White Persian Melon

I’d been dying to try some additional (other than Coconut Pouchong) Golden Moon teas for a while, and was super excited when Alphakitty not only had them in her cupboard, but was willing to pass some along! Yay! Problem solved (now let’s hope I don’t like them tooooooo too much, because they don’t ship to Canada IIRC, and that’s annoying!)

Strangely, I’m getting almost a fermenty/rotten melon scent from the tea, which started the instant I put the leaves into the water. Not quite what I was expecting. I thought perhaps there was some cross-contamination between the teas, but then I remembered how to box smelled deliciously like chocolate raspberry, so I highly doubt that was the case. (I just went back to the little baggie of tea and sniffed it, but alas, the baggie smells too much like choco-rasp to pick out the tea)!

The sip tastes much better. I’m getting more of an overripe cantaloupe sort of flavour, mixed with a hint of….. Play-Dough???? That’s an odd association. Only getting perhaps a hint of white tea at the end of the sip.

I’m kind of glad I didn’t order this tea for myself. It’s not bad, but there’s something a little off about it. I’m going to leave the rest of my sample to “air out” (I do it with all my swaps, improves them a lot!) and see if it is an intruding flavour, but I really don’t think so. Either way, I’m pretty sure I wouldn’t prefer this over Butiki’s Cantaloupe and Cream, and there’s only room for one melon white tea in my cupboard!

Thanks for the sample, Alphakitty!

ETA: Second infusion, 160F/3min, is similar to the first. Still that overripe melon sort of flavour, with a really nice white tea flavour at the end. I really think I might have enjoyed it far more prior to Cantaloupe & Cream though. … sipping it more, the “overripeness” doesn’t really bother me all that much now.

I was visiting my mom today, which meant coffee, coffee, coffee!! Now that I’m home, I wanted to relax with a cup of tea, but I’m already climbing-up-the-walls-caffeinated. I thought this sweet and mellow tea would fit the bill. Ahhhhhh. Exotic elixir! Where are the peeled grapes ;) I just love the melon flavor mixed with the almost buttery white tea. A real afternoon treat.

I have to hustle on to some chores after this hot cup, so I put the used leaves in my pitcher with a pinch of fresh leaves and some water for a cold brewed iced tea. I know this one is good for multiple infusions and I just hate to waste em! I think I’ll give it a wee bit of honey when it’s ready to drink.

Full Review tomorrow on http://sororiteasisters.com/ but here are the snippits and a special thank you to Alpahkitty for this sample!

White Persian Melon from Golden Moon Tea is one of my top five favorites from this company.

There is just such a light and lively flavor to this delicate Bai Mudan. The aroma is sweet and juicy fresh and reminds me of why I am longing for summer.

White Persian Melon also has a tad bit of a wine like flavor to me, almost bordering on a brandy like essence which I really enjoy.

Golden Moon Tea Sampler #11, selected at random

I do like melon and was looking forward to this tea very much. It is not disappointing. I brewed only about 3.5 ounces of water because I didn’t want to flavour to get watered down too much. Am I the only person who uses a couple of tablespoons of loose-leaf tea for a decent sized mug?

In any event, I think I got the tea/water ratio spot-on; the water was boiled and then cooled somewhat (although I don’t know to what precise degree) and I set the timer for 4 minutes (Golden Moon advises 2-4 minutes).

So….I’m most certainly going to put this on my list for a “treat tea”. It’s a bit delicate for a morning tea and probably a bit costly for an everyday tea, but this is the first of my Golden Moon samples where I know that I will have to purchase the tea. I’ll wait to see what else becomes a “must”. This melon’s divine!

I love melons, and Rishi’s Honeydew Melon is one of my favorite teas. I’ve heard that this is quite similar, so I’m expecting to like this one very much. I took this unsweetened.

The scent of this one is like baking bread. It’s yeasty and almost smells a little like beer. The melon in this is pretty subtle, not surprisingly. It blends perfectly with the white tea in the background. This is a very light tea that would probably be sublime when iced. It leaves practically no aftertaste. I feel that the addition of sweetener would make this too sweet.

I can’t decide if I’m tasting muskmelon or honeydew or both, but whatever it is, it is good! Another winner from Golden Moon!

EDIT: In case you were wondering, I think I like this better than Rishi’s version. Rishi’s is still excellent, but the melon is a hair artificial. This wins by a mere 3 points.

This is very yummy! True melon! Straight, fresh cut, from a salad bar! Almost WIne-Like and sugary – naturally! YAY!

I picked up a tin of this on sale at Cardullo’s a few weeks back and have been going through it at a good clip. I’m not a big fan of melons in fruit form, but as a gentle flavoring on white tea it works quite well. This is no candied watermelon either, more like a squeeze of fresh honeydew into the mug.

I haven’t been drinking a lot of white tea lately, so I don’t have anything nuanced to say there. This is, in fact, why I keep this one at the office – the fact that it’s flavored means I don’t feel as guilty when I can’t brew it just so and give it my full attention (which for white tea I normally would). Every tea has its place!

This is going to be a very trying day for me as I am having a lot of trouble getting my fingers to communicate correctly with my brain. Case in point [though you can’t see what just happened and will simply have to take my word for it]: I just had to delete and re-type the word “communicate” seven times. And three more just now.

If this is indicative of how the rest of the typing I’m going to be doing to get schoolwork done today, maybe I should just cut to the chase and start crying now.

Luckily, during some of life’s gloomier and more frustrating sequences, we have tea. And I picked a good one this morning.

I can see this becoming a staple.

Carolyn mentioned in her review that she caught a flash of midori when she drank this and that is exactly what I parse out. For me it’s more present in the smell than in the taste, but that’s perfectly fine by me. Anyone who’s ever had midori knows how sweet it is, [and for those of you who don’t know…er, it’s pretty sweet] and so to have it take over the taste in this tea would be cloying.

Don’t get me wrong, midori is actually my absolutely favorite liqueur. Midori sours are my go-to drink when I’m out because I’m a girly drinker and I don’t like to taste the alcohol in what I’m sipping on. But, that’s a different class of drinking. When I’m drinking tea I don’t want to think that I’m drinking alcoholic kool-aid.

Sometimes when I sniff this as the scent rises out of the cup, I think I’m smelling apple cider, which is also something I enjoy quite a bit. The scent of the leaves themselves has little hints of both the melon and the cider, but also something else I can’t place. As a single entity, it smells a little bit like candy.

The tea is light, but has the softness in its flavor that honeydew melon, or perhaps cantaloupe contribute. I find it subtle and calming. There are likely to be aspects of it that I’m not picking up presently, but I’m too busy typing and retyping characters to be too bothered at the present. I expect I’ll be spending some quality time with it in the future.

This tasting note has been brought to you by Carolyn, the letter K, and Mavis Beacon.

Okay, I’m bad at this no-caffeine thing. In my defense, this is probably the lowest-caffeine option I could have chosen. I was craving one of Golden Moon’s white teas, and I’m honestly thinking about ordering one or two more. They’re just so delicate and wonderful! I’m also thinking about getting 8 oz. of Sinharaja, which may be too much but mom and I both love it. Plus with the promotion they have going on it’d be about $2 more than the 3.5 oz…

This smells so mouthwatering. It’s probably the only way I’m getting fresh melon anything in the middle of winter, so I’ll enjoy it. Not sure what I did differently this time around, but this cup has a bit of a spicy vegetal note to it. Still absolutely delicious either way.

I cold steeped this before, which is a total waste. Seriously. In the future if I want it iced, I’ll do it a normal way because it does not do it justice.

Now I can really taste all the cantaloupe flavor, with just a touch of honeydew. I love it. I don’t even care for cantaloupe or honeydew, and this makes me want to go out and get one of each and eat them.

There’s still a bit of flavor from the white tea, it gives it a bit of a floral edge and adds to the natural sweetness. This was good before when I couldn’t even taste all it had to offer, so now it’s even better in my eyes.