Sinharaja

Is it time to go home yet. Struggling to stay focused at work. I’ve been pouring tea/caffeine in all day – I think I’m on cup 9 – and I’m still just falling asleep. 1 1/4 hours to go.

This is the other tea I’ve been drinking all day. I’ve been wanting to explore Golden Moon Teas for quite awhile and haven’t really had a chance (they either don’t ship to Canada or charge crazy shipping – one or the other). I was really excited to see a few in the awesome package ifjuly sent me.
I’ve decided to try first the Golden Moon that I think I’ll like least. I’m not usually a fan of ceylon. This isn’t going to be my favorite black tea, it’s to astringent/dry for me. What I have learned is that I am REALLY excited to try the other ones. If Golden Moon has a ceylon that I don’t hate, then how good are the ones the ones that are more in my comfort zone going to be? Really excited to try them. Thanks ifjuly for the opportunity.

I still have a little of this left from the TTB ‘A’. I thought I had drank it all up, but last night while I was re-organizing my stash, I came across it. There is enough for at least one more cup, maybe 2!
Nicely bold, bright, & fruity!

I taste the honey notes in this so well. It is feels cozy and sophisticated. This was one of my samples I received and have now added this one to my shopping list.

Looking forward to this one, as it’s been a while since I had a good chance to sample some Sri Lankan teas. Nice spicy, rich and enticing aroma to the dry leaf.

Great balance of flavors here. Strong and complex at the same time, just the way I like them. I’m getting a warm general spiciness rather than a particular note like cinnamon or clove, and some sweetness that I associate with berry or stone fruit jams. I want to see how this will taste with a little cream and sugar, but I’m enjoying it plain so much there’s not going to be a whole lot left over! A pleasing amount of astringency and good mouth feel.

With the additions it’s really luscious. I think the berry/fruit notes have morphed into maltiness. The aftertaste is like I’ve been having shortbread cookies with the tea but I swear I haven’t!

Score – two really nice ones today.

This is a ceylon black tea. And you can see the black tea and smell it. I steeped this up for a a little while. And this tastes like a good black tea with some sort of sweetness. This is pretty good and not bitter. Perhaps I need to steep this abit longer to get the full flavor?

Even better than I remembered. Wow.

Mmm smells delicious. I would say in advance that it will be smooth. And indeed. Rich full taste. As black tea should be. The good kind ;)
Wouldnt say it’s the best black I’ve tried, RareTea Company tops it, but it’s still quite delicious.

Of the very few Golden Moon teas I’ve tried, this is the first one I’ve tried that I’m truly enthusiastic about. I’m definitely getting the molasses undertone referred to in the product description, especially after it cooled. This one, I think, will be versatile enough to ice down when it’s hot outside and coddle with a little milk when it’s cold outside.

Still chipping away at the Golden Moon Sampler…This tea smelled fantastic, like a rich black tea with a slightly sweet scent. The taste was plain, brewed hot for four minutes with no additives. As it cooled, I noticed an unpleasant astringency, a slight bitter note commonly associated with oversteeped tea. So I added a pinch of German rock sugar and a touch of milk, this made the tea sweeter and smoother.

On the second infusion, fearing the same result as the first, I brewed for 2.5 minutes and added the pinch of sugar up front and milk to taste in my mug.

Overall pretty decent black tea.

Dry, this seems like a pretty unassuming tea — not surprising, since I tend to think of Ceylon as “normal” black tea. Steeping gets you a nice dark cup with a fairly strong smell, woodsy and almost smoky. I wasn’t expecting much based on the dry leaf, but this is getting exciting!

As I sip, I immediately notice that this isn’t the least bit subtle in flavor, which is, as usual, a plus in my book. Toasty is definitely a good way to describe it, and I think my earlier declaration of woodsy still applies. It’s somewhat astringent, more than I’m personally used to tasting, and almost sour. I’m not getting any of the sweet or berry-ish notes that others apparently are, and in fact it’s more bitter than I’d like.

Taking this one for a second steeping, I’m getting a similar albiet milder taste. The bitterness is mostly gone now, but it seems to have taken a lot of the tea’s character with it. This time I tried a pinch of artificial sweetener (I don’t have the recommended raw sugar and milk), but it seems to mellow out the flavor some more more than anything else. Not a bad cup, though; it reminds me a lot of Twinnings’ very basic ceylon.

A very nice choice if you’re a fan of strong, full-bodied black tea, especially if you might like to finish off with a milder second steep! I might choose this as a coffee substitute if I needed one, as while it doesn’t taste like coffee at all, it offers a similar experience. On a personal level, it’s not a favorite due to the bitter and woodlike qualities, but it’s lovely for what it is and I might consider getting it again if I wanted a more permanent ceylon in my stash.