Golden Needle King

Took me a moment to find this here on steepster because my sample package says “Golden Needle Red Tea” not Golden Needle King – but the description is the same so I will log it here:

Well I steeped this completely wrong – forgot to let water cool one minute as package says to do. Got into a convo with hubby and just absent mindedly poured the boiling water over the leaves. Uggg I expected problems in the flavor from this.
In a panic I added a little extra cool water – I guess thinking to bring the temp down slightly. Then I realized what I had done and was just like Ugggggggg whatever – it was my only sample I had to drink it. To waste a precious tea from Shang would be a sin…a SIN I tell you!
So anyway guess what – quality tea can take a beating! This was still fabulous!
The smell was malty and of cocoa. The taste was of molasses, malt, chocolate, and hay.
The hay and molasses combination reminded me of sorghum I think. It brought back memories of when I trained hoses and had a couple of my own. That sticky sweet grain we fed the horses in fall and winter. I have not been reminded of that aroma for years and years. It brought back nice memories and made me miss those days. How I love the smell of hay and sweet grain, and horses. Okay before I turn everyone off to this tea the main flavors and aromas are that of malt, chocolate, and molasses, not horses, or hay, but there is something about this tea that makes me want to go to the country and jump on a horse!
This tea also provided a slight albeit very slight cinnamon sparkling sensation on the tongue.
I found this tea quite filling – almost like a dietary supplement may fill your tummy up except this was far more filling and far more enjoyable than those things!
Second and third steeps were also quite excellent but it was getting late and I laid the leaves out for morning – ended up not re-steeping well the next day (today) but I probably ruined a forth steep by over heating the water the first time around.
Shang has THE best teas in my opinion among maybe 5 other tea companies. Love this stuff!

Wombatgirl sent me this one in our last swap and I’ve been sort of saving it a bit. The sample came in this nice little golden bag, see, which made me feel like it ought to be saved for some kind of celebrating occasion.

And now I’ve got one! NaNoWriMo progress: 50,277 words. Ten days to spare. 1½ scene to go and I’ll have a finished first draft as well. And thus I have bragged about that, and can go back to the tea.

I put the leaves straight into my little pot, so I forgot to smell the dry leaf first, but the aroma of the steeped brew is really nice. It’s got a heavy sort of bottom note to it with some semi-fruity spicy notes to it. I wonder if this is what people are talking about when they say figs and dates? I don’t eat (or like) either, so I wouldn’t really know. I do like that note in tea, though. (I was concentrating so hard on working out the aroma here, that I actually managed to accidentally dip my nose in it…) I’m picking up a hint of cocoa and a wee bit of smoke too, but I’m not sure if it’s contamination from the Tan Yang Te Ji (♥) that I had earlier.

No, that is definitely NOT contamination. The wee bit of smoke probably is, but not the cocoa. SO not the cocoa. There is a very distinct cocoa note here and there’s some caramel as well on the finish and the aftertaste.

It actually does remind me a little of the aforementioned Tan Yang. It’s not as aggressive and as heavy as the Tan Yang, it’s more like a Tan Yang Light, but it’s got several of the same key elements.

At the very beginning of the sip there is the cocoa and underneath that a body of the fruity-spicy note that formed most of the aroma as well, and then on the finish there’s a heavy caramel.

This is absolutely gorgeous, and I’m lucky because Wombatgirl actually sent me TWO samples of this one. I shall save the other one for a special occasion I think.

It’s a sad state of affairs when one’s crazy work life prevents one from trying new teas. It is an absolute tragedy that my abbreviated routine prevented me from trying this wonderful tea for more than a month. Wombatgirl is right. This is an excellent substitute for Dawn tea. One sip this morning and I was delighting in the sweetness and notes of cocoa and caramel.

After the second sip I ran to the kitchen to get the package so that I could immediately order a quantity of it from Shang Tea. If there is anything the Dawn tea debacle convinced me of it is that the right time to lose oneself in tea is the present moment and the right time to buy a tea one loves is immediately lest they run out or go out of business.

It is quite, quite good. I’m so very glad my life slowed down enough for me to try it.

This is the second red tea I’ve had in the last week (the other one was at Taste SF – a local tea place) and I’ve discovered I like them!

This steeps up to be a beautiful reddish-brown and it has a cocoa and cinnamon aroma. I am very intrigued by it since it is made of fermented white tea leaves. It definitely has a smooth and delicate quality but it also a bit malty and chocolate-y, slightly fruity. Reminds me a bit of a golden yunnan… also resteeps well

On a side note I discovered my new $20 Bodum tea for one set is made out of plastic and not glass, and I really don’t like the way tea tastes in plastic… boo

Loose
Appearance: crinkle, curly bicolor, deep black leaf
Aroma when Dry: salty, vegital
After water is first poured: intensely floral
At end of first steep: floral, vegital
Tea liquor:
At beginning of steep: muddy green
Staple? Possibly, first tasting
Preferred time of day: any
Taste:
At first: deep floral, buttery
As it cools ? Malty notes surface, salt notes increse, floral notes lengthen, cocoa notes and nuttyness close
Additives used (milk, honey, sugar etc)? No
Lingers? Yes, floral, hints of spice, slight chewyness, lastly, slight sea salt notes

Second steep (3min)
Aroma: salty, hints of malt
Taste:
At first: malt and salt notes
As it cools: malty notes lessen, salt stays, tea gets brothy

Oh wow. This is lovely. I bought this packet from their shop in downtown KC, and it’s labeled there as Golden Needle Red Tea, rather than Golden Needle King, but per their site it looks like the same thing.

This, ladies and gentlemen, might be a good replacement for Dawn from the Simple Leaf. Opening the packet I got a giant whiff of cocoa. Yum! It’s a lighter colored tea, since it’s a red tea, but it’s VERY flavorful. It’s got tones of cocoa and pepper and something that makes me think of autum leaves, but in a really good way.

I did this at approx. 190 for 2 minutes. It was made of awesome.

Yet another one from my white tea sampler from Shang. But this was “technically” not a white tea. I say that because it actually falls in the black tea category. Squarely. In appearance, it looked like a pre-QingMing Keemun Mao Feng. The liquor colored similar to a Golden Yunnan amber. Aroma and taste, however, were quite the oddity. This tasted like the description – a lightly fermented white tea, as if someone took a batch of Bai Mu Dan and steeped it for eight-to-ten minutes. (Without spinaching, of course.) There’s a bit of a nectarine texture to it, but minor compared to a Yunnan Gold. Still a mighty pleasant drink.

Wow, I’m already out and I don’t have a tasting note? Must be good tea then!

Smells of malt and spices, a really pleasant aroma. In addition I am getting just a hint of some sort of fruit as well. I love to simply hold the cup under my nose and inhale. Taste is a very pleasant combination of white and red tea. As much as I liked the Bai Lin Kung Fu from Shang Tea, I think this is better.

For a red tea this is pretty mild. The reason being this is (as stated on the package) made from white tea leaves.

Taste is less malty than the smell, it resembles their silver needle king and yet is obviously changed at the same time by the fermentation process. This is a wonderful special occasion tea in which you will not realize you have drank it all if you are not careful. Highly recommended!

I am typically able to get around 3 steepings from this, unlike other red teas which you seem to start suffering at around two steepings.

Has become my go-to daily drink. I love this tea. Brisk, full, lovely color, smooth and good hot or cold. Fantastic quality tea.

This is a special and delicious red tea: sort of radiant, energetic, warm, and almost sweet but not quite. I suspect that the fact that it’s made from the white tea plant contributes to its special, elevated and elevating quality.

Backlogging I got this from either Azzrian or Nicole in of the free christmas offers. Sorry I am not good at keeping track sometimes who specificly sends me a tea. So please I hope you don’t feel insulted or offended. Thank you very much for gifting me this.

This is a good tasting black tea that is a tad strong to what I used to. Its still good though and kind of tastes like a yunnan tea. And has a good brisk flavor. And I did add some sugar.

The first time I tried this, any cocoa notes eluded me, sadly. It was fine, a nice tea, but nothing to justify the price tag. The second time around, I got the cocoa and flavor explosion and I’m not sure what the difference was. Lower than boiling temperature with shorter steep? I think that was it. Really a beautifully smooth and complex tea for those moments where I can appreciate more in a tea.

Very strong read – high caffeine, great start for mornings!

First, even though this is listed as an oolong, it is actually a black tea. Secondly, I think that Shang sells some of the finest tea in the world, including this tea.