Golden Monkey

Thanks to Soccer Mom for my Golden Monkey taste championship – Adagio vs Teas Etc. The verdict: Adagio… The Adagio’s version is much bolder, malty-er. In fact, I find that I may have a new mission: which vendor supplies the “best” golden monkey?

Sure the award-winning Teas, Etc had more golden leaves and brewed to a darker liquor but where was the taste?

Well, my last Upton sample is green Earl Grey, which is simply Not Suited for being my morning tea, so I’m going to get started on a new project! The Great Finish Off My Adagio Samples That Have Been Taking Up Space In My Cupboard For Ages To Make Room For More Samples Project! (or TGFOMASTHBTUSIMCFATMRFMS Project for short)

Does anybody else do this thing where you end up not drinking your favorite samples all that often because you don’t want to finish them off and be left with the not so great samples? That is what has happened to Golden Monkey. I love this stuff, but the sample tin tends to sit in the back of the tea cupboard, neglected due to my miserliness. Poor Golden Monkey. This tea has a lot going on; I was thinking “smoky” when I was drinking it earlier, but reading the other notes, malty is definitely the right word.
I let this steep for a stupid long time this morning because I was distracted trying to find all the April Fool’s jokes I could before leaving for class, so the end result is extremely strong and extremely malty. Suitable for mornings, when nothing else gets through the post wake-up fog, but I was definitely wishing for more subtlety by the end of the mug.

Just finished off another sample. Apparently most of the teas taking up space in my cupboard had just one steeping left. This project might be easier than I thought.

I’ve had a very love/hate relationship with this tea. It seems to have two distinctly different personalities (depending on how much attention I put into steeping it, of course.) I brewed it a little strong today, because there would have been no point in keeping the leftover… and it tastes quite nice that way.

Changing the rating to an ‘official’ 75. I likely won’t buy any more, so this is my final say. :)

Sipdown. Kind of a light flavor, as there’s only about a teaspoon of this left for ~10 oz of tea, but that’s okay. I didn’t want anything too heavy at night anyway.

I’m glad to have my kettle back – I brought it to a friend’s house for a tea party, and then forgot it there. Thankfully we had plans two days later for another tea party (ha!) so my baby is back with me. The day I was without it I didn’t drink much tea – I’ve been so spoiled with the temp controls that I don’t know how to make greens with the regular kettle! (I mean, I can. But I’m lazy. The electric is also heaps faster.)

This tea is malty and dark, and there’s something in the smell I can’t quite identify – it’s almost like sesame seeds and caramel candy. It’s very good, though.

(That was a long rant for a short tasting note. Oh well.)

To everyone who suggested I try this cold brewed: thank you!!!!!

The maltiness receded and there’s a new sweetness to it. I wish that the maltiness was even further in the background, but this is a yummy black iced tea. I’m bumping up the rating (the original being a 65). Still NE.

Backlog:

This is a really nice Golden Monkey. Perhaps not the best I’ve ever tried, but certainly worth a try. Nice and chocolate-y. Interesting apple note. Not overly peppery, a very subdued spice note. Here is my full-length review of this tea: http://sororiteasisters.com/2013/01/25/golden-monkey-from-adagio-teas/

This is an unexpectedly beautiful tea. The leaves are long and wiry, and sort of variagated in colour. The tips are a pale golden brown, which gradually darkens to a dusty brown almost-black. The scent is sweet and malty, with slight notes of chocolate and smoke. It’s certainly an intriguing tea, and one I’m really looking forward to trying.

I gave this four minutes in boiling water, and added a splash of milk. I think milk is a comfort thing for me; I had a challenging day in clearing yesterday, and I couldn’t imagine a non-milky drink tonight. This is a tea that seems to stand up well to milk, fortunately, but I will try it without before my sample is gone.

Brewed, the scent is much the same as it is dry, and the taste is much the same as the scent. It doesn’t look particularly substantial; the liquor is a golden brown even after four minutes, but the taste is deep and rich. It’s very sweet and malty, with hints of chocolate and cocoa in the aftertaste. I’m not the biggest Adagio fan, but this is one of the most intriguing black teas I’ve tried in a while. I’m going to enjoy finishing this sample, and picking up more of the nuances. This is definitely my kind of tea!

The leaves are brown with some golden tips amongst them. Not the best quality (no hairs or reflectors on the tips etc) but it is at least fair quality. They have a wonderful sweet malted scent with hints of dried fruit.

Flavour is sweet and malted with rich and creamy tones. It’s beautifully smooth with no astringency or harshness. There is also a dried fig like flavour present in the after taste.

A delicious tea that may not be of the best quality but offers satisfaction for an every day cup of tea.

Another from the sampler, this is GOOD! It’s earthy and malty, and a clearly good cup of tea! I was surprised at how much I like this one. I gave it to my husband to try and he declared it a “strong” cup of tea. I almost finished it, but left it out for a while and it ended up being pretty cold. And surprise, it was really good cold as well! This is a surprise winner for me; I didn’t expect to like it as much as I did. Now, if only I can ignore this sample until I try at least one cup from each of the other samples. :)

This tea is from RABS and her wonderful Geek package. The rules stipulate that I not try more than three a day. I’m trying to limit myself to just one a day so that the bliss lasts longer.

Today I rolled a “2” on the die. The beautiful package yielded a most generous sample of Adagio’s “Golden Monkey.” I like Adagio a lot. Although they can sometimes be “off” a bit or even a lot, they offer some really exquisite teas for what I consider a most reasonable price. I also think that the “blend your own” tea can make a wonderful gift and have used it four times thus far….but I digress.

I wanted to have this tea hot. I know that I could have opted for iced, but I was feeling a bit urgent. I love the image of monkeys high in the tea trees, gripping the bud in their little hands (while a primate compadre carefully and contemplatively picks the fleas off his tea-picking amigo).

This tea is malty and earthy in all the best ways—not too much, but sufficiently pronounced that I like it a lot. I detect some chocolate notes and I see how this tea can be, like The Simple Leaf’s justly celebrated Dawn, one of those miraculous tea shape-shifters that manages to mix and mingle a panoply of tastes and aromas.

I also sense a range from what I would call the buttered grape/prune/current range—perhaps I’m referring to what others call a “wine” taste. For me this taste often, but not always, comes with some overtones of date. (By the way, I love dates and anything cooked with dates). So far we are hitting most of the major tea notes I love aside from the tobacco/tar/roof pitch family.

This really is an exquisite tea. Approaching the bottom of the cup I added one sugar crystal and a dash of milk. I would say that the tea can stand up to the milk and sugar well and that they only enhance the flavors. But the tea is superb without them.

I really love teas that are AD/DC: great black but also supportive of a bit or milk and sugar and this is one of these. I am thinking of ordering a full bin of this and also small sample sizes of chocolate, current, and plum. I’ll probably place an order with Adagio soon and get Golden Monkey and Mambo and add a dash of the flavors from time to time.

Thank you so much, RABS for this excellent choice. It happened to be the perfect tea at the perfect time for me and I continue to be so very excited about being a winner of your Geek contest.