Golden Strand Black Tea

Garret included this one in my birthday order as a sample. I was overjoyed because it was on my list before pu’er craziness took over and I added another cake instead. This one was really really good.

First of all, the leaves are so pretty to look at. They are these golden bits of pretty. I almost felt bad pouring water over them. And they smell like the best caramel you’ve ever had. As I said yesterday in my review of Long Life, black teas for me fall into 5 categories fruity, chocolaty, malty, roasty and kick you in the butt. This one falls right in the malty category. There is a bit of nuttiness and even some chocolate notes but it’s not one of those “Good Morning!" with a punch in the face teas. It’s mild and gentle. Golden Strand is that quiet kid in school who always does well even though you don’t hear from him much in class.

I’m going to steep this one a bit more. I only had time for two steeps tonight. I’ll probably update this tea note tomorrow.

So I had my water boiled and ready to go, and I knew which tea I wanted to drink, and I thought I knew exactly where this particular tea was. Wrong. There are only 5 possible places in my home where this tea could possibly be hiding, so where is it??!! It took me 10 minutes to find, and wouldn’t you know it was in the desk right beside me. Hiding behind the box that it came in.

So I prepared fresh water, and am now sipping on sweet caramel goodness. It was worth the hunt. This tea is so silky smooth. I bought this tea because of the way it looked in the photo – all the long golden strands. I just knew I had to have it.

Another delicious tea from Mandala – thank you!

A super generous free sample from Mandala with my last order! Woot!

What an unexpected tea this is. First cup of the day for me, vaguely remembered it’s unusual because it’s very, well, golden (the dry leaves are gorgeous, big long light golden branches), so I figured it’d be lighter and sweeter than black tea generally is but was still knocked for a loop—the brewed color is very unusual, not super light like white tea, not dark with warm brown tones like black tea, not bright golden green like green…just kind of its own thing. Hard to describe. And then the taste!—it’s so light-bright and sweet in this way that builds so that by the end of the cup your mouth sort of buzzes with an almost numbing (kind of like mint) quality mixed with a very clean sweetness. I’ve never tasted tea like this before. So glad I got to sample it—I think once Black Friday madness stockpiled orders settle down I will order some of this. Really unusual and great. It wakes up your palate in a different way than strong black tea, almost the opposite approach where the flavor is zingy (but not in a fruit-tart way thankfully) and so sparkling clean it refreshes you awake. And that sweetness is a beautiful accompaniment; delicious without being rich, it manages to fit right in in contributing to that feeling of bright refreshment.

Used quite a bit of leaf, probably nearly 2 teaspoons, because it’s one of those teas that’s hard to measure as it’s so fluffy-long and unbroken. (And because free Mandala samples are awesomely generous—I reckon I can make 2 more cups!)

Another surprise. The aroma convinced me this tea would be a bit too thin and sharp, even tinny, for my tastes. But tasting, while leaving in place those high metallic notes, rounds them out with a deeper umami and brings it all together in a lighter-flavored but balanced and refreshing tea. While I’d be very happy having this any time at all, it simply doesn’t win a spot in my cabinet with competition so far from both Laoshan black and Golden Needle (and very few spots for black tea at all). Still, an excellent, excellent tea.

Tried this after ordering from Mandala. The color is beautiful—very golden and the leaves are light and airy. This is a beautiful pillowy tea. Sadly the taste doesn’t seem to match. The tea has a strange fruity aftertaste that I find unnerving. Not my favorite by a long shot.

So, I already reviewed this once. Back then, I was just starting to try new things.

Well, I’m here to say that, about a year or so into my tea journey, and this one still holds up. I’m still getting the same Malt/Honey/Bread/Cacao notes as before, although sadly, I had to steep it a bit longer to get the full flavor. Not sure if it’s just fading with age or what, but I had to steep 2 minutes to have the nice, robust flavor that I commented on last time. A bit worrisome, but it just tells me I need to drink this more often and then get more! Hahaha.

Nicole was awesome and sent me a bunch of black teas that I’ve been wanting to try for a while in our swap! I have only tried maybe two other teas from Mandala, but everyone raves about their teas, so I am eager to try more!
This is the first tea from the swap package Nicole sent me, and also the first black tea of the day!
Wasn’t super sure of it when I saw that one of the flavors was cherry. It seems like the cherry flavors I used to find it black teas have been replaced with woody tastes now.
But I was actually pleasantly surprised.
It smelled like wood as it steeped, and when I started drinking it cherry flavors started popping up! The flavor of this tea was a good balance of wood and cherry. And the aftertaste reminded me strongly of salted peanuts. No idea why, but it totally tasted like that. xD
It wasn’t bad, but it wasn’t something I’d be wanting to try again. Glad that this was a small sample, so it wasn’t wasted too much on me. And I’m glad that I got to try it. Thank you for the sample, Nicole!

Thanks to Sil for letting me sample some of this wonderful tea! I’ve had a bit of a rough day, and needed something tasty to cheer me up. This was pretty perfect. Ultra smooth, caramelly sweet, hay… not usually the flavour profile of a black tea that I look for, but it was so perfectly smooth here that it was delicious. Mandala is definitely on my list to make an order from eventually, even though pu’erhs are not my favourite. Thanks Sil :)

woot! still really loving this tea and i’m glad that i got to share a little with kittenna. THinking about buying more with mandala’s sale even though i’m not yet finished this one, in part because it’ll take 10 days to get here. and that makes it november lol. soooooo goood.

Sipdown….
I am done with this tea, used one long Western style infusion for around 3 minutes. This is definitely a nice golden yunnan type of tea. Not bitter, lighter in body with notes of sweet potato, malt & cocoa. I don’t know that I’ve ever had a yunnan black tea I didn’t like. I am enjoying this as a breakfast tea.