Description
🍃 Black Tea🇨🇳 Anhui, China🍷 Wine-Like Notes🌿 Loose Leaf
The Chinese black tea standard — Keemun from Anhui Province, smooth, slightly wine-like, with dried-fruit and cocoa notes underneath.
Keemun (also spelled Qimen, the modern Pinyin) is one of the world’s great black teas, grown in the mountains of Anhui Province in eastern China. First produced in the 1870s, Keemun was developed specifically as China’s answer to Indian black tea — and it’s a different beast entirely. Where Indian black tea brews bold and malty, Keemun runs smoother, with characteristic notes of dried fruit, faint cocoa and a wine-like quality that earned it the nickname “the Burgundy of teas”.
The “Panda” designation is a standard-quality grade name on the tea trade — not a regional sub-variety, just the common-grade Keemun expression you find at quality tea shelves. The cup carries everything that makes Keemun famous: the smooth body, the dried-fruit aroma, the wine-adjacent finish. Excellent neat; less commonly taken with milk.
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Anhui, China
From the mountain origin region of Keemun — not Indian black
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Wine-Adjacent Body
Smooth, dried-fruit and faint cocoa — not malty
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Drinks Best Neat
The character is built for unsweetened sipping
✨The Sampson Promise
We only put ingredients in our products that we would use on our own family. Every ingredient has a purpose. If it doesn’t need to be there, it isn’t.
Type
Black Tea (Keemun)
Caffeine
Medium
Best Time
Morning, afternoon
Format
Loose Leaf
Steep Time
3–4 min
Servings
~25 cups (50g)
Tasting Notes
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Dried-Fruit Top
Aroma
The aroma walks in soft and slightly sweet — dried-fruit notes (date, fig, raisin), with a faint cocoa-and-baked-bread underneath. Cleaner than an Assam, less smoky than a Lapsang.
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Smooth Wine Body
Body
The body is the smooth, slightly wine-adjacent middle that makes Keemun famous — round, mid-weight, with a sweet structured edge that approaches red wine in character. No malt-bomb, no astringency.
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Long Sweet Finish
Aftertaste
Closes with a long slightly-sweet finish, cocoa hanging on the back of the palate. The cup keeps tasting after the sip ends — what the Chinese tea tradition calls hui gan, the “returning sweetness”.
How to Brew
01
Measure
One heaped teaspoon (about 2–3g) per 8oz cup. Keemun leaf is fine-cut and dense — a level scoop is enough.
02
Heat to ~95°C
Just off the boil — 95°C lets the leaf give up its character without pulling out tannin. Keemun is more delicate than an Indian black; full-boil works but slightly cooler is better.
03
Steep 3–4 Minutes
Three for a brighter cup, four for full wine-like body. Keemun re-steeps once well; the second pour is gentler but still distinctly Keemun.
Water
~95°C
Time
3–4 min
Per Cup
1 heaped tsp
Drinks best neat — the Keemun character is built for unsweetened sipping, like a good red wine. If you take milk, use a small splash; full English-breakfast milk drowns the wine and cocoa notes that make this tea worth its name.
About the Tea
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Anhui Origin
The Place
Grown in the Huangshan mountains of Anhui Province in eastern China — the original Keemun region. Mountain altitude, mist and humidity produce the characteristic dried-fruit and cocoa profile that defines authentic Keemun.
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Standard-Grade Cut
The Grade
The “Panda” name is a standard-grade designation in the Chinese black-tea trade — not a regional sub-variety, but the everyday-quality Keemun expression. Reliable, consistent, the cup that captures what Keemun is famous for at an everyday price.
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Wine-Adjacent Profile
The Character
What makes Keemun famous: the smooth body, the dried-fruit notes, the faint cocoa, the long sweet finish. It’s the Chinese black tea designed to be drunk neat — different in spirit from the Indian blacks that need milk.
In the tin
Chinese black tea (Keemun, from Anhui Province).
Origin & Sourcing
Single-origin Chinese Keemun from the Huangshan mountains of Anhui Province — the original Keemun region. A standard-grade expression of one of the world’s great black teas, smooth and slightly wine-adjacent, packed in small batches for the Sampson shelf.
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