Golden Fleece

Today is Saturday and I have time to focus on a tea and its multiple infusions. I decided on this one because it seemed… just right for today.

First Infusion: The scent of this first cup is of sweet potato, black pepper and sugar. It’s too hot to sip at the moment, but I can’t wait! Sipping… oh, this is nice and smooth! I’m getting a little bit of sweet potato and pepper with something milky as well. It’s slightly astringent at the end of the sip. Very tasty!

Second Infusion: The scent is a bit more flat in this cup than in the first. I can still detect sweet potato, but it’s very toned down. Sipping… the spicy black pepper is the first thing I taste. It’s also not nearly as sweet and milky as the first cup. It’s good, but very spicy! Not sure I like this cup all that much, to be honest. I’m rather sensitive to spicy notes and this one is just so peppery!

Third Infusion: I’m hoping that the pepper is toned down a little in this cup. Sipping… I’m getting a bit more of a milky note – yay! There is still the bite of that pepper, but it’s not as strong as the second cup. Just a hint of sweet potato is left, but it’s enough to make this cup quite nice.

If this tea maintained the flavors of the first infusion, this tea would be brilliant. I am not a fan of the spicy notes in the subsequent cups, so I don’t think I’ll purchase more of this tea. Still a wonderfully unique tea that would be perfect for those who like peppery notes in their tea!

I’ve been putting off organizing my tea cupboard and drawers and finally dove into the project today. The bribe for myself was trying the sample of this I got with a verdant order awhile back. I brewed it western style and was surprised that I actually noticed the mushroom notes that other reviewers mentioned. But honestly, I didn’t really love it. Luckily I made it in my itty bitty little test tube steeper that only makes about 8 oz at a time so I didn’t have too much to get through before steeping it again. The second and third steeps were much more to my liking. The fungal (ha ha) flavors had subsided and there was a milk chocolaty honeyish flavor that lingered. I still didn’t fall in love with it and won’t reorder, but I’m glad I finally got around to trying it. And I got all my teas organized! Woot woot!

Golden fleece is an apt name… once I snipped my way into the bag I felt like Jason staring down surprised that I had fulfilled my quest by using such a simple tool. Long wavy leaves, some gold, some bronze. The leaves smell like a spice I don’t know, but feel like I should, light and sweet—not cinnamon, not clove, it’s not so offensive as those… though up until the opening of this bag I had liked both of them . How odd.

I scooped a spoonful into my tea basket… it left gold speckles behind against the stainless gleam. Proof of my golden victory or so I thought until I sipped. A crew of eighth century Argonauts heaved a cheer off a page of parchment. The normally quippy music theme in my head became infiltrated by high stringed arpeggios playing counterpoint to bass drums and brass chords. I was drinking a dramatis personae, a choir in perfoming an unblemished harmony in my mouth. Just as suddenly the ensemble vanished without a trace and I was left bereft. Had it all been imagined? I sipped again out of distress. FORTISSIMO! It came back. I swallowed. Pianissimo… it ebbed and left with a whisper as though it had never been there.

Indeed… it takes quite a tea to stow my humour, to play the part of a serious reviewer. And all it took was the prize from an ancient Greek myth.

Words: superlative, exceptional, unparalleled.

Personal Note: Lily and David, if I could give you 142/100 (because 42 is the meaning of life the universe and everything… just like this tea) then I would in a heartbeat. What a lovely experience on such an exciting day for me.

I think this may actually be the perfect tea. It’s just… everything. Words fail. Honey, vanilla, mushroom, yes. The mushroom sugar and kind of a cashew taste keep recombining in each sip, always there in different measure. There is a touch of spice in the back, it is really nice, but I am not sure what it is, I really can’t sort it. Others call it cinnamon, so I guess we can go with that. I keep getting a smooth feeling, with a warm barn fragrance even beyond the fungus smell which I keep relating to lanolin, and it won’t go away or just be called silky, even though I probably only think that because the name ‘fleece’ suggested it.

Speaking of fleece, this is so incredibly soft and sexy and golden gorgeous I wish it were my fleece. I could wear a sweater made of this stuff all winter if I wouldn’t be worried about messing up the flavor of the precious. :-)

Ok, so this is the tea that got the swap going with Indigobloom and I was waiting for a time where I could re-steep easily.

I don’t have a gaiwan or anything for gong fu steeping. I used a bag from DAVIDs, boiling water, and a measuring cup. I don’t usually measure the water…I just fill my Steeper to a point and brew. Because of the nature of the steeping on the website, and reading reviews here, I figured this was the closest I could come to East meets West steeping. I did not get rid of the first steep or “rinse” as I really wanted to max out what I could with my small sample.

First steep…my little special tea cup was actually less than 8 oz, so while I started the steep in that as I poured the boiling water from the measuring cup, I poured the rest in my mug, followed by what was in my tea cup, and the bag. I think I probably just shook the bag around a bit and dunked it up and down. I’m guessing this was all in the 20-30 second time frame. The brew that formed was light and pale and golden. It smelled very bready, considering how short a steep it was. My first sip was a spicy one, a sharp peppery spice at the tip of my tongue. I wasn’t prepared for that. Subsequent sips were not as sharp, and I could taste the bread again, but more like a honey bread. I will mention that this was drunk bare, which I rarely do. I could taste a subtle sweet note at the back of my mouth, sort of like an after taste. I don’t think I picked up any mushroom notes, which is good for me since I am not fond of mushrooms, but it is possible that was I did taste was a little of the roasted sweet potato that some have picked up on.

Second steep was longer, and I added sugar, but not much. This steep was stronger, and a bit more astringent than the first. The basic flavours appeared, though the brew was darker, and it was, as I said, a little more astringent.

Third steep I went a bit more Western, probably about a minute steep, and I used more sugar and also milk. I’m getting a very classic Chinese Yunnan taste from this…something I have had in the past, something that is very comforting to me. I do still get some of the peppery notes every now and again, and the malty honey bun flavour is what permeates most in this. The milk and sugar add a sweet creamy touch. It is a simplicity in flavour that makes it so comforting, even if the notes are a little complex still.

All in all, I find this to be of very good quality. It’s taste is a bit like liquid gold. It has all the traits of a good yunnan tea that I love, but a silky and glossy golden feel to it. It’s like a tea spun out of gold. Light and bright but balanced.

I don’t know if I will get more steeps out of this one or not, especially as my last steep had the bag in with the milky water. If I do one more, it will probably be more Western style, and continue with the milk and sugar.

I have enough of the sample for one more round of steeps, so I will use those leaves wisely.

Thanks agin to Indigobloom for sharing this delightful tea with me.

I can’t understand why I have not left a tasting note on this before.
I thought I would simply come and log this as I am having it as my morning tea and just make a note to see my previous review on it. Alas no previous review exists that I can find!
Not from me I mean.
However after reading over some of the lengthy amazing reviews of others I am highly intimidated to even make a remark worthy of this tea.
Soothing to say the least.
A true embodiment of what a quality tea should taste like – if only more did!
This is a tea that makes you feel “Im not worthy”.
It is sad it is gone, I hope more is available someday.
It is like others have said – like drinking silk – its mouthfeel can only be described in that manner, its not milky, I suppose you could say creamy but creamy does not do it justice. It just slides through the mouth, lingers on the taste buds romantically then slips into your throat and just slides down.
The result is an aftertaste similar to nothing you have tasted before because with each sip new flavors evolve as if your taste buds and the tea have a little game they are playing and only they know the rules.
I will miss this tea when I have my sip down. For now I have just enough to covet and stash away for a rainy day.

I finally got a sample of this tea. I was really looking forward to it because it seems to be worshipped on steepster alongside laoshan black. Well, it smelled and tasted a lot like potatoes. You know, “po-ta-toes! Boil ’em, mash ’em, stick ’em in a stew!” ;) The taste also has a bit of spice at the end of the sip. I had 3 steeps of the same leaves brewed western style (I think 1-minute infusions) and the flavor remained pretty much the same.

Overall, I wasn’t that into this tea. Maybe the potato-like black teas aren’t my thing? I guess we’ll see because I also have a sample of the Yu Lu that I haven’t tried yet. I still have some of this left, so I’m willing to give it another go. Don’t really want to mess with gongfu style though, because I feel like a tea should at the base, be good brewed western style, and if that’s the case, then gongfu is icing on the cake.

I finished my sample pack of this tea today. It took me until the last cup to fully appreciate it, I think.

So, I probably brewed this wrong, having JUST looked at the Verdant website and seeing a steep time of 1 minute (I did 2) and a temp a little lower than boiling. Also I think I may have underleafed. By at least a teaspoon. (Having made about 27 fl oz of tea (according to my quick and dirty ml to oz conversion) and put in 3 heaping teaspoons. more like 3 teaspoons. yeaaaah. I’ve gotten out of the habit of using my breville and I forgot that ~750 ml is actually ~3 cups and not 2… Oh well. Next steep I’ll add some new leaves. So yeah, this is weaker than probably it would be at it’s best.

Another reason I’m probably not liking this as much as I probably would be otherwise is that I’m out of practice with tea tasting. With the summer and my inability to make iced tea in a reasonable fashion without it sucking and then my need to be out of my house as much as possible to try to keep from sinking into a deeper depression…there’s not been much time for tea from my own collection. At least, made the way I like it.

Still, this is very enjoyable even with those caveats. Hikaru the kitty knows it has my attention and not her so she’s trying to knock it over with her head. She’s been much more needy since my Groucho kitty died on Monday.

Anyway, it tastes very silky as said in the outline on Verdant, and I can definitely taste some very warm spices, possibly the cinnamon mentioned, though I like it a lot better than actual cinnamon, which I don’t like so much. The morels come through more on the aftertaste. All in all, it’s quite pleasant and I’m sure I’ll enjoy it even more as my ability to taste more nuances comes back.

Hello, Steepsterites!!!! Sorry that I dropped off the face of the planet. I’ve been super busy with wedding planning, trips to visit family, handling what feels like a million problems at work, and still trying to find time to work out and remain sane.

I don’t think I can keep up with the rate at which I tea blogged and read/liked everyone’s posts. I haven’t even drunk a cup of tea in over a month! Well, unless you count the disgusting cup of overly sweetened iced green tea I had yesterday from Panera. Yuck. Tasted like lipstick. Anyway, I’m not disappearing forever. I’ll pop on every now and then, just not quite as often as I used to (i.e. not daily). Nonetheless, I apologize if anyone has been left feeling neglected. I promise it’s not on purpose and I still love all of you, even if I can’t like all your posts!

Okay, well here’s a long anticipated tea from the generous Kittenna!!! Golden Fleece, you are my heart’s desire. I can’t believe how long you’ve sat in my cupboard waiting to be steeped. Well, your wait is over!

The dry leaf aroma is a jumbled compilation of the other teas that Kittenna sent. But the brewed tea aroma? Malt and bread and cocoa. Ohhhh yeah! This is the tea of my dreams! Well actually, my dreams have been quite strange of late. Most are set in an apocalyptic world with someone trying to kill me. I often wake up in the middle of the night in a cold sweat. So much for restful sleep.

Anyway, time to actually taste it. Ohhhh, this tea is incredible! Exactly what I could ever have hoped for and more. It’s the perfect Yunnan black. 100% complete yum factor. Who knew a tea could be so flavorful after a quick one minute steeping? I’m going for quality over quantity so the second steep was for two minutes. Mmm, this tea is sweet and silky and surprisingly frothy when you pour hot water over the leaves.

There’s also a hint of darkness. Not full bitterness and definitely not astringency. But there’s a subtle darkness to the cup, perhaps leaning towards bitterness but not completely there. This is interesting and quite unexpected. The first cup was very smooth. Maybe I should have used less than boiling water? Or maybe I should have gone for the gong fu method of brewing instead of Western style.

I’ll try 195 degrees for 2.5 minutes for the third steep. Yay! All traces of darkness are gone! Now I’m left with a cup of the Yunnan black I love. However, for that earlier odd hint of darkness, I feel compelled to lower the rating a tad. I was expecting 100, so maybe my high expectations tarnished the evaluation. But it is still amazing, and I’m glad that I had the opportunity to try it. Without Kittenna I wouldn’t have had the chance. Thank you sooo much!!