The dry leaves are brown and black with some stems and plenty of grapefruit pieces. The aroma the ingredients provide is tart and light but with overtones of sweetness.

The liquor brews a deep brown-amber with tinges of yellow around the outside. The aroma becomes more savory but is essentially the same as the dry profile holding on to the tart grapefruit overtones and a mild sweetness.

The flavor is smoother than expected. There is a simple bite at the tip of the tongue and some light dryness as well, but very little astringency. The tail keeps going and going with  a tart dryness remaining persistent. The grapefruit sweetness holds for the first few moments but dissipates somewhat quickly.

I would recommend this tea to any fan of Oolong, Grapefruit, fruit flavored teas and Darjeeling teas.

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The loose material came packaged in one of Adagio’s old tins. Now it will arrive in one of their splendid new pouches. Gone are the days of cracked or broken plastic lids or latches that are too loose!

The leaves in this blend appear as medium and light twisted pu’erh leaves. These are the same as Adagio’s Pu’erh Dante. However, mixed in are slivers of pumpkin and rum spice. The dry aroma provides a smooth but spiced scent on top of an earthy almost gritty base.

The liquor brews to a dark golden brown and almost reminds me of blood pudding or a fresh beef based soup stock. The aroma is much sweeter, almost malty and reminds me of a fresh CTC style Assam with a lump or two of sugar added in.

When sipping, the brew I noticed an uncharacteristic astringency. After a few tries I think I’ve nailed this down to the rum spice. The effect strengthens as the tea cools, so be sure to drink it hot. The pumpkin seems to soften the strength of this teas’ finish and the pu’erh base is clearly notable throughout. Hints of stone fruits like apricot or peach were noted as well.

While pu’erh purists will decry the suggestion, I think a little milk does this brew wonders. I’m not wont to adding milk to any tea but gave it a shot here with some positive measure of success.

I would readily suggest this tea to fans of pumpkin spice teas, including chai, as well as fans of Assam teas, breakfast teas, milk to soften and fans of Lapsang Souchong.

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The light green teas’ leaves are long needles. They’re maybe an inch and a half in length and stronger than you’d expect (if one were to try and break them… not that I did that or anything…). The dry aroma is grassy with hints of what I would call morning dew.

Brewed, the liquor comes out a light honey gold and an aroma that’s honeyed with some grassy notes and subtle floral hints. The aroma from the liquor is quite subtle though.

The flavor here is more direct. I found a grassy flavor at the start, almost akin to a Japanese Sencha but floral notes in the finish similar to a Jasmine. There’s plenty in this teas’ profile to pay attention to and to keep your palate interested.

This tea is notably astringent in the finish with a strong drying of the tongue and light drying of the palate.

I would recommend this tea to fans of Jasmine green teas, Senchas, Gunpowder greens, floral teas and white teas.

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Here’s the final installment of this three part recap to the activities and friends from this year’s expo!

Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Day 3

Ouch! So much ground to cover in a single day! Seven rows and we’ve only finished four! I gues it helps I didn’t attend any educational sessions this year. This would have been a five page set instead! Maybe next year.

First stop when the doors opened? Special Teas! This group has some rather fine offerings. Then, on to Florapharm. A bright logo, good quality product and an interesting name. This German company is housed in the US near my old stomping grounds in Owings Mills, MD. They even had a real live samovar (see last photo)!

Special Teas

Special Teas

Special Teas

Special Teas

Florapharm USA

Florapharm USA's samovar

Next I hit Eco Vita who do supplements and vitamins. Not really my scene. Then was Eastrise Trading Corp. who had the banner for Foojoy, a great chinese company who I had a good rapport with last year. No, on to Rooibos, Ltd. This company obviously specializes in Rooibos related teas.

Further down the isle I hit AOI Tea which specializes in Matcha. I had a little formal ceremony sit down with a great little Japanese woman who whisked the tea up in a little bowl for me to drink. It was extremely good!

Next was Harney & Sons. Last year I was lucky enough to meet both Michael and John Harney at their booth. This year, the booth was considerably smaller and the Harney’s themselves weren’t present. I was a little disappointed.

AOI Matcha

Moving on I had the pleasure of hitting Sugimoto America again. They won an award this year for their greeting cards with a pretty sealed teabag in it based on the occasion. That was kinda neat.

Tavalon Tea was next. Their packaging is some of the more unique I think. Clear plastic that’s UV coated so you can see the tea is nice. What’s great is that unlike other UV plastic tins, these don’t just have a window in the tin to see the tea. The container is the window to see the tea.

Continuing, Stash Tea was the following stop. Most of us know Stash Tea from their tea bags sold in grocery stores and such. However, they have some great loose teas, and the new Chanakara line Cindy Harling showed me is really great, and available loose!

Oh My Gosh! PeLi Teas! The wonderful 2009 Pu’erh they had was equally pleasant in a tea bag as it was loose. Just incredible! Maeda-En was great as usual. With their Green Tea Mochi and their Iced Green Tea. Delicious!

What the heck is up with Sam Ritchey and his hair over at TeaGschwendner! That guys knows how to liven it up something real! A stop off at MarketSpice located in Pike Place in Seattle and a taste of Hojicha Gelee (which I’ll review down the road) at The Green Teaist and we close out the fifth row!

What a hectic run! But we’re only about a third of the way through our day! Will I be able to make it through the seventh row in time for closing? Follow along and we’ll see!

PeLi Teas

PeLi Teas

Maeda En

The Green Teaist

The Green Teaist

There’s a LOT going on here in the sixth row! Plenty to see. Let’s get started!

First stop? The Taiwan Tea Manufacturer’s Association. This is a conglomerated booth area made up of seven or eight Taiwanese tea companies all in one place. They’re almost independent of the expo! Too much to describe here. There’s lots of good stuff!

What’s this!?! Hawiian grown tea! I’ve known about the Hawaii projects for a while now, but it failed to register that anyone was close enough to production. Well, Liam Ball over at Na Liko Tea certainly is! The Hawaiian Oolong was spectacular. This is on top of being a first year production from plants just five years old! They really nailed it!

Tisano was next. They make cacao stuff. In this case their product is made from the outer shells of the cacao beans. This Equadoran product is pretty good actually and tastes like a hot chocolate but not as rich. The company actually helps in the picking and shipping processes for their product and gives some proceeds back to the community and growers from each sale.

Na Liko Tea from Hawaii

Na Liko Tea from Hawaii

Tisano Cacao Tea

Just across the split from Tisano… was Zealong, the New Zealand Oolong people. If you haven’t tried this stuff, seriously give it a go. I did. I’ll have a formal review up soemtime soon. Zealong has some of the best marketing this year I think, and their packaging is simply beautiful! Tulsi Organics across the walkway was another herbal beverages company. There seem to be plenty of these this year.

Time to take a peek at one of my favorite accessory makers… FORLIFE! Great looking stuff as always! Vibrant colors, unique styles. Good stuff.

On to Naivetea. I really like this brand’s identity. Clean and refined but with a slightly fancy augmentation. Always friendly, the couple who run this company are somehow calming to me. It could be the tea too, but there’s something about this fun pair from California!

Zealong New Zealand Oolong

Tulsi Organics

Naivetea

Next up? Hankook Tea who have some simple but nice packaging, and they’re representing Korean teas which are seriously under-represented in the industry. You go guys! On to Takeya USA! These guys make some really swell tea brewer jugs! Some of these are for chilled teas, and others are for hot teas. Some for large quantities and others for just a cup or two. You should check them out!

Keeping up the pace we have Shang Ri La Tea and Hancha Tea another company I remember from last year who has nice clean package design. A trip to Teas Etc. rounds out the 6th row. I mean what would the expo be without Beth and Newman Johnston!

Time for the final row already!?! The Expo can’t be over yet!?! I mean c’mon!

Takeya

Teas Etc

Teas Etc

Row seven is shorter and has less going on. I did run into Jason O. Walker from Walker Tea Review whom I met last year. If I’d been swifter maybe I’d have caught him before he was closing up. Maybe I could have even been in one of his review videos! That would have been killer!

A stop by the World Tea News booth was empty. All that was left was Torn Ranch.

I did make my way back to the International Tea Importers booth to grab a copy of the New Tea Dictionary and a photo-op with the author Mr. James Norwood Pratt.

Disappointed row 7 didn’t have more going on? Oh, fine! There was this row of new product displays. Maybe you’d like to see those, yeah? Here you go, I’ll leave you with these. I hope you enjoyed my coverage of the expo as much as I did getting to go again.

Me sniffing some Himalayan Tips

QTrade Teas & Herbs

Village Tea Mini Canisters

Tea friends Make a Toast

Tea Friends at Lotus of Siam for Dinner

ITO EN Bench Made of Recycled Tea

More Delicious Tea

David Smith Tea Blender

While Golden Monkey has a number of unique and interesting fables regarding its origins, the one portrayed above is the one I personally find most believable. Adagio has a separate fable they present on their site.

The leaves appear as a soft brown-black with tippy golden strands mixed in. The golden buds clearly shed some of their downy in the canister as the powder can be easily seen on the edges.

The aroma from the dry leaves is lightly heated. Some light reminiscence of toast is soemthing I noticed. Perhaps you will too.

The liquor steeps to a beautiful dark honey gold and provides a light malty aroma when brewed. Somehow similar to some of my favorite Assams but produced in a completely different fashion.

This Golden Monkey is light, cruising over the tongue rather effortlessly. However, in its stead there’s a notable astringent pucker and a slight drying of the palate. There’s a seductive bite in the finish leaving you wanting to take another sip.

I recommend this tea highly and would suggest it for anyone who enjoys lighter Chinese black teas such as Keemuns, Sri Lankan (Ceylon) black teas and Darjeelings.

Fans of Assams, CTC style Kenyan, Ugandan, Tanzanian and Zimbabwean African teas will find this tea a bit week, but should enjoy the flavor profile.

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