grilled cheese sandwich with tea. We are supplementing with fresh cherries, blueberries, and peaches, as well as some new cheese for youngest to try. I have been trying to get her to try REAL parmesan for a while now, and today was the day. She loved it!
Accompanying it all is Golden Monkey, one of our favorite in the whole wide world teas. I am taking mine plain and enjoying the honeyed-caramel sweetness, while youngest is taking it with milk and sugar for a more breakfast tea type of treat.
Just inhaling the aroma of this tea is a treat for me. I think my eyes roll back in my head a little when I do, for sheer ecstasy.
Excellent, as always! Mike Harney just posted that he is on his way to India and China to buy tea, and I reminded him to be sure to pick up some Golden Monkey. This one stays sold out because it is so popular, and for good reason. The honeyed sweetness and rich body combined with its incredible smoothness are hard to beat.
Tea party today was extra special, celebrating the end of my radiation treatments. We had homemade three layer chocolate cake, Hershey pie, and fresh local strawberries sliced and sprinkled with sugar around lunchtime to sweeten until tea time! We chose Golden Monkey, Vanilla Comoro, and Irish Breakfast as our teas for today. Golden Monkey always wins when we ask which was the favorite!
I have purchased this tea three times, each time from a different harvest and each time from Harney and Sons. And each tin has been ever so slightly different. I guess this tea is especially sensitive to environmental changes. Every tin has been really good tea, but this third one has been phenomenal.
This was the last tea we drank today and it stopped me in my tracks. After the first sip I just about swooned. It was that good. This batch seems richer, more honeyed, more…molasses and raisins? I am glad they held out for really good tea instead of buying what was readily available.
Rat lunch with Golden Monkey today! I was so glad to hear the kettle whistle as I finished my ironing and youngest made lunch. I am not the biggest fan of ironing, though I did have a good, bebop-ing playlist on to make it a tad more palatable. Dessert was Bissingers Chocolates.
After tea time, our teacups began to rattle, the chandelier swung a little, and the mirror on the wall shook. Our first earthquake! You really notice it in a house full of teacups! LOL!
We are so accustomed to the artillery at Fort Bragg shaking the ground for miles around, that it took us a bit to realize something different was happening!
I wasn’t going to review this one again, but tonight I decided to do something different. I didn’t really have anything I wanted to drink with supper and a good bit of this was still left in the tetsubin. I put a little sugar in a tall glass, poured some of the still hot tea over it, stirred, and put in a bit of ice. Delicious! These leaves went a long way. I had steeped, then resteeped and added that to the tetsubin, and some of it was left from yesterday. The tea still had plenty of strength.
Complexity doesn’t begin to describe this cup of tea! Before it reaches my lips, the aroma is intoxicating. Sweet, smooth, caramel, honey, golden goodness, call it what you will – this is one of the best teas I have EVER had. And this one is the most golden-sweet honeyed one of all that I have tried.
Our final tea for tea party today was Golden Monkey. We serve this one at least half the time because it is guaranteed to be a great pot of tea. I am nearly out of my second tin of tis, and I am rather excited to open the new one to see if there is a big difference in the two harvests.
One of the tea party teas today – it has become a requisite. We may have others we taste and sample, but this one is almost always on the table now because EVERYONE loves it. I actually gasped today when I took my first sip. It was that good. We were having Pepperidge Farm Sanibel Snickerdoodle cookies and something about the combination was magical. We had homemade blueberry scones with whipped cream as well. Ah, what a tea time today! I needed the distraction, because tomorrow is the appointment where I get the news on whether I have to have any more surgery or chemo….
Whenever I go a little while without making Golden Monkey, I am always delighted and surprised when I lift my cup to my lips and I smell that incredibly rich and caramel aroma. Hints of chocolate, hints of fruit, a deluge of honey notes….exquisite tea.
This cup of Golden Monkey is from the new season’s batch. I am going to try to pay attention and do a more thorough review! First, it still has that wonderful, full bodied aroma with honey notes, but when it was piping hot I picked up something I don’t remember from last year’s crop. When I inhale deeply there is a high, light citrus note, like lemon in tea. Could this be the green apple note that you mentioned in the Upton GM, Jacqueline? And was it there in the old one and I didn’t notice? Perhaps it is because this is leftover tea that we are reheating, or perhaps how it was made yesterday, but I do think the body is lighter. It used to seem almost thick and syrupy to me, but this is perhaps a little thinner than before. Youngest loves GM, but she adds milk and sugar. She thought it tasted the same, but said it is possible that it has less honey sweetness. We will brew another pot and try again, making sure we have plenty of leaves, though we used the same amount as usual last time. It is definitely still more full-bodied than GM from Teavana, which I like a lot as a milk and sugar breakfast tea.
So good, so full bodied, so smooth, so rich and caramel/honey flavored that it makes me sigh a little every time I have it. Yum.
This was the second tea for the tea party/tasting today. As always, I am stunned by how rich and caramel-y this is – it actually SMELLS thick in the cup! It was delicious, as always!
A “favorite, absolutely can’t run out of this one” tea.
This is it – the best, the ultimate tea for tea party day. We make it every week now because it is the favorite. Rich, smooth, full, caramel-y flavor. WE LOVE THE MONKEY! Thank you, JacquelineM, for replenishing my tin! Hopefully Harney will get some more and then there will be a one pound bag on the way to my house!
We must have this tea in our cupboard. Always always always. This one is at the tea party every week now because we all love it so much, so even if one of the other teas isn’t a hit we know we will be oooo-ing and ah-ing over this one! Golden, sweet, and caramel – it can’t be beat.
Two steeps of this today – the second is surprisingly good. There are few teas I really like on the resteep, but some of the best teas take it very well. This was a tea party tea, and today we were joined by an 8 year old boy! He liked it very well. Amazing mom exposing her kids to good tea from a very young age! This went with freshly made bread and blackberry jam, and marshmallow snowmen covered in chocolate!
So so good! This tea is rich, full-bodied, sweet, and honeyed like no other. What a fabulous tea! Even my guests drank it sans additions today, and they are sugar and milk people. I love my Golden Monkey so much. Can’t run out of this one – must get more on the next order!
I haven’t had this one in a while….still as rich and lovely as ever!
We had tea on the patio this morning to enjoy the early spring warmth and sunshine, though it was still a wee bit chilly. This was my pot of choice while hubby had Kenilworth Ceylon OP, but we each had one cup of the other one’s tea!
I would be distraught that I used that VERY LAST OF MY LEAVES of this most beloved tea in the house, except last week I discovered that I had filled a tiny tin with about one and a half ounces to get me by until Harney restocks…..Make it soon, Mike! Make it soon!
I think this must be the best Golden Monkey in the entire world. Anyone who knows of a better one is more than welcome to send it to me and I will try it, but this tea makes me weak in the knees every time I see it, just like my hubby. (heehee! YW, sweetie!) Golden, caramel-y, rich mouth feel, seductive aroma. Perfection. Sigh.
Our most dearly loved tea party tea – caramel, honey, smooth, rich, LOVE!
I forgot I had drained my cup of Kenilworth Garden OP and had refilled it with this! I lifted the cup to my lips, sipped, and went, “Aaaaaaahhhhhh! That is so good!” Of course it is! It is Harney’s Golden Monkey! The best Golden Monkey I have EVER had!
It is a gray and rainy day here in Eastern North Carolina, though not cold. Still – some comfort food was in order. We baked a loaf of fresh whole wheat bread (made from freshly ground wheat!) and set out jams, butter, and apple butter from the NC mountains. Ah yes! My Golden dear did not let me down! Two cups made the afternoon pass smoothly with the rich honeyed taste, light and delicate flavor, and caramel-y mouth feel. Ahhhhh…..
Tea party day! This was exquisite, as always. Rich, round, full, sweet – this is the best tea ever!
This tea is FANTASTIC without milk or sugar! One of the few that I can drink that way and really enjoy it.
Sold out again? How can it be! Alas! I am glad I have a little bit left but this is getting serious, people! This is such a favorite that it HAS to be served at Wednesday tea party every week! I resteeped this week, too, and we drank a second pot of it. Delicious, round, satisfying, naturally sweet, full-bodied yet golden caramel flavor. I am on pins and needles waiting for them to get some more….I will be ordering a pound so we won’t have a tea emergency anyway time soon…
We have to have this one at tea party every week. We are more than willing to try new things, and would be disappointed if we didn’t have something new to sample, but we MUST have our monkey! This is quite simply the best, most premium unflavored black tea I have tasted. Rich, golden, caramel-y, honeyed, – tea just doesn’t get any better than this.
I must be growing up! I tried this one again today, and I really liked it. I was bothered the first two times by the fact that I smelled honey so strongly but didn’t taste honey. Maybe I am using less and less sugar, maybe I am appreciating the tea more, but I drank this today with no sugar at all and found it quite good. I had just had two cups of pu-erh, also without sugar, so maybe that helped. Before, I drank it on the heels of flavored, sweetened tea. The bottom line – my friend said it was one of her favorites EVER that I have given her (she takes everything with no sugar!) and I really enjoyed it.
Delicious plain, as always!
Delicious, of course.
Starting the morning at the shop with a warm, creamy and sweet cup of some of Fujian’s tastiest tea. The toastiness is a great way to jump start the day.
A little honey and caramel twist without the brisk so put this tea on your list or you’ll miss a moment of bliss.
Golden Monkey is a magnificent Chinese black tea. Its aromas are lightly sweet, with hints of apricots, nuts, and a mild rose background note. Its body is light and its flavors are a blend of cooked stone fruit, specifically baked apricots, and semisweet chocolate. Its finish is nutty, with flavors of raw pecans.
Golden Monkey is a relatively new Chinese export that has recently grown quite popular in the United States and Europe, where its apricot aromas and chocolate flavors are highly appreciated.
A blend of cooked stone fruits such as baked apriots, and the dry but slight sugariness of semisweet chocolate. It has a mellow, nutty finish of raw pecans. For a tea developed less than two decades ago, it’s developed a very large following, with good reason!
Golden Monkey is a tippy tea, which means that its leaves are a mixture of 75% dark brown leaves and about 25% golden tips and buds. Its aromas are light and sweet, with hints of apricot, nut, and a subtle touch of rose. The flavor of this delightful tea is that of cooked stone fruit, specifically baked apricots, and semisweet chocolate, with a nutty finish.
This is a fairly new Chinese export, which has attracted an almost “cult-like” following amongst tea drinkers. Unlike other Chinese teas, the name Golden Monkey literally has no meaning. However, the word “monkey” is meant to suggest high-quality.
Golden Monkey comes from the norther Fujian province in China and is processed similarly to Panyong Congou. The tea is harvested when the tips are as large as possible, without having developed into whole leaves. The tips are sweet, as the extra sugars are meant to help the bud grow into a full leaf. With more tips, the tea is sweeter but has less body.
The new crop of this fantastic Fujian tea is now available. Bright and springy with rich notes of caramel, this smooth brew doesn’t need milk or sugar.
-RA
Our tea of the moment is a nice full bodied, sweet, malty brew of Fujian’s Golden Monkey. Perfect tea to hold in a cup and keep you war mon this brisk New Egnland day.
