Golden Tips Tea Co Pvt Ltd

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Recent Tasting Notes

74

I made this tea last night; it’s a very aesthetically pretty tea with lots of golden tips throughout. I’d say the ratio is probably somewhere like 1:3 of the leaf is tips which certainly isn’t bad. The brewed up liquor was very dark; almost opaque in colour actually. To me, that definitely signified that this was going to be a strong, full bodied brew.

And it certainly was; in fact it was a little rough in addition to have a strong, brisk flavour. There were definitely very characteristic Assam flavours present like malt and a dark chocolate. It was a little bittersweet; perhaps in part from the chocolate notes and maybe in part because of the rougher overall mouthfeel/taste of the tea. This is possibly from over steeping, though if that’s the case then I’d say I only very slightly oversteeped – which would mean this is a more finicky/picky tea.

Other notes I found present were a kind of coffee grounds flavour, and somewhat of a ‘stale’ graham cracker flavour. Overall, not the smoothest Assam but good regardless. I think it’d definitely be a good candidate from a splash of milk, and morning consumption rather than evening.

I wanted to review this one on SororiTea Sisters but I couldn’t find the tea company it’s from online; if anyone can point me in the right direction that would be appreciated.

Roswell Strange

I thought so, but can’t find a tea by this name on their site.

Nicole

They don’t have it at the moment. Makes me sad because I’d like some more. It is from Golden Tips Tea Co. and the link is right.

Lindsay

Actually I think they just added it back! In the new arrivals section: http://goldentipstea.com/collections/new-arrivals/products/assam-enigma-second-flush-black-tea

Nicole

Nooooo…. and they have a sale this weekend!

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First steep: 1min, aroma: Jasmine, taste: floral, green, fresh

Second steep: 1m15s, aroma: golden hay, tastes: sweet, golden, honey, roasting popcorn

Third steep: 1m30s, aroma: floral, tastes: white sugar, white soba (buckwheat) noodles

Flavors: Honey, Jasmine, Sweet

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 1 min, 0 sec 3 g 8 OZ / 240 ML

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89

for lazy, depressie Sundays, this is soooo wonderful.
I boil it with milk, and then add anise sugar, it’s Heaven. Whole kitchen smells like Indian chai.

Flavors: Anise, Cardamom, Cinnamon

Preparation
Boiling 7 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 200 OZ / 5914 ML

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72

great for breakfast. Ultimate wake-up tea. :)

Flavors: Malt

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 4 min, 45 sec 1 tsp 200 OZ / 5914 ML

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78

I am finishing my samplers from my Golden Tips sub that ended earlier this year and come across a real gem now and then. This is one of them.
honey-sweet with woodsy aftertaste. Nice! Closer to an autumn darjeeling in taste, this is a nice, comforting all-round afternoon tea. Great with fresh lemon.

Flavors: Honey, Muscatel, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 2 min, 15 sec 1 tsp 200 OZ / 5914 ML

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100

This is still my ‘go to’ morning tea though unlike my usual method (strong tea base, lots of milk and lots of sugar/sweetener) I drink this one black and natural. Perhaps because even if it’s not the best quality it’s still good enough to not need milk and I dislike drinking milk if I don’t have to. It stems from when I used to be allergic to milk as a child, it still upsets my stomach a little to this day. But I’m blathering on….

It gives a good kick to my stubborn system in the morning, and given flavour (which is mentioned in other tasting notes), quality and price they are why this tea gets top marks.

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100

Around 2 months ago I reviewed this tea and gave it top marks, essentially it had everything I look for in a black breakfast tea. Though I have continued to drink this I thought I would review it again to make sure the top mark rating is just.

Taking 1.5 teaspoons of blend and steeping with boiling water for around 3 minutes.

The resulting liquid is thick and malty with some sourness and a hint of smoke in the after taste. Despite being full on in terms of flavour this is not astringent and does not require milk nor sugar to drink it. The sourness adds a charm to the blend and works well with the malt notes. There is also a touch of sweetness to it which becomes noticeable after a few mouthfuls.

I still do really like this tea, it’s perfect for me in the morning. I don’t like using milk or sweetener when I can help it and this blend means I don’t have to, but it doesn’t compromise on flavour and I’m not pulling grimaces between sips because it tastes too rough (which sometimes happens with other breakfast teas). Either way I will need to get some more of this when I run out because it would truly be missed.

In short, this blend is still a winner.

BigDaddy

Its great when you find that special tea. Been trying a few myself looking for the same experience.

Nicole

I need to put this in my next order. Sounds great!

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100

This was part of my recent Golden Tips order. In the morning (particularly on weekends) I share tea with my husband and he tends to favour strong black tea, perhaps from habit. So this was really bought for him, while I doubt he would use it without me I thought it was something we could enjoy together. So for this morning I did a large pot (around 1 litre) with lots of milk and sweetener to accompany with it. I don’t usually have him home on Saturday morning because of football but as we are going out later to another concert (same band as before) he is having to stay home. Though it must be said he is mourning the loss of Rowdy Roddy Piper so this tea is being enjoyed whilst watching numerous wrestling clips.

Loose leaf looked nice, large pieces and full with a smoky, wood and malt scent.

Steeped colour is dark red brown.

Flavour is strong and dry with wood, malt and cocoa notes. English breakfast is spot on, it tastes similar to Twinings EB but this is a little stronger and much cleaner/pure tasting. Slight touch of smoke in the after taste but the wood/malt combination remains thick and full in my mouth.

I took a sip without milk or sweetener and it was smooth enough to drink which was rather a pleasant surprise. Strong but not compensating on it’s smooth quality with unwanted harshness which I’ve experienced with other companies EB.

So frankly this is an English person saying that this is a fine English Breakfast tea, and one would hope I know what I’m talking about :D And when asking my husband for his opinion he added “Yeah it’s nice” which is something for him. So it looked like a winner all around. Happy I got 100g of this :D

Top rating – This received top marks as I could drink this all day/any day in terms of it being a standard black tea used for a ‘pick me up’. Compared to quality black tea this would not nearly be so high but for rating it out of every day black tea this does get top marks.

Nicole

Sounds like a good stiff choice. :)

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87

My Golden Tips order arrived this morning with this tea being amongst them, something I purchased 100g of after craving Assam. Usually when I eat Indian food (which is a few times a week) I like to follow it with a pot of tea, unfortunately my supply ran dry of everything but Darjeeling. So during the promotion of spend $75 and save $25 I thought it was too good to pass up. From those I ordered this is the first I am tasting, it called to me in particular today.

Again this is quick notes as my back is still bad and I’m not in the right frame of mind to write a full review.

The leaves were thin, long, a bit squiggly and very wooden smelling with a hint of sweetness.

Steeping in my new teapot (red clay measuring 125ml) with approx 1tsp/3-4g leaf.

Flavour is malty but not as thick as you would think. Dominantly sweet wood with soft dark fruit tones (date and mature plum) before the malt and dryness kick in during the after taste. Some musk/smoke in the after taste which leaves a thick and full flavour in my mouth.

I liked this tea quite a bit, the flavour had authentic Assam tones I had expected but was also more delicate and pure tasting than I had anticipated. This had no bitterness and was not overly rich as some Assam can be, perhaps helped by the rather large leaves. Glad I got 100g of this rather than a sample as my husband would probably like this too.

In other news it looks like I’m too ill still to attend tomorrows concert, which with the hotel booked has cost us £80 and now shall go to waste. Money isn’t everything though and we agreed to spend the day together regardless. We also have tickets for Saturday so with some luck I will be able to make that one.

ashmanra

Oh no! Feel better!

Nicole

Love this one. Hope you feel better soon.

teatortoise

The fact that they were totally unbroken could have something to do with the delicateness, maybe. Do you think that contributed to it?

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90

Second assam of the day, and the last of my Golden Tips samples. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk. This one is another second flush single estate variety, this time from Lokwah. It was picked on 26th June 2014. The dry leaf is fairly short and straight, and predominantly a uniform black-brown, escept for the odd golden-tipped leaf.

The first sip of this one reminds me instantly of maltesers. It has a malted chocolate sort of flavour, very smooth and creamy. There are light raisiny notes in the background, but the main flavour is definitely milk chocolate, maybe with a touch of caramel richness. Chocolate isn’t a flavour I typically associate with assams, so I’m quite surprised (and pleased!) to have found it here. This is definitely one of the more unusual, unique assams I’ve tried, and a potential repurchase with my next Golden Tips order. Yummy!

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp

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70

First cup of the morning; 1 tsp of leaf, 3 minutes in boiling water, plus a splash of milk. This particular assam is a second flush single estate variety from Borpatra, picked on 25th March 2014. The dry leaf is short, a little twisted, and a pretty uniform black. There’s the odd golden-tinged leaf scattered throughout, but no more than that. To taste, though, this is such a sweet, malty assam. It has strong raisin notes, which I love, and which are reminding me a little of some of my favourite Taiwanese assams. It’s faintly reminiscent of fruit cake, although nowhere near as intense. It’s smooth and not especially tannic, so a good choice for a morning cup. I’m impressed with this one.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp

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100

I had 2 steepings of this over the day today. With the second steeping I was also eating Darkside Skittles. OMG… the intense malt and the fruit and the sweet? A-MAZ-ING. Such a plebian desecration of this gorgeous tea, but it was soooo good. Now I need to try it with a splash of cream but I get the feeling that might be dangerous. I love it so much unaltered.

Sil

darkside skittles……..

Nicole

A device of the devyl. I snarf entire family size bags in a day. Normal Skittles no longer hold any appeal. I truly try not to buy them but sales happen. It’s not just tea I lack willpower with. :)

Fjellrev

I had to google da Skittles. I was hoping they’d be LE Star Wars Skittles or something. Yoda Yuzu and Darth Durian.

Nicole

That would be awesome. They should do that. :)

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100

This is one of the few teas that I can taste and smell exactly what the vendor’s descriptions say is there. I smell fruits and wood and the flavor is pure malt with vanilla hiding in the background. A sweet finish with mild bitterness that fades quickly.

Truly an awesome Assam blend. This must be kept in my cupboard.

I think 3 1/2-4 minutes is my sweet spot for this tea. Five minutes would get too bitter for me and 3 isn’t strong enough. :)

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C 3 min, 45 sec 2 tsp 12 OZ / 354 ML
Fjellrev

Mmm, sounds like a wonderful Assam.

Nicole

@Fjellrev… I do have 100g coming at some point once it gets through customs. Would you like to try some? And Golden Tips has a really low threshold for free international shipping. :)

Fjellrev

Thanks for the offer but I’m ok, really! So swamped and behind with what I already have. I’ll just wishlist it and order it someday. :)

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90

I’m half way through my Golden Tips samples now! While I love Assam, I’m trying to space them out between other teas as I try each one for the first time, so that I can get an accurate impression of the flavour, rather than just a comparison to the one I drank previously.

This is a second flush assam, harvested in June 2014. There looks to be about a 50/50 split between wiry, black-brown leaves and slightly downy golden leaves. There are also some golden tipped leaves. The scent is malty, maybe a little woody. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3 minutes in boiling water. I added a splash of milk.

The one thing the scent and appearance didn’t prepare me for at all was the flavour! Usually it’s possible to get a rough idea, but this tea was a complete dark horse. From my observations of the dry and brewing leaf, I was expecting a fairly generic assam, strong and malty but perhaps not with many distinguishing features that would really mark it out. I was totally wrong. The mild chocolate and smooth caramel notes are obvious from the very first sip. They’re not strong, in your face flavours, but they’re definitely what this tea tastes of. The ubiquitous maltiness emerges in the mid-sip, and adds a sweetness that helps to define the chocolatiness still further. There’s a light woodiness towards the end of the sip, so I wasn’t completely wrong, but it’s not at all the defining flavour of the cup. I’m pleased also with how smooth this assam is; there’s no hint of astringency, and neither is it particularly tannic. Just perfect for my tastes, then!

This is a tea I’d repurchase, if only for it’s beautiful chocolate and caramel notes. It’s certainly an assam like few others I’ve tried.

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 0 sec 1 tsp
donkeyteaarrrraugh

hard to tell the difference between the assams some time, but I also like this one!

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85

This is a second flush Assam from Golden Tips Tea, picked in June 2014 on the Halmari Tea Estate. The dry leaf smells sweet and malty with a rich, nutty undertone, and it’s a treasure to look at. The leaves themselves are fairly thin and a little curly, mostly dark brown but with some lighter golden tipped leaves, and some pure golden leaves, scattered throughout. I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it 3.5 minutes in boiling water. The resulting liquor is a bright reddish-brown, and I added a splash of milk.

When I read the name of this tea, I was hoping that it would be a “Golden Lion” variety. These Assams have a lot in common with Chinese Yunnan black teas, which I absolutely adore. Judging by the scent of the wet leaf, it looks like my wish has been granted. Sweet potato and chocolate notes abound!

To taste, this one is an absolute delight. The initial sip is quite strong – very, very malty, with a strong squashy, yam like flavour. It’s also quite tannic, so perhaps to be avoided on an empty stomach. Successive sips show this to be a very smooth tea, although I’m pretty sure the milk is helping to round out what might otherwise have been quite rough edges. The chocolate notes emerge towards the end of the sip, and add an extra layer of sweet creaminess to what is already a sweet, smooth, malty cup. This is certainly a full-bodied tea; rich and flavourful, and immensely satisfying as a mid-afternoon pick me up.

See my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/06/30/halmari-gold-assam-golden-tips-tea/

Preparation
Boiling 3 min, 30 sec 1 tsp

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55

This is the Crush-Tear-Curl (or CTC) version of Golden Tips Tea’s signature blend Exotic Assam. For those unfamiliar, CTC is a method of mechanised tea processing, during which the tea leaves are passed through cylindrical rollers lined with tiny “teeth” which shred and roll the leaf into tiny pellets. The dry leaf smells very strong – malty with an edge of bitterness. It’s a smell I associate with the supermarket tea bags of my childhood. The leaf itself is a uniform black, formed into tiny balls.

I used 1 tsp of leaf for my cup, and gave it a scant 1.5 minutes in boiling water. This one brews FAST, and the resulting liquor darkens to a deep chocolate brown mere seconds after the leaf is added to the water. The scent at this stage is powerful, too – it’s readily identifiable as “tea” in the best builder’s sense of the word. Like the dry leaf, it’s malty with a bitter edge. I added a good splash of milk.

To taste, this one seems a little generic. It’s sweet and malty, as Assam typically is, and it has a thick, almost syrupy mouthfeel because of that. There’s a tiny hit of bitterness right at the end of the sip, although this intensifies as I continue to drink until it’s ultimately a little drying and astringent. My teeth actually feel a little “furry” after about half a cup, assumedly from the high tannin levels. This is definitely a full-bodied tea, but it’s a little one-note, and lacks some depth and complexity. It’s malty, for sure, but that’s about all I can really say.

See my full review here: http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/06/25/ctc-assam-exotic-black-tea-golden-tips/

Preparation
Boiling 1 min, 30 sec 1 tsp

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Had some this morning before work. I think I overleafed a bit, but I was surprised by the flavour. It was very smooth and had no astringency, but it wasn’t fruity like a typical Darjeeling. There was a savoury note here – kinda like a Chinese black, but not quite? Hard to describe.

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Backlog:

Yeah, so I was almost caught up at one point a few months ago and I let it all slide. I was really, really busy with everything that I had to do with the Kickstarter campaign and now with the tea biz, but I do still feel like I should at least post the info about the last few months of tea reviews that I wrote … so when I have a moment or two, I’ll be stopping by and trying to get caught up. At least I won’t be getting more behind now that I’m not writing reviews anymore.

This is a really delightful second flush. Beautiful muscatel notes. The sip begins sweet, grape-y and then transcends into some earthy and woodsy tones. Nice complexity. The finish has what I referred to as a “sugared grape” type of taste. Really nice!

http://sororiteasisters.com/2015/01/16/thurbo-moonlight-second-flush-darjeeling-black-tea-from-golden-tips/

looseTman

No more LiberTEAS! I will truly miss your expert reviews! :-(

LiberTEAS

Thank you @looseTman – I’ll miss it, I’m sure. But, I really am having the time of my life blending teas right now. It’s really awesome to get back into that saddle.

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92

Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge – August Tea #8 -An Indian tea

I had this weeks ago, trying to post a couple notes I left hanging.  I forgot how nice this Darj is, even if it’s old!  This has such a light lemon tart flavor to it.  Which means I don’t want to quite finish this one yet… it’s very unique.  But I’m away from my tea collection, so I will count this for the prompt. A 92 rating from me for a Darj… this must be my highest rated Darjeeling other than maybe Butiki.

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92

’Here’s Hoping’ Teabox Round #4 – Tea #27

Now here is a first flush I can love! I’ve never really tasted a Darjeeling type first flush I’ve liked the flavor of this much. To me, it’s a really creamy sweet lemon flavor that I’ve only really noticed in bai mu dan before. It doesn’t really have any muscatel. The leaves are larger and also a mixture of greens and whites. Both steeps the same and both delicious!
Steep #1 // 20-30 minutes after boiling // 2 min steep
Steep #2 // 20 min a.b. // 2-3 min

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95

Yay!!! It’s Friday afternoon, I got off work a little early and my plan for the rest of the afternoon involves nothing more than a cup of tea or two and a couple of chapters of my most recent book while lounging around on the couch ignoring all the things that need to be done around the house… After all, tomorrow is another day!

This tea is a little cup of deliciousness! Its malty, seriously hoppy, has a hint of vanilla and a touch of wood and I hope this cup never ever runs out! Bold but silky, bitter but sweet, this is pretty amazing cup! Thanks to Nicole for sharing this with me… It’s looking more and more likely that I’ll be making an order with Golden Tips very very soon!!

TeaBrat

sounds like a good Friday! what are you reading?

beelicious

The Poisoned Pilgrim by Oliver Potzsch – its the fourth book in a series… its not the best of the four but its still pretty good :)

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60

Pleasant, mellow, not bitter.

Preparation
190 °F / 87 °C 5 min, 0 sec 8 g 40 OZ / 1175 ML

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