Keemun A

Well. Who am I to resist a Keemun? You will never find the perfect Keemun if you do not try all the ones you come across. No need for samples here, as I have never met a Keemun I could not drink. The whole 140g tin for me please!

This company has some funny amounts for sale. Rather than setting standard amounts for their products, they have a standard container and then see how much they can get in there. With Keemun, 140g. Wtih the Ceylon Galle only 120g in the same tin. The tins look nice enough. Metal, wrapped with paper and with double lids. But they have shoulders. I get the purpose of this, making the exposed area of leaf whenever the tin is opened as small as possible, but I hate a shouldered tin. It’s such a hassle reaching when you get to the bottom of it and it’s difficult to empty completely. And it’s a good thing we have a dishwasher, or I wouldn’t have bothered trying to wash it at all. For anything else than leaf preservation, shouldered tins are not very practical at all.

However, Chaplon sells tea in these tins and they also sell tea in refill bags! So here’s to hoping this is the Keemun I shall find myself wanting to refill! That would make most of my complaints about the non-practical tin moot. (I definitely think I might want to refill the Gâlle, even if Husband didn’t find it as spectacular as I did. That’s why I bought two Roy Kirkham pots after all)

The leaf has a floral sort of aroma to it with just smidge of smoke in the background. It doesn’t come across as particularly grainy either, although there is some of that too. Mostly it’s just the floral and maybe a little leathery. Hmm. I was hoping for more grain and smoke, really. Still, it doesn’t mean all is lost. The aroma of a tea rarely translates directly into flavour for me. Usually there is a difference balance between notes.

After steeping, it seems much better. It’s got a good, round grainy body topped with that floral note with a smidge of smoke. I could have wanted it to be a wee bit more smoky than floral rather than the other way around, but I can deal with this as well. It does actually smell very good and very very promising. On the whole, it’s a thick and smooth aroma, which comes very very close to being Just Right.

The top note seems right on the balance between floral and smoky. At first I can’t seem to decide if it’s more one or the other, but then, as I’m ready to swallow, I think it’s mostly smoky. And yet, a floral aftertaste is lingering right on the tip of my tongue, which feels kinda funny. So far so good! All I need now is a good, strong, grainy body that makes me think of rye bread.

Well, it’s not traditional Danish rye bread, but it’s actually almost better! It’s all sweet and brown sugar-y. Like a slice of rye sprinkled with brown sugar. I’ve even brewed it a little stronger than I usually would this morning and now it tastes all dark and a little bit sinister. It’s totally swirling a theatrical theater cape in my head right now.

“This is not the Perfect Keemun,” says Ang’s brain.

“Well, what would you change?” asks Ang’s tongue.

“…” gapes Ang’s brain.

Yes, I think I’ve come closer than ever to it. Closer than ever! I can’t tell if it’s the One True Perfect Keemun for me yet, I need to have it some more times, but we are definitely very close to it. Close enough that for now I will say the search has at least temporarily ended. Like Auggy said of a Keemun not too long ago, “I’m sure TeaSpring has a Keemun that could wipe the floor with this one and make it cry for its mommy”, but this particular one is available from inside the actual country and therefore not expensive in shipping, and it’s affordable in Srs Bsnss amounts. Those two are major factors when calculating the Perfection Score!

And to think I just added it to the order as an afterthought because, hey, Keemun, why not? Why exactly is it I haven’t shopped here in years and years and years?

(Oh yeah, and this is another one where I need to translate the vendor’s info for you lot. I’ll get around to it soon, I promise. I’ve put it on my to-do list so that I don’t forget.)

I received a lovely tea package from the (even lovelier) Angrboda and I was excited to see it included this tea – after all, she speaks highly of it and I do enjoy a good Keemun! Happily, I’m not disappointed – our tea twin powers seem to be working!

I’ve been a bit stuffy lately so I didn’t bother smelling the dry leaves, but I couldn’t help sniffing the tea post-brewing. It smells so good! It makes me think of a light-ish rye bread with honey – lots and lots of honey. There’s some fresh baked biscuits and maybe a little cowboy. (That is, the smell of someone that’s worked around leather, dirt and barns and doesn’t smell strongly of those things but has hints of those smells. Personally, I find it a pleasant smell.)

The taste is surprisingly sweet – honey and maybe a bit of plum, but not a tart plum, more super-ripe plum meat instead of the tart skin. There’s a bit of smoke (but more cigarette than campfire) when I slurp and a nice little smokey prickle in the aftertaste. This actually reminds me of the delightful Keemun 1110 by RoT. Keemun 1110 has a fig taste instead of plum (but they are both purple, so it’s a pretty similar taste for me) and an orchid sweetness instead of this tea’s honey sweetness. This one has a bit more depth to it because of what I now think of as the cowboy flavor and that’s what the Keemun 1110 was missing for me.

CTG’s Keemun is still my all time favorite, but this one has easily bumped Keemun 1110 down a place in my “Best Keeemuns Ever” list. Big thanks to Angrboda for the chance to try it!