It took some experimenting to get this tea where I wanted. I settled on 2tsp (sometimes heaping), 10oz, 200F. First steep rather short around 2-3 minutes, second for as long as it sat while I readied myself for the day.
Great workhorse of a tea with solid flavor, a good medium-oily mouthfeel and enough caffeine to keep me wired while dealing with electrified people. This keemun isn’t fancy but it does have the hallmarks. It’s hefty, warm and brisk but never astringent or bitter. Deeply earthy but not dirty, much like a very dark tobacco. Lots of chocolate and tons of hardwood — oaky? Oaky. Okay. Leather. Malt. Almost creamy. Blueberry-strawberry-blackberry red wine undertone lifts it up and rounds it out like a pushup bra? Wtf derk. Hints of pine wood and a fading afterthought of smoke provide a little more depth. More mineral sweet in the second infusion. The pine, smoke and mineral sweetness actually dominate when I use less leaf.
Curious, I looked up this company called Winterbloom, found it’s a tea spot in North Carolina less than a few hours’ drive from so many memories. Thanks for the big ole bag and the big ole feels, ashmanra.
Flavors: Blackberry, Blueberry, Chocolate, Cream, Earth, Leather, Malt, Mineral, Oak, Pine, Red Wine, Smoke, Strawberry, Tobacco
I have been trying to send a message but Steepster will not let me! Looking forward to the box! You didn’t have to, but since you did I will be lying in wait for the post!
You have memories here in NC? Tell me more! Winterbloom is a short drive from my house, yet I go to Raleigh and Chapel Hill tea shops more often! Go figure.
One of my old love’s family lives on Lake Tillery in the Uwharrie. A different way of life and so many memories but too much drinking for me :P I never could let go the way the river rats and ’shiners do. But I did learn to waterski!
I will email you this time around :)
….dealing with electrified people????
I work with electricians. A lot of them seem to embrace uppers and/or have been electrocuted.
Oof! You’d need a lot of caffeine to deal with people like that. :)
AH okay.
Haha, they’re all a hoot. I love the variety.
I have been to Lake Tillery once for a day in a little motor boat, about forty years ago! It was lovely!