drank Keemun by teasenz
141 tasting notes

its been a really long time since I’ve had a keemun. Like a year, I think I’m always put off by them because the leaves always look broken in pictures and that makes me uncomfortable tbh, and I guess my regular vendors don’t tend to stock keemun black but here we are.

The dry leaf aroma is so hard to describe it’s like some kind of weird woodsiness with earth but there’s this like fruitiness or i don’t know, raddish sort of smell? but it also kind of smells like an earthy grapefruit or orange or something, and it’s slightly reminiscent of a shu like with a mushroomy smell. The dry leaf aroma doesn’t really appeal to me, but that doesn’t mean all that much I suppose,

Anyways, pretty typical keemun-looking leaves, decent amount of breakage, and just very small twisty leaves and some stems actually

Okay I let it stew for like a minute in the warmed gaiwan and I get an aroma of like charred meat, like charcoal and barbecued beef or pork.

Tastes of stems, earth, some mushroom, a sweet smokey taste, a sugary sweetness, chocolate, there’s sort of a beer-like taste right when I sip, I get a very distinctly bok choy aftertaste.. I ate some bok choy a few hours ago, but I just had a tea session before this and that one didn’t taste like bok choy so I think it’s actually from the tea. Anyway, it has a nice thick, satisfying texture.. oo it reminded me momentarily of those um those minty chocolatey.. these things:
https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/2e/b2/8c/2eb28c08a6d77764f756e02823c2d455.jpg
What are those called?
I don’t even know why it reminded me of that it frankly doesn’t taste like those at all but its ok. You know what it is, it’s the same kind of sweetness, and the same feeling in my throat as those candies. okay anyways I definitely didn’t like keemun last time I had it and I understand why, the flavour profile isn’t really something i’d ever go for, but I’m actually enjoying this much more than I thought I would from the dry leaf aroma. Some of the chocolate and earth goes out around steep 5 and there’s a nice floral note that enters in its place, with still a strong smokey flavour, which I’m finding to be a bit of a strange combination.
The really nice thing is there’s absolutely no bitterness or astringency, it’s totally smooth all the way to the end of the session. Well, maybe a teeny bit of astringency.

I’m gonna be frank, I don’t reeally like this, it isn’t by any means a bad tea, I think it’s objectively of better quality than the other two teas I’ve tried from teasenz thus far, but I’m really not big on the sweet smokey taste. It’s just not something I’d ever choose to drink. If you’re into like lapsang souchong, then for sure pick some of this up.

Brewed at 95C, filled gaiwan like a quarter of the way because the leaves are so tiny

Preparation
205 °F / 96 °C

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Hey :) welcome to my steeps!
I really only ever drink straight teas, every once and a while I might have something flavoured, but odds are I won’t ever write about any of those. All of my reviews are done using my 120ml gaiwan unless otherwise specified.

I’m mostly into Sheng, Red tea and Oolongs right now, but I also can enjoy greens and whites sometimes.

My cupboard is NOT up to date. I tried for a while, but it’s too much effort, and so many of the teas I have just aren’t on here and eh.

ig: @mackie_tealife —>
https://www.instagram.com/mackie_tealife/?hl=en

Rating System:

95-100:
|| One of the best teas I’ve ever
|| had; I’m definitely planning to
|| restock
90-94:
|| Very very good tea, I’ll restock if
|| I’m planning to make a purchase
|| from this company anyways, if
|| not I’m alright living without it
80-89:
|| Very good tea, I’d be more than
|| happy to sip again, though it’s
|| not likely I’ll be repurchasing
70-79:
|| Good tea, I drank it happily,
|| though I might not be reaching
|| for it again in my cupboard
|| for a long while
60-69:
|| Okay tea, it was drinkable and
|| it’s probably going to be
|| gathering dust in my cupboard
|| for a while
50-59:
|| I struggled through the tea,
|| but managed to finish the
|| session, will probably be giving
|| it away to a friend.
25-49:
|| I cut the session short, but
|| I think it’s possible for one to
|| have enjoyed it, it’s just really
|| low quality
0-24:
|| No one should enjoy drinking
|| this, and I would have no
|| problem throwing it out.

*This system is used on my first 100 reviews, I’ve decided not to rate teas anymore because I’m definitely not qualified to be objective about quality yet and it’s just pointlessly subjective numbers and that’s not really helping anyone

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