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This was another of the tea samples I finished back around the start of September. It was something of an important sipdown for me as it spurred me to finally admit something to myself: I do not generally care for Keemun Mao Feng nearly as much as I do Hao Ya A and Hao Ya B. This particular Keemun Mao Feng was nice enough, but unfortunately, the most memorable thing about it was something of an off note.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a very quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 205 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves produced aromas of cocoa, honey, ginger, and cinnamon. After the rinse, I noted an aroma of pine accompanied by hints of smoke. The first infusion introduced a sweet potato aroma as well as a bizarre stewed tomato scent. In the mouth, the tea liquor offered notes of ginger, cocoa, honey, and smoke that were backed by impressions of sweet potato and stewed tomato. Subsequent infusions saw aromas of candied orange, malt, toast, roasted almond, and rose emerge. New flavors of candied orange, rose, malt, toast, minerals, roasted almond, leather, and caramel emerged along with belatedly appearing hints of pine and cinnamon. The final few infusions emphasized lingering notes of minerals, roasted almond, and malt that were accented by hints of ginger, sweet potato, and caramel.

For the most part, this was a decent Keemun Mao Feng, but I had trouble getting over that strange and borderline unpleasant tomato presence that was so noticeable in the early infusions. Also, this tea faded very quickly. For what it was, it was pleasant enough, but there are better teas of this type out there.