Tasting notes

Organic Keemun. One of the finest Black Teas in the world. Low caffeine.

Background

Keemun is a Black Tea with the lowest caffeine of all. It can be drunk all day. Keemun is famous for it's distinctive Keemun flavour. It is almost impossible to describe properly. I have seen the terms Coca, malt,or honey and although these terms are OK. They do not really describe the actual taste. Fine Keemun is fruity with delicate aromas of sweet winter berries, but you must add something of flowery note. Perhaps Lilly, but this is too intense to be correct. Often I find myself looking for colours to describe elusive aromas. For instance, orange not as a taste but as a colour. Orange produces a feeling when not associated to it's fruit. And I sometimes feel this describes a taste better than a definite quality. So Keemun has an almost DEEP RED feel add to it's complex tastes...

Keemun is perfect with milk. And up until fifty years ago most English Tea drinkers would have drunk Keemun for Breakfast.

Our Keemun is grown in Keemun County Anhui Province China. And to be a Keemun it must have been grown here.

There is a folk tale explaining how Keemun came about. It has deep implications for today's tea market. It is said that Keemun produced a rather boring Green Tea of no consequence to the Chinese public. A trader in Keemun was about to finish his crop for production when the Chinese army came to town. The trader was called to task by the army and could not get away in time to save his Tea. The tea was left to whither and all hope was lost. The trader decided to produce a black tea and try to sell it to foreign devils. But on trying the finished Black Tea he found it was very good. And Keemun quickly became a famous tea all over the world. Perhaps a boring tale. But today it points to how traditional tea production was trying to get the best from tea cultivars that grew in their Counties. It seems that each tea type needs a different approach. Of course modern clones are grown to meet modern techniques. And they work. But tea bushes developed to produce Black Tea do not always make good White Tea or even Green Tea. Which explains why most of the Ceylon Green that ends up in Mass market tea bags tastes like cardboard. Production is mechanical and tested to produce Green Tea but the leaf will never produce a good Green.

Perfect preparation

Treat as any Black tea. Use the same method as you would for your normal tea. Add boiled water to three teaspoons of dried tea in a half litre teapot. Brew for between three to six minutes. This tea is perfect with milk and will produce a classic breakfast tea.

Personally I drink this tea without milk throughout the day in Winter.