Imperial Grade Qimen Black Tea of Huangshan

Tea type
Black Tea
Ingredients
Not available
Flavors
Barnyard, Bitter, Bread, Brown Sugar, Cake, Cherry, Chestnut, Cranberry, Malt, Metallic, Molasses, Nutty, Red Wine, Roasted Nuts, Sawdust, Smooth, Sweet, Vanilla, Wood
Sold in
Loose Leaf
Caffeine
Not available
Certification
Not available
Edit tea info Last updated by Togo
Average preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 4 oz / 120 ml

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  • “YS doesn’t carry many Qimen black teas, but the ones they do are pretty reliable. The imperial grade is certainly the more refined one. It is kind of funny to drink tea with a profile that’s so...” Read full tasting note
    85

From Yunnan Sourcing

This is our Imperial Grade Qimen (aka Keemun) harvested in Huangshan county of Anhui. Qimen Black Tea (祁门红茶) is among the most famous black teas in China and has been consumed in the west for well over a hundred years. It’s fame is well deserved, and is derived from the unique Huangshan Mao Feng varietal and ideal growing conditions unique to the Huangshan area of Anhui.

Our Qimen Black Tea is a Mao Feng varietal and is also known as 特级香螺.

Qimen Black Tea is delightful to drink, never astringent, it brews up a sweet, chocolatey, and malt tea soup with some light floral notes. The floral taste rather than conflicting with the malty sweetness accentuates it and adds additional dimensions of complexity to this elegant tea.

The Imperial Grade Qimen is thick, sweet, fruity, and malty. It’s very full-bodied and will steep 8+ times gong fu style. We recommend brewing with 90-95C water. The leaf and bud sets are small and to gradually coax out the flavor we recommend keeping the first 3 steepings around 15-30 seconds each.

April Harvest

Harvest Region: Anhui Province, Huangshan Prefecture, Qimen County

About Yunnan Sourcing View company

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1 Tasting Note

85
999 tasting notes

YS doesn’t carry many Qimen black teas, but the ones they do are pretty reliable. The imperial grade is certainly the more refined one. It is kind of funny to drink tea with a profile that’s so close to a lot of (at best) mediocre black tea, which is nevertheless so nuanced and keeps offering new facets with each sip.

To me, dry leaves smell of roasted nuts, barn, red wine, cherries, and chocolate cake here. Then, during the session, I notice scents of wood, brioche, malt, brown ale, and molasses in the gaiwan and vanilla with chestnut in the empty cha hai.

The taste is nutty, woody and surprisingly bitter. It has a metallic sourness, some residual sweetness and induces a cooling sensation in the mouth. The mouthfeel is smooth with very little astringency. Specific flavours change, but some I have noticed include sawdust, brown sugar, and cranberries.

Flavors: Barnyard, Bitter, Bread, Brown Sugar, Cake, Cherry, Chestnut, Cranberry, Malt, Metallic, Molasses, Nutty, Red Wine, Roasted Nuts, Sawdust, Smooth, Sweet, Vanilla, Wood

Preparation
195 °F / 90 °C 0 min, 15 sec 5 g 4 OZ / 120 ML

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