Keemun () is a famous

Chinese Chinese can refer to: * Something related to China * Chinese people, people of Chinese nationality, citizenship, and/or ethnicity **''Zhonghua minzu'', the supra-ethnic concept of the Chinese nation ** List of ethnic groups in China, people of va ...

black tea Black tea, also translated to red tea in various East Asian languages, is a type of tea that is more oxidized than oolong, yellow, white and green teas. Black tea is generally stronger in flavour than other teas. All five types are made from ...

. First produced in the late 19th century, it quickly became popular in the West and is still used for a number of classic blends. It is a light tea with characteristic

stone fruit In botany, a drupe (or stone fruit) is an indehiscent fruit in which an outer fleshy part (exocarp, or skin, and mesocarp, or flesh) surrounds a single shell (the ''pit'', ''stone'', or ''pyrena'') of hardened endocarp with a seed (''kernel'') ...

and slightly smoky notes in the aroma and a gentle, malty, non-astringent taste reminiscent of unsweetened cocoa. Keemun is said to have floral aromas and wooden notes.

History

Original Keemun is produced exclusively in the

Qimen County Qimen County (; alternately romanized as Keemun) is a county in the southeast of Anhui Province, People's Republic of China, bordering Jiangxi Province to the southwest. It is the westernmost county-level division of the prefecture-level city of ...

in the south of

Anhui Anhui , (; formerly romanized as Anhwei) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, part of the East China region. Its provincial capital and largest city is Hefei. The province is located across the basins of the Yangtze River ...

province. It is grown in Guichi, Shitai, Dongzhi, and Yixian. The name of the tea is an older Western spelling of the name of the nearby town, Qimen (pronounced "Chee-mun"). The tea-growing region lies between the

Yellow Mountains Huangshan (),Bernstein, pp. 125–127. literally meaning the Yellow Mountain(s), is a mountain range in southern Anhui Province in eastern China. It was originally called “Yishan”, and it was renamed because of a legend that Emperor Xuany ...

and the

Yangtze River The Yangtze or Yangzi ( or ; ) is the longest list of rivers of Asia, river in Asia, the list of rivers by length, third-longest in the world, and the longest in the world to flow entirely within one country. It rises at Jari Hill in th ...

. The cultivar used for Keemun is the same as that used in production of

Huangshan Maofeng Huangshan Maofeng tea (; pronounced ) is a green tea produced in south eastern interior Anhui province of China. The tea is one of the most famous teas in China and can almost always be found on the China Famous Tea list. The tea is grown near H ...

. While the latter is an old, well-known variety of green tea, Keemun was first produced in 1875 using techniques adapted from

Fujian Fujian (; alternately romanized as Fukien or Hokkien) is a province on the southeastern coast of China. Fujian is bordered by Zhejiang to the north, Jiangxi to the west, Guangdong to the south, and the Taiwan Strait to the east. Its capi ...

province farmers. Many varieties of Keemun exist, with different production techniques used for each. Nevertheless, any Keemun undergoes particularly slow withering and oxidation processes, yielding more nuanced aroma and flavor. Some of Keemun's characteristic floral notes can be attributed to a higher proportion of

geraniol Geraniol is a monoterpenoid and an alcohol. It is the primary component of citronella oil and is a primary component of rose oil, palmarosa oil. It is a colorless oil, although commercial samples can appear yellow. It has low solubility in water ...

, compared to other black teas.

Varieties

Among the many varieties of Keemun perhaps the most well-known is ''Keemun Mao Feng'' (). Harvested earlier than others, and containing leafsets of two leaves and a bud, it is lighter and sweeter than other Keemun teas. Another high grade variety, containing mostly leaves and stronger than others, is the ''Keemun Hao Ya'' (). For Western markets, it is separated by quality into Hao Ya A and Hao Ya B categories, the former being somewhat better than the latter. Either has a markedly intense taste. Other varieties include those specifically tailored for the

Gongfu tea ceremony The gongfu tea ceremony or kung fu tea ceremony ( or ), is a type of Chinese tea ceremony, involving the ritual preparation and presentation of tea. It is probably based on the tea preparation approaches originated in Fujian and the Chaoshan area ...

(''Keemun Gongfu'', or ''Congou'' – ) and ''Keemun Xin Ya'' (), an early bud variety, said to have less bitterness. One of the black teas produced in neighboring

Hubei Hubei (; ; alternately Hupeh) is a landlocked province of the People's Republic of China, and is part of the Central China region. The name of the province means "north of the lake", referring to its position north of Dongting Lake. The prov ...

province is sometimes referred to as a ''Hubei Keemun'' () by several tea companies, but is not a Keemun in the true sense of the term.

References

External links

Tea Guardian: Qimen Maofeng (Keemun Black Tea)
{{Teas Black tea Chinese teas Chinese tea grown in Anhui Huangshan City