2008 Haoya Keemun ‘Nonpareil’

As for probably 99% of Europeans, my first taste of tea was black. In the late 1980s, nobody heard of green tea, and ‘oolong’ was a mediocre low-bracket disaster you better steered clear of. In the late 1980s in Poland, there were no teabags (at least I don’t remember them); tea was purchased in small cardboard boxes or loose brown paper bags. Generic geographical names were used – Assam, Ceylon, Madras – with little guarantee of authenticity but a broad consistency of taste: Assam was a very deeply coloured, heftily tannic brew while Georgian tea (very popular in Eastern Block countries) was of the lighter, fruitier, spicier kind. There was not tea connoisseurship; tea was a staple, and left an indelible aromatic imprint on my childhood memories of afternoon meetings of adults.

With the fall of Communism here in 1989, tea became a commodity governed by market forces. Standards fell as teabags came into fashion. There was so little interest in the watery brew they generated that I gave up tea altogether. It was only in 1996 or 1997 that I came back. By then, a couple of specialist tea merchants were operating in Warsaw. They had perhaps 75 varieties of loose leaf on offer. Today, I wouldn’t give a penny for that no-name TGFOP Assam sitting next to a strawberry-scented Gunpowder, but at the time it was a massive change.

‘Black’ (now sometimes defined as ‘red’ following the Chinese nomenclature) tea constituted 75% of my early tea consumption, and I had two favourites: Yunnan and Keemun. The former’s red-fruity, crisp taste on sunny days and the latter’s malty depths on rainy ones.

So it was a kind of sentimental journey to order the 2008 Haoya ‘A’ Keemun ‘Nonpareil’ from Dragon Tea House. This pricy tea ($24 / 100g) is the highest grade of black offered by this merchant (Haoya being a top grade of Keemun and A the highest quality of Haoya). Brewed in: gaiwan
Dosage: 3.5g / 150ml
Dry leaf: Very small – this is clearly a top grade. A uniform dark brown/black with a minor amount of golden tips. (Later a proportion of twig bits will be revealed in the wet leaf). Dry leaf aroma is that unmistakeable Keemun malty smoke spice. Tasting notes:
I experimented with brewing times during several sessions, going from 15s to 60–90s for the first brewings, and continuing pretty much at will. (Patience of this tea is average but three reasonable infusions can be obtained, though #1 is always best). Dark red-brown, this is not a particularly deep colour for black tea. Nose is quite distinctive and immediately brings memories of those inexpensive blended Keemun teas I was drinking as a student: little fruit, lots of maltiness and smoke, some heavier earthy notes. On the palate this again shows that Keemun’s comfortable malty oxidation and few ‘primary’ fruit notes, to use a vinous term. Not very tannic even when brewings are lengthy; finish is firm not drying. If this was a wine, it would be a Madiran or young Cahors with its chewy tannins and earthy fruit. Overall this is a good (perhaps very good) example of its appellation, but not a ‘wow’ tea and perhaps I expected more at this price.