drank Keemun Classic by Capital Tea Ltd.
437 tasting notes

This dry tea smells of rye bread that has been allowed to develop a dark crust and is slightly smokey and chocolate and has broken but still fairly large thin leaves ranging in colour from black to milk chocolate brown.

After 3 min at 95°C this tea brews up to a nice reddish copper.

The scent is soothing and warming of light to medium spicy smoke chocolate, a hint of vanilla orchid and a grainy slightly malty note and a hint of fruit.

The tea feels dense in the mouth, with moderate astringency. A sharp fruit tone like dark slightly sour berries and malt are up front, followed by a mild dark chocolate, insence like spice like burning fall leaves, and vanilla orchid to soften and balance the tea. This tea is nice and robust due to the tannins and the astringency. As it cools the chocolate, spicy tone from the smoke ( which is at a level I can appreciate and which enhances the flavour of the tea) and a robust grain tone become dominant and the sharper fruit are minimised. There is a tone that reminds me a little of iron and the flavour reminds me a little of a bitter sweet lava cake I once had.

After a resteep of 4 min the body is a touch thinner and it smells more of chocolate. When hot the sharp berry note is a biy more like a young wine with the sharp berrybalanced by bitter notes from the malt, cocoa, and smoke. There is a nice smokey, grainy element to this steep. This tea could probably take another resteep.

This tea is very nice, with a higher level of caffeine and with enough body to take milk if you prefer your tea that way, and a nice robustness in flavour. It reminds me of being at the field camp in Chapleau watching the mists rise off the lake in early morning and waking to the day in companionable silence. Overall very happy to have this in my cupboard.

looseTman

Awesome review! You have quite a refined palette! Perhaps your Steepster moniker should be Mass_Spectrometer!

looseTman

How does this Keemun compare to others you’ve tasted?

yyz

I haven’t had that many yet. This one definitely has more chocolate tones and is slightly smokier than the ones I’ve had so far. It has a denser mouth feel and more astringency at this temperature. It is a bit more bitter, but this appeals to me as I love espresso. Of the ones I had the Teavivre superfine, reminded me. Of a jinjunmei I had. The whispering pines one had a menthol pine tone that I liked and made the tea very refreshing. The Marie Antoinette one was Avery broken op which was smooth but did not have the resteepability of these other ones. I had an older Zen tea one I liked as well. I’d like to try this one at a lower temp and try it using shorter steeps. It is not as elegant as some of the Keemun’s I’ve had, but I like the robustness, the chocolate notes in it and I appreciate the tones the smoke contributes.

TheTeaFairy

Agreed with looseTman, your descriptions are so colourful! I think you have a lot more taste buds than the average human ;-)

looseTman

Thanks for the detailed reply! We look forward to your lower-temperature results …

boychik

i envy your tastebuds and description abilities;)

looseTman

Or how about, Super-Human_Buds

looseTman

Do you have a culinary background?

yyz

Not professionally. I do like to cook by taste though, and enjoy experimenting with food from different cultures ( one of the joys of living in such a multicultural area). My mom also used to take me on wine tours when I was quite young 13-14. A friend of my mom’s knew the honour of one winery outside of St.Catherine’s and she used to lay out everything she produced that year and we’d sample it all.

looseTman

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Comments

looseTman

Awesome review! You have quite a refined palette! Perhaps your Steepster moniker should be Mass_Spectrometer!

looseTman

How does this Keemun compare to others you’ve tasted?

yyz

I haven’t had that many yet. This one definitely has more chocolate tones and is slightly smokier than the ones I’ve had so far. It has a denser mouth feel and more astringency at this temperature. It is a bit more bitter, but this appeals to me as I love espresso. Of the ones I had the Teavivre superfine, reminded me. Of a jinjunmei I had. The whispering pines one had a menthol pine tone that I liked and made the tea very refreshing. The Marie Antoinette one was Avery broken op which was smooth but did not have the resteepability of these other ones. I had an older Zen tea one I liked as well. I’d like to try this one at a lower temp and try it using shorter steeps. It is not as elegant as some of the Keemun’s I’ve had, but I like the robustness, the chocolate notes in it and I appreciate the tones the smoke contributes.

TheTeaFairy

Agreed with looseTman, your descriptions are so colourful! I think you have a lot more taste buds than the average human ;-)

looseTman

Thanks for the detailed reply! We look forward to your lower-temperature results …

boychik

i envy your tastebuds and description abilities;)

looseTman

Or how about, Super-Human_Buds

looseTman

Do you have a culinary background?

yyz

Not professionally. I do like to cook by taste though, and enjoy experimenting with food from different cultures ( one of the joys of living in such a multicultural area). My mom also used to take me on wine tours when I was quite young 13-14. A friend of my mom’s knew the honour of one winery outside of St.Catherine’s and she used to lay out everything she produced that year and we’d sample it all.

looseTman

You might consider adding this background info to your Steepster profile.

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