I wanted to write a note for this before I parceled this out for other Steepsterers. I’m not sure, but I think Teavivre changed the name of their original Golden Monkey to Premium Golden Monkey when they started selling this one? I’m not sure what I expected from this one as Teavivre’s other Golden Monkey was never what I wished it was. I haven’t had the Premium in a while, so I’m not sure how this compares. The leaves are mostly black with only hints of gold with many gold dustings on my teaspoon once I’ve scooped it out. The flavor is neither light nor dark, it’s a nice middle ground of sweet sweet chocolate. But then the second steep kind of loses even that sweet chocolate and becomes a much more plain tasting. It could be the steeping parameters aren’t spot on. I’m glad the flavor isn’t light, but I do like my preferable Golden Monkey to be very dark chocolate with honey notes. Is it just me or does black tea not have that wine note that it did a few years ago? Maybe I haven’t been buying as many fresh teas lately and maybe the wine note is only in fresh teas? Or maybe it only happened in harvests of a few years ago. Or possibly my taste buds have changed. I do notice that many of Teavivre’s teas seem to have a bigger leaf now, which means higher quality, but to me, a bigger leaf means a lighter flavor. (For example, a couple of the keemuns lately have huge leaves now.) But that’s just my tastes.
Steep #1 // 2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // just boiled // 4 minute steep
Harvest: 2017
Edited to add: Mary Bao from Teavivre did say I was correct about the name change in an e-mail: “You’re right, we changed the name of our original Golden Monkey to Premium Golden Monkey when this version started selling.” Just in case anyone was wondering!
People who liked this
Comments
I’ve only ever tasted a wine note in Darjeelings.
Hmm.. to my taste, I usually find the wine flavor in darker teas. But it definitely wasn’t every black tea that I would drink. Probably only a handful would have that note.
I might be missing some wine flavours since I don’t actually drink wine and am not really attuned to it specifically.
Well, I don’t drink wine either so maybe I’m full of it. haha.
I’ve only ever tasted a wine note in Darjeelings.
Hmm.. to my taste, I usually find the wine flavor in darker teas. But it definitely wasn’t every black tea that I would drink. Probably only a handful would have that note.
I might be missing some wine flavours since I don’t actually drink wine and am not really attuned to it specifically.
Well, I don’t drink wine either so maybe I’m full of it. haha.