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I decided to take this tea out of the archives to celebrate Mastress Alita’s sipdown challenge for National Freedom Day/Black History Month, though thankfully, it’s not a sipdown. I’m embarrassed to say I don’t have any teas from black-owned companies, partly because I’m a creature of habit and partly because these companies tend not to sell straight teas that I’d want to gongfu. (Please let me know if any of them actually sell these types of teas.) I also don’t have any teas from Africa, although I remember having an interesting one from Malawi a few years ago that I passed on to Derk. So, I’m steeping my favourite black tea.

I won’t go into a lot of detail because this session was much like the first, though I noticed the lemon a bit more and found some lovely floral apricot/peach notes in the middle of the session. Basically, if you can think of a fruit, it’s most likely in this tea, though it has very little tartness. There’s lemon, lychee, pineapple, cranberry, raspberry, those stonefruit notes … all balanced by light malt, florals, and a few tannins near the end of the session. Drool.

I haven’t had many unsmoked lapsang souchongs so I may be biased, but this tea is magical. I would consider buying 100 g despite the price if it ever comes back in stock. Until then, I will be hoarding my two or three sessions’ worth.