Chinese Name: Qimen Hong

Profile

Leaf:	Small broken, curled leaf
Infusion:	Bright, transparent and ruby red
Aroma:	Sweet, toasted and slightly pungent
Taste:	Astringent with a mildly sweet lingering note

Harvest Season:	Spring 2007
Origin:	Qimen County, Anhui Province
Processing Method:	Baked
Leaf Form:	Small broken leaves
Organic Cert:	China OFDC

Description of Tea

While not the smoothest of Qimen black teas this variety offers some notable characteristics worth exploring. The tea actually starts out wonderfully with a bright ruby red infusion, accompanied by some wonderful deep, robust floral aromas. Where it fails to inspire however is in its slightly astringent nature and hard to brew-out sweeter and smoother qualities. Having said that we probably wouldn’t have gone any further and left this tea for some so-called high quality tea-pod, errr…! Yet to our surprise things all seemed to turn around when the cup had finally been emptied. According to Chinese competition grading there’s one last component we must consider in appraising a tea: the bottom of an emptied cup. Surprisingly, this variety of Qimen actually scores quite high in this category offering a wonderful bright florid aroma and rich citrus toned “bottom”.  So 'bottoms up' to this Anhui Qimen, a good tea worth experimenting with. 

 

Preferred Method:	Gaiwan 200ml
Acceptable Method:	Yixing Teapot 200ml
If You Must:	Teapot
Quantity of Tea:	5-7 grams
Water Temp:	212° F, 100° C
Infusion Time:	30 seconds first and second brew; increase by one minute each consecutive brew

How to Brew?

The preferred method of brewing is an Yixing teapot or a gaiwan.  After boiling the water to 212°F (100° C) rinse the gaiwan or teapot once.  By rinsing we ensure the teaware is free of any unwanted matter as well as create optimal heat conditions for brewing.  We suggest 5-7 grams of tea per 200 ml of water.   However, these parameters have more to do with personal tastes than any sort of scientific groundings.  The lengths of the infusions are also dependent upon personal preference for either a weaker or stronger infusion.  As such we suggest starting with shorter infusion times of up to one minute for the first and second brew while gradually increasing infusion times by one minute for each consecutive brew.