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Monkey Picked Tea (Ma Nau Mi Ti Kuan Yin) from ThinkGeek

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Monkey Picked Tea (Ma Nau Mi Ti Kuan Yin)

Oolong Tea by ThinkGeek

No folks, we’re not pulling your leg! This rare Chinese tea is carefully picked by specially trained monkeys in a remote mountain region of China. Legend has it that monkeys were first used to collect tea ten centuries ago, because upon seeing its master trying to reach some tea growing wild on a mountain face, the monkey climbed up the steep face and collected the tea growing there and brought it down to his master. This wild tea was considered so delicious that other people began to train monkeys to collect this rare wild tea. Nowadays the practice of monkeys picking tea has all but died out, except in one small remote village where they will continue this remarkable tradition.

No monkeys are harmed or mistreated in order for us to bring this rare brew to you! In fact the monkeys and their ancestors before them have been doing this job for generations and are treated as respected members of their human keeper’s families.

2 Tasting Notes

ashmanra
ashmanra 2 tasting notes

Guess what I got for Mother’s Day? Yes, the kids found a way to combine two of my loves – tea and thinkgeek, or geekiness in general. My youngest daughter ordered this tea and the little tea cups that look like Control, Alt, Delete buttons. LOL!

I was very surprised by the instructions on the tin. They say to use one teaspoon of leaves for a small pot of tea, or 1/3 teaspoon for a single cup. What? Well, I decided to go with the amount I normally use as I was making two large mugs. I put one teaspoon of leaves in my 8 ounce tea press and steeped three times in a row, combining the three steeps. Using this method, I got a well-flavored cup. This is a dark, roasted oolong and tasted very good, though I want to review it again at home with my regular teapots and non-beach water. The water here is very good compared to the beach we used to go to. Otherwise, I probably wouldn’t even consider making tea with it.

My oldest daughter who just started drinking tea not long ago had the other mug of tea. When I asked her later how she liked it, she said she didn’t remember! We supposed that if she had hated it she would definitely have remembered that!

This is a 2 ounce tin, bigger than the tiny tin set from Thinkgeek.

Thumbs up from me!

For the past three weeks, hubby has had to work later than usual on Fridays, so we have treated ourselves to the Chinese buffet when he finally gets to come home. The sad news is that when I asked what kind of tea they had, they said black.

?

IT’S A CHINESE RESTAURANT FOR CRYIN’ OUT LOUD!!

Oh well, my remedy is to have water with the meal and tea when I get home. Tonight I called youngest and asked her to prepare a pot of this and a chocolate bar for me so it would be ready when we got home.

It was the Teavivre Monkey Picked that I drank this week that had me craving this kind of oolong. This one is very good, I mean, if I hadn’t had Teavivre’s I would probably say it was excellent. I am really enjoying it, but it just doesn’t have as much flavor as theirs. So still thumbs up, but this isn’t the very best one I have tried.

It is fun to know that this particular one really truly was picked by monkeys!

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