SanTion House of Tea

Thank you to TeaEqualsBliss for sending me a sampling of this Oolong.

Backlog (and copying from my written notes):

Earthy aroma when dry, liquor also smells somewhat earthy.

First two infusions: Sweet. Not as earthy as the dry leaf aroma would have lead me to believe. Nice roasted flavor. A very warm and cozy kind of taste, like something you’d want to curl up with next to a roaring fire in the fireplace.

Next two infusions: A floral flavor is beginning to emerge. Still sweet. Sweetness similar to caramel, like a dark caramel with a roasted flavor.

Final two infusions: I could probably take this tea for a couple more infusions, actually, and while I am enjoying this tea, I’m ready for something a little different. This Big Red Robe manages to not only maintain its flavor throughout these infusions, but improve. The complexity becomes more clear with each new infusion.

A very pleasant Big Red Robe experience.

Toasty, Woodsy, yet Semi-Sweet. Bold and Flavorful! Definitely one of the better Big Red Robe’s I have tried so far!

The cooler it gets the sweeter it becomes.

Pure liquid amber comfort. Just lovely. Going to make a second infusion now.

Comforting and delicious. Perfect for improving my outlook on this gloomy day of howling wind and icy chill… and that’s just my mood. Seriously, this is smooth, malty and just a hint of astringency. Good stuff.

This is a very subtle tea, yet rich at the same time… it’s vegetal tasting but I can’t quite decide what vegetable. The buds are beautiful to look at, they are fat and silvery and turn a lovely shade of sagey-green after brewing. I’m on my second infusion, brewing at 2 minute intervals this time.

Herbal, earthy, a little chocolatey… Mm. I need to think more about this tea. In the meantime I’ve had 2 beautiful three-minute infusions (approx 4g leaf in 300ml water) and it has cheered me up greatly this morning… having been unable to get back to sleep after the baby’s 4.30am feed (it’s now nearly 7.30)am I needed something nice, that’s for sure!

So this is different… green tea from Yunnan? Didn’t even know the region produced green tea. The dry leaves are amazingly delicate looking, fine silvery-green twists. They smell like the Yunnan Golden Tips that I’ve also had from SanTion – caramelly and rich with a hint of strawberries – but the infusion tastes more like a Pi Lo Chun, though not quite as apricotty. The wet leaves have a scent that is kind of green-vegetal in the first infusion, more fruity/sweet from the second. The flavour follows suit – green-vegetal and quite rich, then a bit more fruity. Nice sweet aftertaste that lingers a little. This is a really tasty tea, I recommend it!

This is another of the samples I purchased from SanTion, think I’ll be going back for more. Beautiful dry leaves, thick with golden buds and some smaller dark leaves, finely twisted. The dry leaves smell of dark caramel, milk chocolate and hints of something musky like rose. The wet leaves are kind of malty, burnt caramel possibly? The liquor doesn’t have a strong aroma but is an awesome dark amber colour, like maple syrup. The flavour is slightly burnt and bitter, in a good/chocolate kind of way; I’ve read that some people find molasses-y tastes in Yunnan and I see how that could be one way of describing this flavour. Medium body I think, and slightly astringent with a bit of malt. I liked this so much I drank the whole sample (4 single-cup pots’ worth – 2.5g at a time, 2 steepings) this afternoon. The second infusion had good colour and the same but slightly less flavour, although it was pretty good considering that I steeped the leaves for about 4 minutes each time.

Managed to restrain myself from drinking the rest of the sample until this morning. Brewed it a little stronger this time (slightly less water, slightly longer) and it produced an even more amazing coloured cup, such a dark amber – and a really strong flavour of bitter chocolate – but in a pleasant way (if you already like bitter chocolate; if you don’t this might not be for you) and still the smoothest of smooth mouthfeels. I meant to try adding a little milk to see what that was like, but whoops! I drank it all before I remembered to do so.

Will be interested to try some other Keemuns to compare with this experience, before I invest in a larger quantity! Yay for exciting experimentation!

Like it. A lot. Had to blog about it here: http://joiedetea.blogspot.com/2010/02/keemun.html

I bought this and a bunch of other samples from Santion the other day. This is the first Dragonwell I’ve had for a while (like, a couple of years) and it is very pleasant. I brewed about 2.5 grams in 200ml of water. Strong scent of toasted white bread in the dry leaves, the wet leaves have a scent of cooked green vegetables, I’m thinking asparagus, but possibly also a little broccoli? The taste is nice and savoury-green, a little astringent, a little sweet – seems well-balanced to me. Not sure if I would describe it as ‘nutty’ but perhaps that’s just my tastebuds today. The finish is possibly a bit short. Offers a good second infusion, haven’t tried a third yet. This is not the highest-grade Dragonwell offered by SanTion but it’s extremely drinkable and seems like good value.