Gold Thread Reserve

I was awoken in the wee hours by two monster trucks on my street doing some sort of noisy ungodly what: monster hoovering it sounds like. I got up because it was impossible to sleep through this and it continues now for hours.

My first whirl with this sample from Dexter. The scent of the dry leaf is just chocolatey fab. The steeped tea is lovely chocolatey malt and then there’s a flavour that comes up that I don’t particularly like. I don’t know how to describe it. A bit metallic and a bit bitter. Perhaps I have used too much leaf.

The second steep, because I don’t give up, is chocolatey and yammy. The metallic aspect is gone. The third is also still delicious.

Thankfully, I have a bit more to experiment with. Thank you for the sample, Dex.

thanks for sharing this one dexter! overleafed this cup a little today and it turned it in to a malty cup of bold deliciousness haha. having fun trying my samples from friends today :)

Final Count: 83

Golden tea seems to be my favorite type of black tea variant. This tea was nice with its cocoa notes and malty taste, but I have had some really good golden teas in the past from Chinese farm directly and WP so this just isn’t as good as it would have been two years ago when I had no reference point for golden teas.

I had a 2 hour break yesterday from classes in the afternoon so I went to Chinatown to poke around. I really wanted to go to RedBlossom Tea even though I am broke and of course I couldn’t leave without buying something. Honestly I only go to their store probably twice a year and I just refuse to buy the top shelf teas because they are too expensive for me.

Quite a few other vendors carry this type of tea so I wouldn’t say it’s rare, it’s one of their every day kind of teas. The Golden Monkey by RB is one of my favorite morning teas so I thought I’d get this to compare.

I steeped the tea for two minutes and this may have been overkill because the resulting brew is quite strong. The tea liquor is very smooth and sweet, however. I am definitely getting sweet potato notes, raisin, malt and cocoa but at the longer steep it almost seems roasted.

I tried a second steep for one minute and it’s a lot nicer, very smooth and lighter. I can’t say I am getting maple syrup but I do see how you get orange out of this, especially at the shorter steep. I love Chinese black teas because they’re so easy to drink straight, although sometimes an assam with milk and sugar hits the spot too…

Happy with this brew, I don’t have a lot of other teas like this in my stash at the moment. If you don’t live near Red Blossom I don’t see any reason to purchase this tea especially from them, but it is a nice yunnan, in my opinion.

First steep: 1 minute. Beautiful Yunnan, really standard, a bit disappointing because of the cost and time to get it home. (I literally bought a new bag just to bring home pounds of tea).

Second steep: 1 minute, 30 seconds. Still a standard Yunnan, but less chocolately and more honey-d, dry. A touch of hay. Not sure if I’ll keep on steeping this. Boo. Still tasty, just now WOW tasty.

Mind you, I do have a sample of their $74/oz black… maybe that’ll cheer me up!

This one came from Blodeuyn. I must admit, I’ve become a little bit burnt out on Yunnan teas since I tried so many of them not too long ago. I do still enjoy them, but they’re not something I crave. This tea has small, thin, and delicate leaves. They’re golden and fuzzy and they’re leaving lovely fairy dust on the inside of the packet. Dry scent is pure Yunnan – sweet and smooth with malt, sweet potato, honey, and strong stonefruit notes. I steeped a heaping teaspoon of leaf for 3 minutes at 200 degrees.

Wow, the aroma is very powerful. Very malty with bread and sweet potato, as well as a surprisingly strong floral note. Thankfully, I don’t get strong floral in the taste. What I do get is rich sweet potato and bread with honey and a very light mineral note. There’s the lightest touch of stonefruit and maybe a suggestion of floral in the aftertaste. A perfectly nice Yunnan, nothing extra special, but still tasty.

This is the second tea I ordered from Red Blossom and I am excited to finally do a tasting and prepare my notes.

Dry leaf aroma: Sweet potato with a malty background.

Dry leaf appearance: http://instagram.com/p/rnyl0zlcCK/

Preparation: Brewed western style in a glass infuser cup (which I also purchased from Red Blossom – and love – I think it is a Bodum).

First steeping: 1 minutes 45 seconds at 200 degrees. The aroma stays true to the dry leaf – sweet potato and malt, with a slight suggestion of orange. The liquor is a beautiful amber brown which seems appropriate paired with the aromatic suggestions of malt and sweet potatoes (perhaps I am ready for autumn; this color and fragrance combination is lulling me into nostalgia this evening). The flavor is multifaceted and at first it is hard for me to separate the different layers. Foremost is a pleasant maltiness with a delicate sweet potato undertone and I find as I let the cup cool notes of brown sugar appear. I was a bit disappointed I did not detect any raisin or maple syrup in this steeping (as per their website tasting notes). However, when I smell my empty cup the aroma is a heady raisin. The aftertaste is a reminiscent of sweet potatoes, with a slight starchy mouth-feel.

Second steeping: 2 minutes 5 seconds at 200 degrees. A sweet potato and malty fragrance still prevails. I do not detect any scent of orange with this steeping but as the cup cools I pick up notes of raisin. For this infusion the brown sugar and raisin notes are shining through the base flavors of sweet potato and malt. The aftertaste is also sweeter, with a refined raisin finish.

Third steeping: 2 minutes 35 seconds at 200 degrees. The third brewing has a much weaker aroma; sweet potato and malt again. The flavor is much the same as the second steeping though not as strong. The aftertaste is malty raisin and the starchy mouth-feel is still present.

The fourth steeping was unremarkable though not unpleasant. I think three steepings is a good cutoff for me.

Yet another of my favorites to reach the end of it’s jar on my tea shelf. This has become one of my standard black teas, the benchmark I compare new black teas to. It’s super solid, sweet, uber smooth aroma and taste amaze me every time I brew it up.

I had a little more than what I normally use in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam, but not enough for a single serving later, so I just brewed it a little strong today with just under 10 ounces of leaves in 32 ounces of 200 degree water.

And hot damn. I didn’t think it could get much better, but here it is. The complexity is amazing, such a strong, rich, velvety smooth malty base, with hints of dried fruit, brown sugar and syrup.

Possibly my favorite fall season breakfast. Goes great with oatmeal or cream of wheat. Such good stuff.

I’ll certainly be ordering more of this!

-E

Had this tea hot to warm up to. I love the smell, to begin with. The dark color of the tea looked like coffee brewed and there was definitely a texture to the tea. I brewed it a little bit longer than I was supposed to (I got distracted!) but it never got bitter. I’ll reserve this for a treat on foggy mornings.