Keemun

Tea of the morning….

EDIT TO ADD: Their delivery service is appalling. I cannot in good conscience give this tea a good rating. Service = 0, the tea was about an 80.

And likely my last pot for a while as it is gone and my refill is stuck in a warehouse somewhere. I was so fortunate to be able to make an order at their online store for some tea for myself as well as a gift for a friend. I thought I ordered in plenty of time Nov. 23. My invoice showed a delivery day of Dec. 8. I was pretty confident that would give me time to get the gift in the mail and off to where it was going in plenty of time for Christmas. The 8th came and went….and after a few emails with Customer Service at F&M, I found out that my order has not shipped out (on Dec.22) because they are having warehouse issues. Wow. It is a good thing I emailed, because there was no offer of this information. I know it is bad to review a place based upon one experience, but I am very disappointed. It will probably be my only order from them ever, and I will just have to enjoy other teas. For those considering an order, my suggestion is to plan way ahead. And maybe avoid the holidays all together. I would cancel my order, but the allure of orange marmalade with gold leaf in it celebrating the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee for my friend is just too cool…along with a commemorative tin of Jubilee Tea. Maybe by Valentine’s?

Haven’t had this in a while, and I’ve missed its slightly smokey presence. F&M teas are overpriced, but they tend to be top notch (some blends are hit and miss, though). My regular tea partners weren’t at work today, so I had to drag newcomers to enjoy tea with me. I prefer sharing tea with other people to drinking it by myself. How about you?

sipdown! I am a fan of this one, though it’s not my favourite F&M tea to date. This is a good keemun, though I think i still really love the one from red blossom that i purchased a while back. I added some maple syrup as i always do to keemuns and let the flavours dance in my mouth. I really do love a good keemun.

(on a random side note…i so want the signature package of assam that twinnings does…it has an elephant on it. Stupid stupid unavailable teas/packages here in NA lol)

Little Terri’s Sipdown Extravaganza!!! Week Two!
I’ve decided to focus today on savoring the rest of the teas that were sent to me from NofarS! We did an awesome swap a few months ago, & gratefully both of us received our boxes, & although I’ve sampled a few of the teas, I’d like to finish sampling them. I’m sharing them with Sil, so once I get through my half of each tea, I’ll pack up the box, along with her half of an order we split recently, & send it on it’s way, thus increasing her numbers while decreasing mine, hehehe…

This is very nice Keemun, just a gently earthy cup of tea to enjoy.

My, how we change! This tea was sent to me by SimplyJenW three years ago. That’s right. THREE YEARS. I saw it when I was diggin through my samples box and decided that since youngest already had a whole pot of tea for herself, this would be a good time to use my Kamjove pitcher from Teavivre and resteep the heck out of this, thereby acquiring a generous portion for breakfast and finishing a sample to boot.

We no longer add milk or sugar to our tea, and with food this was quite good. I had a good bit left over and also got to experience it on its own. It tastes like a hearty breakfast Keemun, not as raw and rough as a good old wake-you-up Hao Ya B but not as prissy and refined as a top of the line afternoon sipper to go with cookies. And this was with three steeps using 7 ounces of water and 1 1/2 teaspoons of leaf. I think 21 ounces of tea out of the end of a sample is a pretty good deal, especially since this is getting on in age. I have never purchased this brand, but I would do so without hesitation if I was somewhere that carried it.

Thank you, Jen, for “joining” me at breakfast today!

Some quick notes on this one as I’m tired. I’ve had children running through my house all day, they are the neighbours kids and I said they could see the kitten if they want to. Big mistake, the parents seem to not even care where their own children are! So I was stuck with them for a long time. Just not used to children, I’m completely zapped.

I’ve had this tea for a while and thought I had already reviewed it but apparently I haven’t, so I’m going to do that quickly now. I bought my husband a ceramic steeping mug and I give him loose leaf tea to take to work every day, he can take the rest of this with him. Must be 1oz here so should do him for a little while…well a few days at least.

Raw appearance is rather finely chopped but not too fine and colour is dark brown. Scent is a little sweet and wooden.

1 teaspoon of leaf into my ceramic steeping mug for 3 minutes (So I know what it would taste like when my husband tries it at work).

(Excuse me while I scoff some Custard Cream biscuits)

Flavour is thick and rich with smoke, wood and dry bark tones with a sour after taste. Some almost ‘floral’ and sweet notes in there to give it a classic Keemun feel. Some astringency there and I feel that perhaps it was either too long a steep or 1 level teaspoon was too much. Either way it’s just not as ‘clean’ tasting as I was hoping. Though it would do for an every day Keemun, perhaps good in the morning.

I think my husband will like this so he can take the rest with him.