Superfine Keemun Fragrant Black Tea

steepster is making me mad this morning. It won’t let me comment on people’s tasting notes, but it’s hit or miss…so sometimes i can, othertimes i can’t. I WILL NOT BE SILENCED DAMNIT! lol

i am scrambling around like a madwoman today – need to get some work done, pack AGAIN, get ready to leave the house this afternoon and try to at least help my other half with a few things around the house. I feel terrible that he’s on his own all month.

This tea was pulled out because it’s my oldest tea (january) and because i need to finish something things up soon because Terri and Nicole maaay have exploded my cupboard a little…at least it’s largely samples lol

This was the tea I started my day with! My tea drinking gameplan today had been to sample all of the Keemuns in my collection, so I started with this one. Then I left the house to meet my friend, we lingered over Brekkie until noon, then I ran a few errands, & by the time I got home, I realized that having an all day Keemun day just wasn’t what I wanted to do anymore.
AND guess what….My box from SIL, my awesome steep-sister, came today!!!
And there are a few Keemun samples in there as well!!
Yay!!

Alas! I am out of this one! I think this means I am now officially out of ALL Keemun tea, which means an order is in order. I just placed a Teavivre order but didn’t realize I was so low on this one and didn’t get more. I am considering placing an order for several of their Keemun teas to try side by side.

I served this with Chinese Marbled Tea Eggs and they were delicious. The flavor was much more subtle than I expected, but the great thing is that you don’t need to salt your eggs at all even with the subtle flavor. And they are beautiful! My guest loves eggs so they were a hit with her. I used fresh eggs from my fluffy ladies who live in my backyard. :)

This is a classic Keemun, more wine than smoke, gentler than many and smooth, needing no additions.

I wanted something I hadn’t sipped in a while. This one jumped out of the drawer shouting drink me, drink me! Took a scoop and the fragrance of the dry leaf in the press is so good. Cocoa, grain, malt, honey! The sip is smooth. If you avoid Keemun because you think it will be smoky, think again. This just a delicious delight. All the scents are in the taste along with a bit of fruitiness. TeaVivre consistently delivers quality teas and this is an exquisite example. Very high on the yummo scale.

This is so delicious this afternoon!! Smooth and mellow, yet so rich, sweet and full of flavor. Notes of cocoa and light grains with honey and roses. With cream added, it tastes of buttery pastry – so good!

Ahhhhhhh! This smells amazing! Dry…It smells like Sun-Dried-Tomatoes. LOVELY! Post infusion liquid TOTALLY smells like Sweet Potatoes! TOTALLY! COMPLETELY! Sweet Potatoes (even with a little bit of Brown Sugar!)

Taste-wise this has a grainy-texture-E-Malt to it…not like a Standard Malty Black Tea with that sort of mouth-feel (as much as I hate that term LOL) and it doesn’t have a Bakey-Cakey sort of malt to it either. It’s different but good.

It’s slightly brash but in a good way. There is a gentle burnt-toast and smoky flavor to it too! The end of the sip on to the after taste it has a quick pop of various fruit flavors that is neat!

This is Awesomely Flavorful and Memorable! Two thumbs up! If I had 3 Thumbs…I give it 3 Thumbs up!

Hmm… has the enchantment of black tea love come to an end or have I just been having a series of less than awesome blacks lately? This one tastes a little…not interesting. It’s not bad, but it doesn’t capture my attention in any way. I get a little floral perfume and taste of malt… Some fragrant sweetness. Vaguely stone fruity. My tastebuds are not all that interested.

So far, the black teas I like and plan to get more of are:
Laoshan black – Verdant
Zhu Rong Yunnan black – Verdant
Yun nan Dian Hong Black- Golden Tip – Teavivre
Rose Congou – Upton

Looks like I like Yunnan black teas. The Laoshan black is still my favorite. hmm… I’ll still have try the other Keemuns from Teavivre. I also have some other congou tea from Upton to try. I wonder where congou tea is grown? Is it also Keemun as wikipedia seems to suggest?

Thanks to Teavivre for this sample!

I’ve heard so many good things about this tea, I was excited to get to try it. It’s beautiful and chocolatey and kind of bready. It’s sweet. There’s a tiny bit of smoke, but it’s sweet. Fantastic!

Starting my Sunday off with a nice big pot of this. As much as I want to get out of the house after being sick all week I would really love to stay home all the time. It was nice. But I am going a little stir crazy. That and I think I may have watched everything Netflix had to offer on instant play!

Right the tea! My sense of smell is still a little shot…so the dry leaf smelled like nothing at all. But as the tea steeped? It certainly smelled like honey and very sweet. Which I didn’t notice the first time I had this tea. It smells SO good. I brewed this up in a glass tea pot so I really got to see the great copper/fall liquid of this tea. The taste is slightly sweet and very malty. Now back to the laundry and NaNoWriMo already in progress. :)

Thanks teavivre, for the sample

Dry leaf: The leaves are really small, dark brown twisted leaves. The smell is really nice. It has a dark black tea smell, but that is underneath the sweetness that this tea possesses. It has a chocolatey smell but the strongest smell is a certain sweetness. It reminds me of the roses my grandma grows in her garden. It’s a deep rose smell though, more than a floral smell.

Wet leaf: When wet, the rose smell comes out really strong. If I didn’t know better I would think that I was steeping rose buds. The rose combined with chocolate makes this smell like a nice dessert. It has a dark sweetness that gives it a very moisturizing smell.

Taste: The taste is nice. It is a lot lighter than I expected and very sweet. The chocolatey flavor reminded me of a much lighter version of the Fengqing dragon pearl. On top of that is the sweet rose flavor. It has a deep flavor, despite how light it is.

I really enjoyed this tea. It was nice how soothing the tea was and I can’t wait to brew it again.