Tea Tasting on Finland’s National Tea Day
Last week, on 6th February, it was Finland’s National Tea Day. To celebrate I went along to a little tea party thrown by TeeMaa and Muyo in downtown Helsinki. TeeMaa teahouse and shop has been serving beautiful teas for 10 years now. And Muyo is a tea and culture space that opened last year offering tea and cultural events. I’ve found myself there quite frequently these past few months - a cute Christmas market, a Sum-e ink painting workshop, a Raw Pu’er Tea Tasting (phone problem >> photos lost 😭), and now a National Tea Day tea party. In just over one hour, Xinyuan from TeeMaa took us on a whistle-stop tour of five very different teas.
Top left: High Mountain oolong, Top right: Silver Coin green tea, Bottom left: High Horse red/black tea, Bottom right: Song Zhong oolong
Silver Coin Green tea
This is the first time I have seen Silver Coin green tea. It’s from Hunan province in China. Xinyuan said it’s her go-to tea when hiking as it’s so easy to carry and brew on-the-go. I love it already - perfect little coins with silver tips winding through compressed green leaves.
We brewed up ‘grandpa style’, by just popping the coin in a big glass (can also be a mug, no ceremony here!) and topping it up with 70-80C water. Over the next few minutes, the coin slowly unfurled like a flower tea giving a delicious soft, fresh aroma. The taste was like a breath of warm Spring mountain air. Just what we needed in the depths of the Finnish winter.
Silver Coin green tea
Silver Coin green tea
High Mountain Oolong
If memory serves me well, this High Mountain Oolong is from Shanlinxi in Taiwan. At 1600-1800 metres altitude it’s one of the most well-known high mountains in Taiwan. Oolong is my favourite tea category, there are so many different styles and flavours.
This is one of the greener oolongs in contrast to the darker oolongs, such as Wuyi Cliff Oolong. This High Mountain Oolong is just beautiful. It’s sweet and floral with a lingering aftertaste. Even though it has a lovely lightness, it’s balanced with a richness and depth of flavour.
High Mountain oolong
High Mountain oolong
High Horse Wild Red/Black tea
This red/black tea is grown wild on high slopes in a Hunan village called ‘High Horse, Two Streams’. It brews up to a lovely bright copper colour. And has such a delicious sweet chewy flavour of caramel and molasses.
High Horse Wild red/black tea
High Horse Wild red/black tea (in cup)
Song Zhong Oolong
Next up was a dark oolong called Song Zhong, a type of Phoenix Dan Cong. Phoenix refers to the Phoenix Mountain (Feng Huang Shan) in Guangdong, where tea trees grow at an altitude of around 1,000 meters. This tea has a smooth gentle roasted aroma with fruity notes and a long lasting sweet aftertaste.
Song Zhong oolong
Song Zhong oolong
Purple cultivar
We weren’t quite sure what this mystery tea was! Xinyuan thought that it’s possibly a purple cultivar from the Burmese/Chinese border that’s been processed as a black/red tea.
I had never heard of a purple cultivar, and got a bit lost down a googling rabbit hole to find out more. It seems that Purple tea warrants its own blog post! So far I discovered that it’s varietal of Camellia Sinensis Assamica from Yunnan and has three varieties. More info at https://teadb.org/puerh-oddities/.
Anyway, this possibly purple tea was delicious. Big bold juicy peach aroma and flavour.
Purple cultivar
Purple cultivar