My first experience with Keemun wasn’t a great one; I found it bitter and kind of smoky, and I’ve more or less avoided them ever since. I received this as a sample with my last Whispering Pines order, though, and based on the success I’ve had with their teas recently, I felt encouraged to give it a try. I followed the recommended parameters and used 1/2 tbsp of leaf, in water just cooled from boiling (about 200 degrees), for three minutes. No additions. The resulting liquor is medium brown, and smells of malt and chocolate.
Upon tasting, I’m instantly reminded of some of the Taiwanese black teas I’ve tried. This shares the same fruitiness, and has the undisputedly delicious bread and chocolate notes that I really enjoy in plain black teas.The initial flavour is chocolate, and while it has a creaminess and a lightness of flavour that put me in mind of milk chocolate, it also has a slight cocoa-like dryness that reminds me of a high quality dark chocolate. After the chocolate comes the distinctive taste of bread; rye like and a little yeasty.
For all the rich-sounding flavours, I’m actually finding this quite a refreshing, clean-tasting tea. There’s a hint of something almost eucalyptus-like right at the end of the sip which leaves a fresh coolness on the palate. I can definitely see why it’s called Pine Peak!
After tasting this one, what I’d really like it to breathe some mountain air. As that’s not possible, I’m going to settle for trying a few more keemuns. Hopefully some of them are as good as this one!
this one is really different than a lot of keemuns that i’ve tried. Sounds liek your first experience was with the smokey variety…