Keemun

…if one follows the tradition of Chinese tea drinkers then all leaves have to be washed before the actual infusions. That simply means that the fist brew gets disposed. This first brew suppose to wash out the dust, open or pre-soak the leaves and start to develop their flavors.

The color of this tea could be compared to a rich single malt whiskey.

Color: golden, bronze. Very appealing to the eye…
Nose: sharp, fruity, slight bitterness in the end (…fresh cut grass)
Palate: clean, smoky, hints of soft,creamy sweetness such as butterscotch
Finish: aftertaste does not manage to stay very long. Bitter sweet with a pleasant,refreshing roughness.

A interesting, complex tea. Not very awakening though. Nice to drink in order to get through the day.

…very strong flavors. I guess the explanation of it’s profound taste lays within the fact that King Edward VII was a heavy smoker. Anyways, I do like it on my palate and love the awakening effect. I do recomment to try this tea with a slice of lemon. That transforms this blend into a refreshing summer tea. The Assam will still be able to push through nicely.

Very nice tea that goes well with all kinds of sweets.

…the first brew always tastes fruity, smooth and gentle. Starting with the second infusion things tend to go down hill with grassy bitterness…
Not much awakening-effect here…expected more.

…excellent Chai blend. Does not need sugar or milk, in my opinion.

I would not suggest infusing it with boiling water. A lower temperature will sort of smoothen one’s drinking experience.

Although there a lots of seeds and herbs visibal I find it amazing how strong those flavors push through. Obviously Kusmi is not very shy when it comes to the use of ( hopefully natural…) oils to parfume their products. But then, in all fairness, who doesn’t, nowadays?
Anyways, my favorite Chai blend so far…

I am not quire sure how to rate this tea.
The fragrance most certainly is of pleasant nature, even though one might feel inclined of suspecting that cheap lemon myrtle was used instead of lemon essence or zest.
The Sencha itself seems very astringent, very bitter and heavy on its tannins.
The ginger, very frankly speaking, only gets its way through to the taste buds because it is mentioned on the label of the packing. The warming nature of this spice used for this particular blend does not even come close in any way to what is available on the Chinese market. In China Oolong teas flavored with ginger are very popular. Especially during autumn until spring as it is warming the drinker’s throat all the way down to the stomach.
In Japan good quality Sencha is mostly the beverage of choice during breakfast due its awakening nature.
The tea leaves for this blend however fails to lift up the spirits of the drinker and therefore proofs itself to be pointless (…like caffeine- free coffee) to me.

A “Friesen blend” usually starts to unfold its character after the adding of cream or milk. It also is expected to hold up against the traditional sweetener, which in northern Germany comes as rough crystal sugar (Klüntje).
One will be utterly disappointed after finding out that all this does not suit this particular blend.
The matter of fact that the “Theodor Storm” blend is done with large leafs leaves the connoisseur in astonishment right from the beginning. Please do try to remember, it is a strong and hearty brew that one should hope for when it comes to tea blends from the stormy, German northern coast. Big leafs do hardly seem to be the right thing to go for to reach that kind of goal.
“Theodor Storm” is a very fine tea for the afternoon though. Special care seems to be advisable in regards of the portioning. It carries at lot of tannin. The smoothness of the actual brew tends to get unpleasantly overpowered by the rather harsh aftertaste. Hence one may reckon: small dosage of leafs and short infusing time.

Light yet complex, Sikkim teas are similar to those produced just to the south in the district of Darjeeling. Sikkims have a pleasant tannin level that is often accentuated by a natural fruity note.

The stylish leaves of this choice selection are laced with silvery tips. The cup is well balanced, with a complex flavor that is pleasantly accented with a mildly minty overtone

A well-made tea, with an abundance of white leaf buds. The cup has floral notes and muscatel nuances. This particular type rivals many of the top Darjeeling selections and shows the full potential of Sikkim teas.

No milk or sugar needed.Be gentle in terms of portioning…

By the way, i enjoyed it together with a Chinese ‘mooncake’.That is a rather sweet pastry that gets mainly produced for the Chinese mid-autumn festival.The taste of the cake and the tea are a perfect match…!

…my latest tea for early mornings (5.30am kind-of-stuff)…nice with milk and sugar. Very awakening. But I am missing those profound flavors that the “English Breakfast” blend from Twinings is able to produce on my palate.Especially when it comes to aftertaste…

One needs to be quite generous when it comes to portioning here. The tea has a good nose.Hints of rose blossoms or hibiscus are pushing through…although they are very shy and fade away quickly.
It will require a couple of trial runs until a deceant cup is produced with this particular kind of leafs.The steeping time can be longer then on a usual Oolong.

I personally overportion the tea now and then balance the flavor by adding hot/cold water.As one would do it when working with a Samowar…

…it has been quite a while since I drank it the last time. Even though summer may not be the right season for this warming and rather spicy brew I could not resist in opening one of those teas last week.

Except a shy hint of mandarin scent the tea hasn’t go much nose. The color of the first brew, I drank it from a highball glass, was good. As rich and dark one might describe it.
I kept the steeping temperature below 80 degrees Celsius which created a kind of velvety effect on the tea while I drank it. A very, very smooth but intense brew when it comes to flavor. It always amazes me how it heats up my body. Very awakening.
With the second brew I always tend to be a bit more bolt in regards of the water temperature. The color of the tea turns extremely dark. It almost seems as if the liqueur became more thick and rich, too.

I guess one might get a endless amount of brews out of one single portion from this leafs. It probably would get one through a whole day if desired.
I personally stick with two brews per tea a day. Usually a green tea between 10.00am-11.00am and then a dark tea (Oolong, Pu-erh or English blacks) in the afternoons. Three or four times a week a strong milk tea in the early morning.

…After reading in several books through how much effort Japanese tea growers go with this particular kind of tea…well, I was a bit disappointet I must say.
The leafs look very inviting…dark green and juicy.But after brewing there is not much magic going on. The strong awakening effect that one is used to from drinking Sencha is not happening at all.Also that fruity flavor notes from Japanese green teas is missing here.
Although I was quite generous with the portioning of leafs for each brew…I only got a very shy glimps of spicyness out at the end.

…a very elegant tea. The refreshing hints of lemon are pushing trough in a rather pleasant kind of way. The flavors of the Lapsang are balanced perfectly and very harmonious which still allows one to detect all the other notes that are part of this blend.I am extremely pleased to find that there is no astringency going on…something that is normally quite common with Lapsangs. However, it seems to me that, if brewed with water on boiling point, the tea tends to come across a bit rough.
If one keeps the water temperature below 85 degrees Celsiuis the tea starts to unfold it’s fragile flavors in a very gentle manner…the whole story becomes soft and silky.
It would not be my first choice for breakfast as there is no strong awakening effect…but it is a great tea for late afternoons…

…size of the leafs is almost as fine as on a regular English breakfast blend.But one can be a bit more generous with the portioning of Bois Cheri as it comes across less awakening.
Needs to have milk and a bit of sugar…without milk it’s to bitter and the sweetening brings out the vanilla scent in quite a nice way.

Great tea as base for ‘home-made’ chai blends…even just a bit of ground cardamom does the trick and let’s one fly off to street bazars of India or Mauritius.

http://www.travelmauritius.info/bois_cheri_tea_factory.html

…the leafs look very appealing. The fragrance, as soon as one opens the tin,is very nice.

As with all THE O DOR teas it would be a mistake to rinse the leafs as this could cause the flavor to decline. Obviously a strong indicator that parfumed oils were used to stabilize the tea’s flavor.

One can be quite generous with the portioning which allows to keep the steeping time short.As a result of this three to four tasty brews can be made out of one portioning (…I am using a Gaiwan here).
The short time of infusing a fairly bold amount of leafs is a very Chinese way of treating tea indeed.It brings out all qualities of one’s brew and allows to see different aspects of the changes in taste, nose and color over the time period of as many infusions as one portion of tea can take…

This blend creates a very smooth drink. The flavors are interesting…although not quite as impressive as I was hoping for.The peppermint and the almond notes, which the company claims to have used for this tea, are almost invisible. The apple is there but in quite a funny way.
It remembers one of hookah smoking Arabs on London’s Edgware Road…very artificial apple & vanilla notes…in London as well as on the tea drinker’s tongue here.
The jasmin however, hand in hand with the osmanthus, pushes through pleasantly.
The teas that were used as base for this blend have a nice way of carrying all those herbs and spices.
The aftertaste is nice…a fragile roughness which is quite common with THE O DOR blends.This perhaps is the main reason why one might keep drinking there blend as it let’s one wonder how to tame it, how to find words to explain it…almost like all this hundreds of small alleys in the heart of old Istanbul…interesting,fairytale-like, magical…

…the shop owner told me that those leafs are from last years harvest. If I want to have fresh leafs than I’de have to come back at the end of April.
Well,as I was very eager to taste this tea I bought 35g of it and went home.

I rinsed the leafs and used boiling water.
The taste insures one that probably 9-10months ago this tea must have been ’rock’n roll’…
However, still fruity, still those hints of rose blossoms…profound,smoky Oolong notes which become sweeter and sweeter as the infusions go on.

Will be back at the shops doorsteps in April…

…the leafs mixed with dried flower pedals look very inviting. The fragrance is great.
The spiciness, this rhapsody of flavors is almost overpowering. Although I like this blend a lot and keep on drinking it like a madman…I can not help thinking that someone over-did it in the vanilla department. There is not much room anymore for sencing the jasmin and the bergamot (…until today I haven’t found anything that goes even near something like citrus…).

…a very intersting tea. very interesting indeed.
Usually i try to stay away from silly-flavored teas but this one,as it was on 80% discount on my local grocery store,went into my shopping basket.Simply because of that…and out of curiosity.

The first brew I rinsed as I would usually do it with a black tea. But I guess I was washing out some oils…well, fragrances…as the tea seemed quite pale on my tasting palate.
Second time,the day after, I did not rinse the tea leafs and got to feel the whole magic of this spiced-up brew.

The zucchini blossom is there.The pepper is there…vanilla…strong tea base.Great blend…maybe because for months now I am drinking pure oolongs, greens and blacks…I mean after all,what’s the point of beeing in Asia if not going to the bottom of things.Traditional things…pure,simple teas.
Anyways…drinking this cup of tea in the morning was like a thunderstorm to my sences.
Great stuff and my comliments to those creative French tea people.

This tea offers flavours of bergamot, soft lemon, sweet orange, mandarin, lime, Clementine and grapefruit…and reminds one very much of a ‘Lady Grey’ blend.
Very smooth.Very refreshing…very pleasant to drink.

Nice tea…I keep the brewing time under 2 minutes which allows me to get 4 tasty brews out of one portion of leafs.

…it is slightly scented with jasmin.The tea leafs itself don’t have a very strong flavor or taste.A remark that I put in the tea’s describtion.It is quite a prizy purchase (125g for 20$US…bought in China)that,without the jasmin scent,would leave one quite disappointed.
However…the awakening effect that this tea has is simply incredible.It’s like after 3 cups espresso…I can feel my blood busily pumping through my veins…WoW!
The brews that one gets out of one portion of leafs seem endless…the color of the tea gets stronger after each brew.
I was very carefull with the water temperature.Next time I will go higher.

…second time that I rate this blend.
It truly comes to life when brewed in a Yixing clay tea pot and gets treated like a Chinese would treat its tea…
I was rather disappointed when I drank it the very first time.But that was when I touched it with the hands of a European. Big mistake here…
So, as ‘Whittard of Chelsea’ is claiming to use a blend of Chinese teas, I started to re-think those nasty,little leafs. And it paid off…very interesting flavors are pushing through.
The Oolong on the left, Jasmin on the right and those rose pedal notes…well,slightly shy…trying to catch up with everything somewhere in the back.
This Afternoon blend is on the British market since almost 70 years by now…today I found out why!

A good Chinese green tea. No magnificent qualities that would be worth writing about…
It reminds me of Japanese Bancha, as it can be drunk to anything at anytime.
It is a tea that is quite awakening. I have a feeling that it will turn quickly bitter if one goes to high with the water temperature.

I am using it, portioned in a tea bag, in the office…I don’t waist time on it at home.

…smell and flavor are both impressive. It does not have much grassy flavors. It tastes deeper. More profound and rich then just grass. Seaweed comes close to what it tastes like…but in a very pleasant way.
Very awakening. Very refreshing. Would be my second choice, right after Sencha, for a morning green tea.
Got this tea from my wife…after she left it sit in her office draw for TWO months. She got it from collegues that are actually coming from Anhui but did not pay much attention to it…and obviously forgot about the tea-addicted husband sitting at home…drinking crap.

One of the best teas coming from Taiwan. It definetely keeps up with its reputation.
Each cup a real joy.

This particular edition that I have rated here is ONLY to buy at the tea plantation itself.
Therefore this tea is mainly drunk by passionate Taiwanese connoisseurs that put up with a day trip into the countyside just to get those leafs home. It does not mean that this tea is particularly expensive or exclusive. It is just that the farm has kept its humbleness and is happy with the amount that gets produced per season.

I got it as a present from a Taiwanese couple and was simply blown away from its freshness. This Oolong is as intenese as a fresh Oolong can get. Color, fragrant, taste and aftermath on one’s taste palate is incredible.