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KiwiDelight drank Premium Golden Monkey Black Tea by Teavivre

371 tasting notes

Free sample obtained from an order.

Performed a gongfu session with a porcelain gaiwan. Followed the website’s steeping instructions: flash rinse, 10 sec, 10, 15, 20, 25, 35, 90.

Gorgeous leaf. Picture says it all!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BaUPERFFS_q/?taken-by=delightfulkiwi

The dry leaf aroma has a note of sweet potato initially, then I start to smell chocolate sprinkles and milk chocolate bar after a little time. After I let the leaf sit in the heated bowl, spices appear: clove, nutmeg, cinnamon. Sweet potato is stronger in the wet leaf aroma, which also produces a malty note.

The liquor has a golden orange color, and is medium-bodied and nicely clean in appearance and feel. The texture starts of as creamy and then becomes silky later in the session. The first infusion is rather light in flavor – I would start with 15 seconds. The second infusion is much more flavorful,packing a punch compared to the first (seems like it oversteeped). I taste notes of malt and burned sweet potato. Following the third infusion, the burned taste disappears , and the liquor mostly tastes of sweet potato and malt with a hint of fruitiness. There is no aftertaste, but the sixth and seventh infusions have a slightly cooling effect on the tip of my tongue and the back of my throat. I can smell a lovely fragrance of longan from my empty cup.

Nothing about the taste stuck out to me…though this is very good quality and the price is a bargain. I can see this Fujian hongcha being a welcoming breakfast tea all year round. But today it offers a nice, comforting feeling during an overcast, cool autumn day.

(lol this is why I have Steepster. I apparently reviewed this tea before, a couple years ago: https://steepster.com/KiwiDelight/posts/314758

Different harvest, different palate. I like coming back to the same tea after a time (not counting pu’erh because reasons).)

Preparation

3 g 2 OZ / 60 ML

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Bio

I began drinking tea because its complexity fascinated me. I love learning about its history, its manufacturing processes, and its place in various cultures.

Japanese greens were my first love and gateway into the world.

My favorite teas are leafhopper oolongs, pu’erh (shou and sheng), and masala chai. My favorite herbal tisanes are spear/peppermint, lavender and chrysanthemum.

I’m currently exploring pu’erh, and any Chinese and Taiwanese teas in general. I’m not much into flavored teas, unlike when I first started. The only teas I truly dislike are fruity tisanes and the ones that have too much fruit. I do like hisbiscus, especially iced.

I like to write nature essays. I’m a birdwatcher as well as a tea enthusiast. The kiwi is one of my favorite birds. I also like Tolkien, Ancient Egypt, and exercising.

IMPORTANT NOTE, PLEASE READ: After two and a half years of having an account here, I will no longer will provide numerical ratings as an addition to the review because the American school system has skewed my thoughts on numbers out of a hundred and the colors throw me off. Curses! My words are more than sufficient. If I really like what I have, I will “recommend”, and if I don’t, “not recommended”.

Key for past ratings:

96-100 I adore absolutely everything about it. A permanent addition to my stash.

90-95 Superb quality and extremely enjoyable, but not something I’d necessarily like to have in my stash (might have to do with personal tastes, depending on what I say in the tasting note).

80-89 Delicious! Pleased with the overall quality.

70-79 Simply, I like it. There are qualities that I find good, but there also are things that aren’t, hence a lower rating that I would have otherwise like to put.

60-69 Overall “meh”. Not necessarily bad, but not necessarily good.

0-59 No.

If there is no rating: I don’t feel experienced enough to rate the tea, or said tea just goes beyond rating (in a positive way).