Saturday, September 12, 2009

Tea Tasting Saturday #37 - Keemun Mao Feng



I am so happy to have arrived at the Keemuns just as cooler weather has begun to arrive. The high was only 79 degrees yesterday. Brrr!

Category: Black Tea

Purveyor: Upton Tea

Dry leaf appearance: Dark, almost black bits of tea leaf which, thanks to a comment I recently read about another tea, reminded me of pencil shavings.

Wet leaf appearance: A bird's nest after a tornado.

Steeping temperature and time: 1 teaspoon of tea, 205 degrees, 4 minutes.

Scent: The dry tea had that lovely earthy scent I know to be Keemun scent. The steeped tea? Now don't freak out, but ... it reminded me of wet leather and fire ashes -- and I loved it!

Color: Coppery brown.

Flavor: This tea has a great earthy taste I love, and I drank it straight black.

Additional notes: From the Harney book: "The name Keemun is an older Western spelling of the town now known as Qimen (pronounced "Chee-men"). There is also great information on how and when this tea is harvested.

Next week's tea:
Keemun Hao Ya A

4 comments:

  1. You must definately be a Southerner. I consider 79 verging on Hot! But you made that Keemun sound wonderful. I've not had good luck with them, but you inspired me to try again.

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  2. Ah, that is good timing! Maybe I'll try to hustle through the greens so that I can at least do the Oolongs in winter. :-)

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  3. Bird's nest after a big storm. That's a compelling way to describe the agony of the leaves. --Spirituality of Tea

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  4. This sounds like my kind of tea. I like Keemun and I'm always looking for black teas that I can enjoy without milk.

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