The Queen's Tea

Tuesday, March 31, 2009

We visited two Keemun tea factories today. Both organic; one large and one small.

We tasted hand-crafted and machine processed teas. The hand-crafted leaves were dark and slightly curly; the machine processed leaves were more flat and uniform in shape. The machine processed tea is more in demand throughout the world due to the shape of the leaf. The hand made tea was mellower, richer and more desirable to an American palate that does not use milk or sugar.

The aroma is reminiscent of orchids and roasting chestnuts. The flavor has a full mouth flavor, rich and malty.

The color is a deep red when it is finished brewing. The deep red means there are many tea buds imparting a high amount of amino acids to give the red color.

Keemun (Qi Meng) is a milder black tea than Yunnan or the Indian Assam teas used to make the popular English and Irish breakfast blends.

Queen Elizabeth visited this area in 1986 and drank these teas. Every April and May large quantities are shipped to the Royal family.

We could not visit the nearby tea gardens; the Chinese National army was on maneuvers in the area. No foreigner is allowed to be close.