Golden Monkey

Before I begin, I will apologize to the lovers of black teas. I do not hate them, and I am not saying they are bad teas in the least. They're just not my favorites. However, I do enjoy a pot or three of my favorite black teas when, for example, I want to curl up with a good book.

I'm having Adagio's Golden Monkey, which before (though not here) I have said is my favorite of the black tea samples that I had ordered. I'm using my glass tea pot, and my Swiss Gold infuser. Using the common 3g per 8oz, that's 6g for the pot. I'll do two infusions.

I think some teas are simply intended to be made certain ways. I won't say that a tea that does well gong fu should only be steeped that way, but black teas seem to have more of a history as a little-tea-and-lots-of-water category. So that's what I'll do.

It seems a lot of people recommend having black teas (more breakfast blends though, or the main teas of breakfast belnds) with a bit of milk and sugar. Not me, though. I just don't have any (unexpired) milk at this point. but I did try it with a bit of sugar at one point, just to see.

So, take one: Three minutes of steeping rendered a golden-orange liquid. I am reminded of my complaint about the infuser, only that it doesn't drain as thoroughly as I'd like. But that's fine.

The tea? It's a lot like most black teas, but it has a nice boldness. Someone describes it as having a citrus background. It's not sour, but I'd find myself agreeing more with the descriptions of subtle floral or fruity hints. With sugar, the tea simply became sweeter. Some people claim that sugar can bring out subtleties from a tea, and some say milk is better at that. I can't vouch for the milk. But I can say sugar didn't help with that. So I ditched teh sweetness after that cup.

The second infusion was a much darker, richer brown. In part, I'd almost blame this on the fact that the infuser doesn't completely drain, so the warm water in the leaves continued the brewing. But that's fine. This tea seems reluctant to become bitter -- at least astringent. The favor is a little bitter, though, in the sense of the deeper flavors being pulled from the leaves. And the boldness is still possessed.

So that's about it. Here's the second half of the second pot! I might go ahead on a third, but I'm not yet sure.

A lot of people have recommended Adagio's Yunnan Gold over golden Monkey. I'll perhaps order a sample, and see how I like it (especialy while I still have some GM for a side-by-side comparison).

Ah, Ceylon and a short story

Ceylon: a black tea from Sri Lanka. There are, of course, green and white varieties of Ceylon. But Adagio's offering in their "Black Sampler" is Ceylon Sonata, a black tea. The higher quality offering is called Ceylon Waltz, but as a novice I ordered the more economical option.

Tea: Ceylon 'Sonata' from Adagio
Amount: 3.6g (110mL Gaiwan, ~1g/30mL)
Water: (first several infusions) Just off boiling, decanted for cooling.
(latter infusions) Just off boiling, short cooling period before pouring. (I should mayyybe get a thermometer)
Infusion: Several short infusions ranging from ~15s to ~75s

My initial impression of this tea was the brief sweetness at the tip of my tongue, a nice roundness through the rest of the sip, and something familiar. But I decided to let the tea wash over my senses and ignore that for a moment. Yes, overall a nice roundness and consistency through most of the infusions. Sure, the flavor weakened a bit as did the color, and the bitterness became a bit more pronounced. That's fine. That's tea. Appreciation comes for all of its elements. But whatever. It kind of brings me to something that probably needs to be said here: I like a lot of things. Some could say I like too much.

So now you have it. I do appreciate good teas, and i definitely like them more than bags of chopped leaf powder. Then again, I do enjoy southern iced tea (more as a meal accompaniment though). And that brings the familiarity with the Ceylon Sonata. It tasted like unsweetened (un-iced) tea.

I decided to use our good friend Google to find what I could about Ceylon teas. As it turns out, the bane of gourmet tea drinkers uses Ceylon tea (though likely the uhm 'most economical possible') in its "Iced Tea" bags. I guess at least several others do, too, considering the similar taste in the different brands' teas. But it's no reason to set this tea aside. Actually, it may be a good tea to use to introduce iced tea drinkers to loose tea. If they're every made hot tea, they've probably just plopped a single cup-sized bag into a mug of hot water for 'a few minutes' or 'until it cooled enough for me to drink it.' The familiar flavor will keep from frightening them away. The more complex flavor will interest them.

Of course, the hard part follows: Not only are you left with convincing your new loose Ceylon tea convert to use less (and eventually no?) sugar, but also to try other kinds of loose tea.

Then again, tea is about the drinker and not always about the tea. If someone like bagged tea, that's fine. there's no reason to force anyone to drink one or the other, if that's what the person likes or not.

So now, it's on to the story.

Two days ago I had a root canal, and afterwards I stopped by my sister's job to say hello and what-not. I mentioned this blog. She apparently misheard me and started typing "teen elvis" in stead of "tea novice" into the url! I guess I was still slurring more than I realized!