Keemun Black Tea

FINALLY a cup of tea! Had to get up early today and get ready in five minutes flat and out the door NO morning cup! :(
Finally back home and was having major withdraws. Kept making ACK sounds and jerking around making my daughter and husband laugh.
Brewed up some of this tea here.
Its alright – probably a bad time to give it a first try as I would have done better with an LS to punch me in the face but this is a nice mellow morning cup.
No astringency, no bitterness, juicy, slightly smoky, and nice.
Its not my favorite morning cup but it is far better than I was anticipating as I too did not have the best luck with one of their other teas.
Will withhold rating until I have a chance to enjoy this when I am not already having major caffeine withdraws.

I am almost done tasting all my new teas (excluding samples) and the 4 I have left from Little Red Cup have been sitting on my kitchen table taunting me for some time. After a rather awful experience with the first tea of theirs that I tried, I was hesitant to dip into another. But this is about as far as spinachy bitter green as you can get (plus I need the space these are taking up!).

The dry leaves smell like smoke and hay—I actually like both of these in tea if they’re not overpowering. Brewed it’s still smokey but there’s also a hint of fruit—peach or grape maybe? This is a brisk, bold cup, and really exceeded my expectations for sure. It’s also my first experience with a Chinese black straight-up, and it definitely doesn’t need milk. A little astringent but not bitter at all.

Thank you LiberTEAS for this Sample!

I find myself enjoying this one very much, as this being my first Keemun Black Tea. It certainly is a nice change from the traditional Darjeeling, Assam and Ceylon teas.

This leaf produces a pale brownish colored liquid with a nice smokey pine overtones, is coupled with some very nice buttery and faint citricy undertones. There is little to no astringency.

I’m very excited in trying other Keemun Black Teas, for this was a good experience. Thanks again, LiberTEAS for this great suggested sample!

Backlog: I enjoyed a cup of this earlier today. It is pleasantly robust, with a nice fruity character that is somewhat wine-like, ending in a wine-y sweetness and then some dry astringency. Sweet, bold, and full-flavored. I like it, it’s a good Keemun.

Another sample from Alphakitty (with the appearance of coming by way of LiberTEAS!)

Just brewed a really small cup of this one to test out before leaving it behind. It smells just a touch smoky, and tastes likewise. Kind of like a bagged Lipton + smoke – astringency and other icky things that come with bagged tea? I do seem to like smokiness at a low to moderate level in my tea, so this works for me. But there are so many other teas out there that I’d rather drink, I will be ok leaving it behind. (I’m a poor descriptor; this is quite a nice tea, and really nothing like a bagged tea, there is just this particular flavour I associate with bagged tea that I’m catching. I need to figure out whether it’s a region or what, so I can stop making it sound like it’s a low quality tea!)

I’ll start by saying that this note will be somewhat limited in that,so far,I’ve only had a few black teas and am not well versed in them. I liked the roasted smell of the dry leaves, though I have nothing to compare it to. The leaves didn’t quite double in size after unfurling. the wet leaves smelled alot sweeter than I expected. Color was a more red than brown with a hint of gold. With the first drink I noticed a bold woodsy/leathery flavor, heading towards, but not entirely to, malty. Smooth with a pronounced smoke establishing itself within a few sips. The other thing that emerged was sweetness that I didn’t detect initially, and yet a hint of sour as well. There was alot going on in this drink, it seemed to be pulling me in two different directions, if that makes sense. I don’t feel I’ve done this tea justice and would like to log it again after I’ve gained more experience with black teas, but it was a sample that has retired from my cupboard so it will have to wait until I come across it again (as I’m sure there is a fair possibility). In general, a good cuppa that I would suggest to anyone, especially those who are partial toward black teas.