Friday, December 21, 2007

Golden Mudan from Harney & Sons

Scent in package: not much
Brewed in: tea-for-one/metal infuser
Steeped: 5 min. @ boiling
Cup: Café mug

I either missed an illustration when ordering this tea, or something, but you can imagine my surprise when I opened the sample pack, and instead of loose tippy black tea, I found several tea “wreaths” tied together (comprised of long black & golden leaves…beautiful). This means I should probably pay more attention to what I’ve ordered, if only so I know to have a camera at the ready when doing a review. Since I’m at work, I don’t, and we’ll have to live without pictures, but it is a very nice presentation of this particular tea – you’ll just have to take my word(s) for it.

There’s no real scent to the tea in the package, and it actually looks a bit unappetizing just out of the bag. But it brews up into a lovely light brown ball of leaf tips floating in the pot, and the liquor is very light golden, like the water from boiling raisins. It’s very clear, with a thicker viscosity, and has sort of a “baked goods” fragrance, like raisin bread or the like (guess I’m on a raisin kick today).

Oh, Wow!

Those were my first words upon tasting this tea. It’s phenomenal. It’s thick on the tongue and very sweet, like liquid honey. It reminds me of hot fresh biscuits with butter and honey, or bread dough – sweet with a slight yeasty tang (that you wouldn’t peg as such unless you really thought about it). It’s very smooth and mellow, perfect for a lazy afternoon, or even a snowy winter mid-morning treat.

I really don’t know what else to say about this amazing tea – except “get some”! It’s left me nearly speechless, for whatever that’s worth. It’s not even an expensive tea – a sample is $2, or you can get a 2oz. tin for $6. Treat yourself – you won’t regret it.

3 comments:

  1. Well, I'm convinced. Since I seem always to be looking for more black teas, I appreciated this review, both for the specific terms of what you found agreeable and for pointing out the reasonable price. I've placed my order at Harney.

    How did you decide how much to use? Did you measure by the wreath, the teaspoon, the eyeball, or the gram scale?

    You write an entire novel? I am flabbergasted. How long? About what? It must take hundreds(?) of hours. How about an off topic post on the experience of writing something very long very quickly? And how do you come up with an idea? Just too many questions about the whole thing...

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  2. You won't be sorry for that order, Salsero...it's amazing tea. I just used one wreath for my 12oz pot/cup...Normally with art or tied teas, it's one "bundle" per cup, or a couple for a pot. I'm kind of an "eyeballer" when it comes to tea - I don't have a gram scale, so I have to rely on teaspoons or sight...which is what it generally ends up being.

    Every year, I participate in National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) - an internet community of would-be authors. My novels are normally fiction (suspense, romance, etc), and the object of the month is to write 50,000 words in 30 days...the fast track of first draft writing. I'd add a post, but it would be just as easy for you to visit my NaNoWriMo blog, Tales from the Corner Table, which has not only my cries of desperation as I'm writing throughout the month, but samples of my work so you can see how truely horrible the first draft is (don't say I didn't warn you)! I'm planning to start editing this year's novel next month, and will post there as I go along. :-)

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  3. Great Scott! You write 50,000 words in a month, run 2 blogs, hold down a job ... how many of you are there? Have you considered incorporating?

    I look forward to spending some time with Tales from the Corner, and thanks for the guidance on the Mudan dosage.

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