Golden Monkey

Earthy, smooth, different but quite good.

Malty with notes of bread, yams, raisins, and a hint of tobacco leaf, this black tea is delicious. (For beer lovers, the flavor reminds me of a Belgian Quad or Strong Dark.) Adding a bit of sugar enhances the fruit flavors. It’s my first Golden Monkey but definitely not my last.

I don’t detect any fruit notes, but a very clear taste of toasted almonds. Quite pleasant.

Chocolate, malt, baked bread, nice body. Would be knocked out of the park if it didn’t also have a perfumey note that almost reminds me of bergamot.

This was from a sample kindly sent to me by another steepster to aid in my quest to find black teas that I wouldn’t need to add sweetener to.

This one was not at all astringent but the level of tannin still sent me to the sugar bowl. Still, the tea was delicious and got me going this morning!

I’m not eating gluten as for the moment so perhaps my sense of taste has gone awry, but I swear this tastes like a fresh-from-the-oven loaf of brioche or challah with yam and cinnamon notes. But definitely sweet, warm, yeasty bread.

Another thank you Nicole sample.

Interestingly, when I inhaled the dry leaf aroma, it reminded me of… beer(!?) in that malty, yeasty way. Not overpowering bad but a tickling of the nose which awoke the memory sensors in my brain that are linked to that smell. Odd enough. But it wasn’t off putting. More intriguing.

The liquor brews up a deep golden honeycomb color. The flavor on the tongue is beer. Haha jk. It is more of a malty goodness naturally kissed by honey… with something else. A bready depth to it. I like it. Very sippable with no bitterness whatsoever.

I got up today at 5 and ran out the door to head out apartment hunting again so I didn’t get a chance to do a sipdown today but as the day wound down I stopped by Harney’s and picked up a cup of Golden Monkey for the train ride home (spoiler alert: I finished it well before I got on the train.)

I don’t want to rate this just yet because it was definitely oversteeped. The flavor was bitter and tannic over the usually malty flavor. It was really a let down because I wanted to give Golden Monkey a fair shot before I picked up a larger amount of it but it seems like I’ll have to pick up a sample when I order online again because they seem to set their timers too long for steeping :( (My friend also had that problem with the White tea she got, so it definitely wasn’t a normal property of the tea :/)

slb2221 kindly sent along a sample of this one in our recent swap! I don’t think I’d pay $8/ounce for it, as I’ve had plenty of black teas that were just as good and cost a lot less (such as TeaSource’s Black Mao Feng). But cost aside, this is a very enjoyable black tea! It’s super smooth with no bitterness or astringency and lots of rich, sweet flavor. I’m picking up malt and sweet potato and maybe just a touch of honey on the first steep. Guessing this will also re-steep well!

Another from kimquat thank you! i’m lad i finally got the chance to try this one. it’s a great malty, sweet, smooth tea. I am a fan of a lot of H&S straight blacks it seems.