Item specifications:

Origin: Qimen, Anhui Province, China Harvested: Mar 2013 Net weight：350g

Appearance of the leaf: The dried leaf is a tightly twisted olive colour.

Harvest: Newly picked spring leaves are hand sorted according to their quality. The highest leaves are then baked in a sealed room and heated with a low temperature to bring out the fine fragrance of this tea.

Infusions: <10g of this tea will make 20 cups of tea based on using 3g per cup, and using the leaves for 6 infusions.

Quality: The finest Keemun is unbroken whole leaf tea. It should have a lovely sheen to the brewed leaf.

Tea Growing Area

The tea garden is scattered at the mountainous area which covered by forest. At this area, there is sufficient rainfall and the atmospheric temperature is lower with higher humidity. One of the essential factors for good black tea is mellow taste. This taste is originated from amino acid found in tea leaf, named as theanine. Young buds contains high level of theanine and when tea leaves receive sun light, theanine is converted to polyphenol such as catechins. At high elevation, the area is often covered by fog which blocks the direct sun light on tea leaves. Consequently, tea leaves are very rich in theanine as the conversion to polyphenol is not effectively taking place. This is the foundation for the Keemun with long-lasting fragrance and non-astringent but mellow taste.

History

Keemun was made in year 1875 at Keemun County (Qi-men Xian) at Anhui Province (An-hui Sheng). During the early stage of Qing Dynasty, the Keemun County was famous in producing green tea. In the beginning of Qing Dynasty, the process of black tea was developed in Fujian Province. The increase popularity of black tea in oversea market caused the bloom of black tea production in Anhui Province. Due to its high profit margin, the tea merchant started to influence the farmer to involve in the production of black tea. It was mainly exported and Britain was one of its main importers besides France,US, German, etc. once upon a time (1939-1940), Keemun recorded the highest selling price at the wholesale market at New York City as compared to other famous black tea, e.g., India, Ceylon black tea. Keemun Black Tea gives fresh sweet sugary flavor with scent of flowery note; its ong-lasting aromatic flavor had gained much attention.Up to date, it enjoys equal popularity and fame as Darjeeling Tea from India and Uva Black Tea from Sri Lanka. The Imperial and Noble Family used to treat it as a fashionable beverage and presented it as a Gift Tea during special occasion.