KEEMUN from Tealish

This is from my local tea store, Tealish, and therefore may be from the ubiquitous Canadian tea distributor, Metropolitan.

TEA NAME:  Keemun (aka Qimen, etc)
Keemun is a well kown Chinese black tea made in the small town of Qimen in the Anhui province.  It's often cited as the original basis for English Breakfast tea.  Its taste is big and faintly smokey (as most Chinese teas are) with a medium briskness and full body -- considered perfect for a get-you-going-in-the-morning tea for westerners.  Which it is.

WATER TEMPERATURE: Just off the boil
STEEPING TIME:  2 minutes

Keemun dry leaves.

DRY LEAF:

Dark charcoal grey colour, whole and broken small leaves (along with a few leaf twigs) which, in close-up, have an oily sheen and are lightly twisted.  Under the film loup all is slightly dusted with light grey.  Age?  Process?

Keemun wet leaves.

WET LEAF:

Warm, classic "black tea" aroma with hints of dark chocolate, and sweet apricot.

The wet leaves are coppery with some dark green, almost exclusively small broken leaves and you can still see a few little leaf twigs.

Keemun liquor.

LIQUOR:

I overbrewed this slightly as it has a slight bitterness in the fore, and aibt strong on the metallic.  Lost any subtlety.  However, I'm still drinking it up.

The colour is a lovely rich, amber-red and is fairly bright and clear here on first pouring.