Tea: Keemun Black Tea – Grade 1
Brand: | TeaVivre |
Style: | Keemun |
Region: | Qimen, Anhui, China |
Caffeine: | Caffeinated |
Loose? | Loose |
# Ratings: | 2 View All |
Product page: | Keemun Black Tea – Grade 1 |
Reviewer: Alex Zorach
✓ 1453 teas reviewed
✓ 18 of Keemun
✓ 501 of Black Tea
✓ 52 of TeaVivre
✓ 6 from Qimen, Anhui, China
✓ 25 from Anhui, China
Review of Keemun Black Tea – Grade 1
April 19th, 2012
Aroma | Flavor | Value | Total |
9 of 10 | 5 of 5 | 5 of 5 | 94 of 100 |
Superb | Excellent | Outstanding |
I liked this tea right from the start, but the more I drank this tea, the more it has grown on me. Very full-bodied, intense flavor, smooth. Fruity, with a fair amount of smokiness. Relatively little leaf is needed for a bold-flavored cup. Surprisingly, I like this a lot better than the Keemun Hao Ya from the same company, TeaVivre.
This is a lot like the sort of Keemun I think of as forming a high-grade, traditional (old-fashioned) English Breakfast tea. It is also a very accessible tea that I think would be very easy for a wide range of people to appreciate.
Western-style, easily makes two strong infusions. The first cup had an unusually clear liquor for how strong it was. The second infusion, which I steeped a long time, was cloudier but slightly less flavorful, but still very good. Brewing this way, I steeped a little less than 3 minutes followed by a little more than 5 minutes.
Brewing Gong-fu style, I lost track of the number of infusions. This tea kept delivering a rich flavor and complex aroma. Both flavor and aroma were remarkably consistent through each infusion, it did not change much. I found this tea produced better results when served in smaller cups, using more leaf, and many, brief infusions--it seemed to last longer than when brewed western-style, in contrast to a lot of black teas that I actually prefer western-style. However, I like it both ways.