Golden Orchid

Sounds like my tea twin VariaTEA had a cup of this one too this evening; it’s been a while since we both made the same tea during the same day I do believe. Although, I do have to thank 221Tea because she was the lovely human being who provided me with a sample of this one!

Mostly, I think my thoughts on this echo VariaTEA’s; a little malt, a little bread, a little cream, a little chocolate and a whole heaping bundle of vanilla! Gotta add in too that I thought this one improved the cooler it got; it was somehow smoother and richer at a lower temperature.

Overall I thought this was good, dare I say it very good. Would I order it? Maybe. But I don’t know if I’d need to get it in any sort of quantity. More than likely I’ll just occasionally swap other Steepster members who are obsessed with this one for cup or two sized samples of it. I feel like that would be enough to keep me happy.

Quite literally the best tea I’ve ever had.

Sad Sipdown (made even sadder because this was removed from my cupboard so my number doesn’t change).

Anyways, I decided to splurge since tomorrow I am starting a clean eating challenge and that means no tea. So, for my last day of tea (for the next two weeks), I decided it was finally time to break out the last of this amazing sample courtesy of Cavocorax. This tea is creamy, bright, fresh and delicious and I am sad to see it go.

It’s one of those super rare indulgent lazy Sundays today in my house! 11am and the hubby is still fast asleep and I’m still in bed, in my pjs, reading a book and drinking tea…. A relaxing, super enjoyable morning calls for an amazing favorite tea and without even needing to think I pulled GO out of my cupboard! I’m almost at the end of this bag and so my cup is full of those little black specs that I love so much but are bittersweet because it means I’m back to waiting again for the next release of this blend. One of my absolute favorite teas of all time!!

This is only the second time I’ve had this tea since I bought an ounce. Why have I done this to myself?? I guess it’s just so good that it feels special and not like an every day tea. But I jumped on the golden orchid wagon this morning and brewed some up before breakfast/lunch/whatever.

It’s even better than I remembered. That’s the mark of an excellent tea! It’s rich, and fudgy, and just dreamy…sigh. One of the best things about this tea is that you still taste great tea and somehow simultaneously taste the rich vanilla and chocolate. It’s such a winning, no wonder it’s the number one tea on Steepster :)

Thanks to Mz P. for sending some of this my way!

I can see why people like this tea… it smells very chocolate-y in the bag and when you steep it up it’s so nice and rich. It definitely tastes like chocolate too! Is it a flavored tea or is it natural? I see it has vanilla in it which would explain the almost creamy quality it has. Anyway I’m glad I got to try this one! It’s good with soymilk and it’s also good plain.

I’m sure everyone enjoyed the break from my avalanche of tasting notes while I had the Butiki traveling teabox. haha. This was certainly the first tea I wanted to try once the teabox was traveling again. MzPriss sent me a few things even though I’m eagerly awaiting her teabox that seems like it only has the best teas!

THIS tea is the highest rated on Steepster and well deserved. It’s better than I expected, and I expected greatness. I haven’t given a tea a 99 rating in a while. I used 2 1/2 teaspoons. I was able to get three really nice steeps by waiting for the first cup after boiling a few minutes, the second a couple minutes, the third just boiled. This is exactly my sort of tea. Just look at those flavor notes. I had to check the ingredients list to make sure there actually wasn’t chocolate of any kind. There isn’t. I realize that this is a Yunnan Dian Hong blended with a Fujian, but this is the kind of flavor I look for whenever I try Verdant’s Laoshan. I’ve only tried steeping one teaspoon of the Laoshan though – maybe I should try 2 1/2 teaspoons at least once. This actually tastes like melted chocolate though. With some crunchy vanilla beans. I can see how WP compares this to cherry, but I wished there would have been more of that flavor. The third steep was still very good, but it seemed more like sweet potato than chocolate. Absolutely none of that cedary oversteeped flavor. This blend is absolutely amazing and I would love to try everything that WP ever blends!

For some reason I was really really craving a chocolate tea today. Don’t even know why, but I really was. This one totally hit the spot!
It’s not often that I crave chocolate-y teas, which is why I don’t have tons of them in my collection. I honestly kinda just feel the need to have this chocolate-y tea in my collection and no other one. Plus! This one doesn’t taste like wood! Keep thinking that maybe it will start tasting like wood randomly since apparently my taste buds love ruining everything, but they’ve not betrayed GO yet, so that’s good! XD

This is the second sample I ordered from Whispering Pines. After seeing how popular and well-liked it is around these parts, I thought I’d see what all the fuss is about. The dry leaf is a mixture of black and golden leaves. I know there’s vanilla bean in here but I think it’s camouflaged among the black leaves. It smells just like hot chocolate mix to me! Very creamy milk chocolate with vanilla sweetness akin to marshmallows. Oh, and I steeped 1.5 tsp for 3 minutes.

The brewed tea smells delicious! Like deep, sultry vanilla mixed with dark cocoa and notes of caramel sweetness. I can see why everyone loves this tea! There is a very present cocoa taste that hits me first when I take a sip. The vanilla is there but more subdued than I expected (I read in a recent note that the presence of chocolate can cause us to not notice vanilla as much, maybe this is the case). I also taste warm freshly baked bread (maybe a sweet, rich bread like brioche or challah). I never really knew what “malty” meant in tea descriptions, but I think I can taste it in this tea, especially in the aftertaste – sort of a rich almost sourness but in a pleasant way, like yeast dough or dark beer. I would describe it as foamy. :P I drank the second half of this cup with a wee bit of sugar and I thought it helped the vanilla immensely (sorry all you purists). I’m not really sure I’m qualified to rate this tea but it was super delicious, so too bad! Aww, it’s all gone…

There is a very slight, subtle smokiness here. It’s extremely subtle, more like a campfire from a distance. There is a light richness to this cup otherwise, some maltiness, and a hint of vanilla. It’s really a well done tea, but not for me.