Another sample from the amazingly awesome Scribbles!
On first smell of the dry tea, I get strong vanilla and cake/pastry notes. Which I found odd for a keemun but I am keen to continue.
When the hot water first hit the tea, the smokiness of the keemun wafted up. It was sweet, slightly smokey.
In order, the first flavour notes I got from this tea were: malt, smoke, tobacco. Delicious. There are definitely light undertones of vanilla cake. The smokey flavour was quite light. There was a very natural sweetness to this tea, that complemented the smoke flavour. The tea liquor was thick, it was moderately bold, there was no astringency which was quite nice (and also a surprise).
My all time favourite teas are Assams, but keemuns do come in a close second.
I think Keemuns are one type of black tea I’ve never really been fond of – they’re always astringent. I might have to get my hands on some of this to try, because it sounds pretty good.