Keemun Mao Feng Imperial

OMG! So far this is one of my FAVES from Upton! LOVE this!

Of course I do like a good Keemun!

This is lovely! More-than-decent black tea/keemun base with complex cocoa powder type flavors (and/or dark chocolate) mixed with a hint of smoke and nifty fruit specks as well!

It’s almost dessert-like! Completely YUMMY tho!

I rarely add milk or sugar to my tea so I brewed this black tea on the lighter side (4 mins instead of 5) to make sure it wasn’t too bitter. It brews up nice and dark, as one would expect looking at the leaves. There is very little sediment at the bottom of the cup. The aroma? Hard to decipher. I think maybe a dark toffee or burnt caramel. The taste is slightly acidic, mostly sweet. There’s no mistaking it – this is a dark black tea but with something to temper it,perhaps as a morning tea with scones, this is great. For me, I’ll drink it on it’s own.

The smell of the dried leaves is rich like tobacco and leather with a hint of musk, just lovely! This smell should be bottled as a men’s cologne. The directions say 1+ tsp and I like my tea a bit stronger, so I put in just about 1 and a half. When I brewed it, it tasted a bit strong so I added a tsp of sugar and it was perfect. If I was drinking it bare, I might use more like 1 tsp and 1 1/2 if adding sugar or milk. The taste is a wonderful mixture of vanilla and cocoa with the faintest hint of astringency in the middle of the tongue. There are very nice toasty and earthy notes with a hint of currant and brandy. I am drinking it with my breakfast of blueberry bagel and it goes perfectly. This is my first experience with a pure Keemun and I really am enjoying this cup.

Upping my rating a bit! It tastes wonderful brewed stronger or weaker and you still get all the notes and different flavors. I don’t know how I made it this long in my life without ever having had a good Keemun. Just lovely!