Ancient Gold

Wow, I can’t believe that I’m the first one logging this one!

I think this tea just cemented Samovar in my mind as one of those must-order-from companies. I’m serious.

The dry leaves are beautiful and long, accented by gold tips. It’s very pretty, and looks pretty luxurious. And the smell… earthy and deep and delicious. I could stick my nose in the little container and sniff all day, and I’d be the happiest girl.

So I steeped this one up, and boy, does it brew dark. Pu-erh dark. In fact, a lot of things about this one remind me of a pu-erh, but in a wonderful, wonderful way. Almost like pu-erh and black tea made babies and out came Ancient Gold.

I had my nose stuck in the infusion almost as much as the dry leaves. It still smells deep and dark but now I’m smelling a raisin-sweet component and I’m salivating. SERIOUSLY. Salivating.

So I take the first sip, and my first thought is, “WHAT?” Another sip. “WHAT.” Again. This one is a surprise, a shocker, in a lot of ways, and so deep and complex… and WONDERFUL. My mind is all ajumble. And I keep pausing to sip this some more, because I just can’t get enough right now…

The front of the flavor is all earth. Rich, dark soil earth. Sort of like a pu-erh earth. Good, clean earth. Mmmm. Which extremely quickly gives way to malty robustness. But this is nothing like any malt I’ve ever tasted before. Normally I associate malt-type flavors with rough, rugged edges. This is almost elegant in its smoothness. Like I just plucked a street urchin off a back alley and pampered him up and presented him to the aristocracy. And it’s three years later and I can still pick him out in the crowd, but I’m SHOCKED at how different he is. Ridiculously smooth. Unlike anything I’ve ever tasted before, in my life, pretty much.

Then there’s the slow sweetness that begins to creep up, and it’s a wonderful, deep sweetness. Like molasses or raisins. More than likely raisins. It’s not really sugary, but sweet in a very dark, multi-faceted way. Not that it’s murky, but it’s a low note. Not even a cello. A bass note.

At points there’s hints of an almost peppery-Yunnan-like taste. At other points, I’m getting an almost lapsang-like smokiness. I keep concentrating with each sip, because I’m just so darned FLABBERGASTED as to how this is all going on in a cup of tea.

The weirdest thing is that I feel like I’m even tasting things with my tonsils in this tea. Yes, with my tonsils. I cannot even begin to describe this, but towards the back of my throat I’m picking out these notes of saltiness and it’s altogether bizarre. A good salty, like salted caramel (not the caramel, but that type of sweet playing with salt). And now I’m keeping my mouth open like a fish and inhaling and exhaling, trying to feel out those notes, but since I’m pretty sure I have no tastebuds on my tonsils, I doubt I’m going to be able to make anything out.

Did I mention that it’s not astringent in the least?

As the cup is cooling down, the sweetness is becoming a bit more pronounced but still very, very deep and dark. This is the tea equivalent to dark chocolate, my favorite type of chocolate.

I can’t tell you how pleasurable and sensual this tea is. I don’t want my cup to end. So savory and rich and bottomless.

Go drink it. Nowwwwww. Now. Seriously. Oh. My. Now.

This tea is amazing. As in Ahhhhh-mazzzzzzz-ing!

I ordered a sample of this tea when I placed my order for the Breville. They also included a free sample with my package, unfortunately, the seal on the sample package was broken and tea (or perhaps I should say rooibos as it was a rooibos blend that they sent me) was all over the place in the box. I wasn’t distraught about it though, because I had already tried the blend (thanks to the samovar herbal sampler deal they had some time ago), and I’m just glad that this sample was intact and unharmed.

This is quite possibly the best Yunnan I’ve yet to taste. I am getting the bittersweet cocoa notes. Smooth, deep, rich. Malty. Pleasantly sweet. Savory tones. It’s just so good. Yesterday, I was quite sad that the last of my Dawn (The Simple Leaf) was gone and I was unable to replace it – but today, I feel like I can go on without Dawn thanks to teas like this.

Awesome. Like in Ahhhhhwwwwwwe -some!

This is one seriously strong cup of tea.

The color to which it brews is a brazen reddish-bronze. Sitting on my desk in a clear glass mug, looking down into the bottom from the top, I can almost not even see through the tea…and my cup is sitting on a white napkin on top of a blonde desk.

Trying to describe this one is going to be difficult. It’s a very savory tea, but slightly bitter. I’m not talking about the sort of bitterness that comes from oversteeped black, though I’ll readily admit that after my first sip I wondered if I hadn’t overdone the amount of tea steeped or the steep time (given this one says it can go up to 5 minutes, that seemed unlikely). It’s more like the bitterness you get when you try bittersweet chocolate or high-percentage cacao dark. That bitterness connects to a very notable taste of earth and soil and, in a development that reassures me that my impending confrontation with my fear of pu-erh may not be a total disaster, I like that earthiness. It isn’t a dry earth, it’s a moist and humid and black rich earth…and fortunately, it seems to want to do little more than play foundation for the raisiny sweetness responsible for the tea’s umami deliciousness. Rolling the tea over my tongue, I’m able to get different sensations toward the back and the sides of my tongue, flashes of sweetness or bake-y malt.

There is a slight pinch at the back of the throat that hasn’t decreased as the cup has cooled, and I’m again not sure if that’s my steeping or just the briskness of the cup itself, as this is my first time sitting down with this tea, but it doesn’t seem to want to go away. Not scratchy, not completely scratchy, but pinchy. Just a bit. It’s a very strange finish to have when the flavor profile of the cup is so completely dark and smooth.

I don’t think I would have this every day, but there are certainly mornings where I want a cup of tea that seems like it could dissolve a spoon. This one qualifies. In fact, the longer I sip it, the more I feel as though…

…you know, if tea were chocolate and not tea, then this tea would be the dark chocolate to the milk chocolate of the Golden Spring that I’ve made my staple go-to black tea. They both share the raisin-sugar mouth-watering umami deliciousness, but this tea is darker, bittersweet, earthy, full-bodied, stiff and smooth and the Golden Spring is lighter, brothy, full-bodied and made for downing in mass quantities.

Not sorry that I bought this at all. Looking forward to trying it with milk and sugar for sure…something I think the Golden Spring doesn’t quite hold up to as well as this could.

Another Samovar sampler – something strong to start the day with. The leaves are mixed dark and golden, cut into medium-small pieces. They smell of spice and roastiness, and just a hint of earth or perhaps smoke. Perfect for a fall day!

After four minutes, the liquor could fool the casual onlooker into thinking it was coffee. It’s got that same dark brown, can’t see the bottom of the cup hue to it. The aroma is malty, spicy, and sweet all at the same time, which I find very promising.

The taste has an engaging mix of elements. There’s a breadiness, cinnamon at the back of the throat, and a top note which reminds me of dried cherries. I also get a little catch on each swallow as the residual bitterness (not strong, but it is there) passes down my gullet. The main flavors though for me are bread/yeast and spice. I’m out of cream at the moment so I won’t be trying it with additives, which is fine – it’s very enjoyable as is.

This is a smooth, delicious, flavorful black tea. It differs from some other Yunnans I’ve tried in that it lacks astringency and the flavor is not as “raw” and harsh as some. I’m not getting any spicy or peppery notes. It’s almost too easygoing to be a Yunnan.

There’s some kind of dark fruitiness in here that I can’t quite make out — perhaps that’s the “raisin” note others have mentioned. I do not find this malty, bread-y or biscuit-y. I’m not getting any vanilla, chocolate or pastry notes, either, or anything roasty or smoky. It’s just an excellent cup of smooth, silky black tea.

A very nice tea with a lot of depth to its flavors and fragrances. I like that it brews up very dark. It has a sweet honey taste to go with its dark cocoa and subtle earthy undertones. No bitterness, no astringency. It leaves a very pleasant dark chocolate aftertaste.

Afternoon tea brake! I’m ignoring work to try to mitigate the grump.

Oh, this smells nice. Chocolaty. I even got a whiff or two of what smells like chocolate syrup, so when I say chocolaty, I mean it. Cocoa sure, but sweeter. The dry leaf smells different though. Not so much chocolate as dried plums or maybe raisins (though not quite as thickly sweet smelling). It brews up very dark but very clear. It’s very pretty. I did catch a quick whiff of something that made me think of wet dog but now I can’t find it again (thank goodness) and instead get chocolate syrup.

It’s very smooth. A thinner body that I was expecting but not a thin taste. Earthy like a Yunnan but darker, deeper tasting. As it cools there is a bit of malty sweetness that hits me in the back of my mouth when I swallow. At the very end of each swallow, there is a hint of smokiness that just barely pokes through. Took me a while to figure out what it was, actually, but it reminds me of the sweet smoky tarry taste in Samovar’s Lapsang Souchong. Not much – anti-lapsang-ers no need to fear – just a tiny little poke to the tastebuds consisting mostly of the sweet tarry, not actually barbecue smoky. It reminds me of the pine poky I get from Rishi’s Keemun but sweeter, softer and smoother.

It’s a heavy tea even if it has a smooth feel to it. Very rich, dark tasting. I think I probably should have gone for a lighter tea today because this tea is good but I’m just not quite clicking with it. I’m rating it based on my experience right now but honestly? It’ll probably change in the future. When I’m in a rich, Yunnan-ish sort of mood, I think I’ll appreciate this more. Until then, it’s not quite love.

^3g/8oz

Backlogging…This tea is a very nice black tea, but I’m not sure I would order it in bulk.

When I first tried it, I thought it was very bitter. I waited a day and brewed it again, this time in the afternoon. I found it wasn’t bitter at all. Maybe my drowsy, morning tongue thought this was bitter, but I can’t comfortably assign that quality to this tea now.

However, it is definitely strong! You can’t call this watery. This kind of reminds me of Twining’s English Breakfast, just as Samovar’s Breakfast Blend reminded me of Twining’s Irish Breakfast.

I can taste faint cocoa notes. But there’s definitely nothing malty in this, especially when compared to Samovar’s Breakfast Blend. Now, that tea is malty!

Nor is it particularly shocking or surprising. It’s just a good, standard black tea. But lately I’ve been preferring more subtle, white teas to loud blacks.

However, I fear I’m being a little too harsh on this tea. It’s smooth, strong, and even-tempered and handles two infusions with ease. I can readily say it’s a high-quality Yunnan.

So, don’t let me deter you from trying it out. I think it’s just not my cup of tea.

Wonderful black tea and perfect in the afternoon. Not astringent. Not bitter. Unlike most breakfast blends, no milk is needed to round out any bitterness.

Typically, I prefer flavored black teas (especially dessert teas- chocolates, vanillas, melons, chocolate mint, etc.). Yet, this tea is very pleasant , malty, and intriguing without any flashy flavors. Will it become my favorite? Can I give up the glitz? Not sure as I am still working on developing a taste for non-flavored teas but this one is setting me in the right direction…..

Old Arcade Fire, nose deep in writing, and a stiff cup of tea. It’s like college again!

I got this as part of Samovar’s black tea sampler. Something happened with mine so that all the samples were smokey from the Lapsang Souchong. Everything in my sample got smokey (and Samovar had awesome customer support about it). I thought about throwing out my samples, but never got around to it. Today I decided to try the Ancient Gold. It smells more smokey than I like, and definitely has a hint of it, which I don’t like. However, the base is really good. It’s a strong cup and I get a hint of raisin. It’s good enough I want to try an untainted cup of this at some point…. I guess I’ll have to order a sample of this one!

It’s a really cold night so I’m staying in, and making another samovar sample :)

omg. This is so good. It’s light, and has a malty flavor to it. I think I’m realizing that I love yuunan leaves. This has such a great flavor to it I can’t even describe it. Such a delicious cup.

This tea is definitely a shocker. As mentioned by other reviews, the initial outlook on this tea is that of your typical black or breakfast tea. The smell is similar to others, yet it does give off that earthy/sweet profile that makes this tea a true winner. The initial flavor profile is a bit like a breakfast blend but more earthy and pu-erh like. As it cools the sweetness and balanced flavors remind me of a more reserved version of Maiden’s Ecstasy pu-erh. Very interesting, a well rounded tea.

It’s hard to write a note here after reading teaplz’s entry, because I feel like there’s nothing left to say.

Upon opening the can and smelling it for the first time, I was honestly a little shocked at how similar it smelt to a “standard” kind of tea you’d expect from a bagged tea bought at a coffee shop or something. For some reason, it reminds me much of Samovar’s Breakfast Blend. I expected a much more earthy smell than what I was presented.

But, I didn’t know what to expect from the taste so I boiled some water and steeped it and gave it a try. At first, it was what I expected. Kind of disappointingly similar to Breakfast Blend. But as I continued drinking I started to notice the different flavours coming out. I definitely can tell this is a far more complex tea than what you expect initially. I definitely can see the resemblance to pu-erh, and that’s a good thing because I like pu-erhs.

I think I might have to come back and re-rate this down the road after I’ve tried more of this tea.

Smells earthy and raisin sweet. Tastes of cocoa and sage. Not as sweet as the fragrance suggests. Mildly astringent. Liquor the color of cherry wood.

Bought a sample of this. It diffidently has a raisin sweetness to it. I did not believe the description when I first read it, but it stands true. I have been getting used to the honey, and musky undertones from other black teas. This was a surprise. I will probably order again with my next samovar shipment.