Premium Keemun Hao Ya Black Tea

Purchased a sample for myself. Brewed with a porcelain gaiwan. No rinse. Steeping times: 20, 10, 20, 40; 1 minute, 5.

NOTE: The website’s recommended temperature is 195. I suggest 190 if your kettle doesn’t have 195. 200 burns the leaf and produces bitterness.

The dry leaf has an unexpected aroma of smoke and what I identify as pine wood and sap. The familiar minghong aroma arises when the leaf has warmed in the pre-heated gaiwan. Individually, the heated aroma has notes of chocolate, baked bread, and salt. Altogether, I thought I was smelling chocolate-covered pretzels. Finally, the wet leaf smells like a keemun: honey and molasses. It’s worthy to note that the liquor, too, is fragrant. A molasses/chocolate fragrance sticks to the gaiwan lid and the cup.

The liquor has a fiery yet deep orange color, a full body, and a smooth and thick texture. The first infusion mostly tastes of molasses, a lovely sweetness. Infusions two through four – the most enjoyable – also have the molasses note, but wood and something like myrrh and patchouli also make their way in. Wonderful complex cups. There is also a brief chocolate aftertaste during this part of the session, but it disappears towards the tail-end. The fifth and sixth infusions – long steeps – are a bit of a long shot trying to keep this keemun going and to eek out last flavors. They mostly taste of pine wood, with just some honey sweetness.

Not truly for me, but I did enjoy certain aspects of the aroma and taste. A good quality keemun.

Somewhat a disappointment. The leaves are broken into pretty small pieces. the fragrance is muted, with flowers, tropical fruit, malt and earth in it. The taste is really underwhelming and weak, with some sweetness, floral notes, cacao,and mushrooms.

I expect my keemuns to be more bold and defined. There are much better ones in that price range, including other keemuns by Teavivre as well.

The beginning of the cold weather pretty much always signals a return to Keemun for me, and it looks like this year is no exception. I think the rich dark chocolate and smoke characteristics are what pull me back towards it as soon as the mornings turn chilly. They’re not flavours I particularly crave in the summer, but now…

I started this year with the superfine fragrant, and now I’m trying this one. The leaves here are much shorter and a lot less tippy, but still thin and wiry in appearance. I used 1 tsp of leaf, and gave it 4 minutes in boiling water, splash of milk.

To taste, this is mostly cocoa-like dark chocolate, slightly drying, with a light undertone of smoke. There’s also an edge of juiciness that reminds me of Taiwanese black teas. It’s strong and malty, quite sweet after the richness of the initial sip has worn off. I’m not usually a fan of anything smoky, but on this occasion I’m actually a fan. I think without it this would be a pretty one-note tea, but as it is it’s adding an element of depth that I’m really enjoying, and it stops it from crossing the line into too sweet/cloying. A pretty solid keemun, all in all, and one I’d be more than happy to drink again.

I had a sample of this for breakfast. I brewed up 500ml western style. It was too tannic for me to drink straight so I made one cup with milk and sugar and the second with honey and lemon. I preferred the milk/sugar combo with this tea. This surprised me a bit as I tend to not be crazy about milk in tea.

It’s hard to describe flavors as it was so heavily masked by the milk or honey tastes, but it definitely helped get me going this morning.

I’ve had a pretty dreadful week but today is much much better so I’m celebrating by sampling lots of teas. I’ve sampled my way through most of the teabox already but there are still some blacks I’ve been meaning to get to. (I also have notes from some other teas from the teabox that I sampled last week, but I’ll get around to writing those up later.) And Chinese blacks are some of the best! So I’m trying this one.

It’s a nice color and has that lovely elegant fragrance that tends to come with Chinese teas. I’m not so sure about the flavor, though; it’s not my favorite Chinese black, but it does have some interesting points. It does have a bit of astringency and a teensy hint of bitterness. I’ll try resteeping it with slightly cooler water.

This is the best Keemun out of the 3 I’ve ever tried. It’s pretty smooth and has a nice fruity and sweet flavor. I got a couple samples of this during the teavivre anniversary sales.

Another sample from kittylovestea

A amazing tea

This tea restored my faith in black teas

When I smell the leaves dry, they smell nice and spicy.

When I smell the leaves wet, they smell spicy and like chocolate.

When I smell the brewed tea, I smell chocolate and spices.

When I taste the brewed tea, I taste chocolate and spices.

The color of the brewed tea is a dark amber color.

I rate this tea a 100 because it is a wonderful tea.

Many thanks my dear friend.

Special note: i lost my strainer a few days ago so i was using the strainer thingy the staff had. then they found it today and dumped the staff’s strainer out and i only steeped it once. kinda miffed earlier, but im ok now as i still have a little bit left.

This tea is very tasty. It has strong notes of chocolate. It has weak notes of malt. This is fine by me as I prefer notes of chocolate. I added sugar to this tea so I’m not sure but I think it’s got some sweet notes too. This is another tea from Teavivre that I think is just a good value for the quality level. It’s not up there with Whispering Pines but it’s damn close and less than half the price. It’s really quite tasty, almost but not quite spectacular. I think it’s better than their Fengqing Dragon Pearl Tea.

I brewed this once in an 16oz Teavana Glass Perfect Tea Maker/Gravity Steeper with 3 tsp leaf and 190 degree water for 3 min. I almost used boiling water but thought to read the directions on the label which call for 194 degree water.

I liked this much better than the Grade 1. My colleague preferred the smokier notes of Grade 1 though.

To me, this tasted sugarcane sweet, Japanese black sugar syrup sweet. Sweet and smooth, in a quiet Chinese calligraphy practicing kind of way.

Second steep was as beautiful as the first steep.

This is my first Keemun. What strikes me is how fruity it is compared to other black teas. I taste a strong sour note down the middle of my tongue that is getting more bitter the further into the cup I sip. I can see why people get obsessed with Keemuns – this is not a tea to be taken lightly.