Golden Monkey
A bud-heavy Fujian black tea with a high proportion of golden down in the dry leaf, brewing sweet, malty and cocoa-rich with very little astringency. It sits between everyday Chinese black tea and the bud-only luxury grades in both price and character.
Character
Smooth and cocoa-sweet with almost no bite, which makes it an easy black tea to drink plain and a poor one to put milk in.
- Flavour
- Chocolate, Sweet
- Aroma
- Honeyed, Malty
- Mouthfeel
- Smooth, Medium
- Complexity
- Moderate
- Notes
- cocoa, honey, malt, orchid
- Aftertaste
- Soft and sweet, fading gently.
Moderate intensity: noticeable weight or grip, but neither dominates the cup.
Provenance and production
- Origin
- China
- Region
- Fuding
- Oxidation
- Fully oxidised
- Harvest
- Spring
- Processing
- Withering → Rolling and shaping → Oxidation → Drying
History
An export name rather than a Chinese one, applied to bud-heavy Fujian black teas from the late twentieth century. The name describes appearance for a Western market and does not correspond to a single Chinese product.
Brewing
Western brewing (teapot or mug)
1–1.5 g/100 ml · 88–93 °C · 1 authored infusion
Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)
4–5 g/100 ml · 90–95 °C · 5 authored infusions
No caffeine estimate is authored for this tea. TeaHQ does not infer one from its category, because category predicts caffeine poorly — matcha and gyokuro carry more than many black teas.
Common mistakes
- Treating it as a breakfast tea and brewing it at full boil
If you like this
Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.
Editorially linked
Someone wrote down why these two belong together. The note below is theirs.
- Dian Hong
Both are bud-heavy Chinese blacks built on cocoa and malt sweetness with very little astringency.
- Golden Needle
Two export names for bud-heavy Chinese black teas, one Fujian and one Yunnan. Neither name corresponds to a single Chinese product and both describe appearance for a Western market.
Similar sensory profile
Shares controlled flavour, aroma and mouthfeel descriptors. A looser match — two teas can share descriptors and still taste nothing alike.
- Assam golden tips
Shares 5 descriptors with Golden Monkey: chocolate, sweet, smooth, malty and honeyed.
- Tanyang Gongfu
Shares 5 descriptors with Golden Monkey: sweet, smooth, medium, honeyed and malty.
- Tanyang Jin Hao
Shares 5 descriptors with Golden Monkey: sweet, chocolate, medium, smooth and honeyed.
- Yi Hong
Shares 5 descriptors with Golden Monkey: sweet, medium, smooth, honeyed and malty.
- Anamalai tea
Shares 4 descriptors with Golden Monkey: sweet, medium, smooth and malty.
- Assam clonal
Shares 4 descriptors with Golden Monkey: sweet, smooth, malty and honeyed.