223 Tasting Notes
This is my first lapsang souchong! I have always been hesitant to try them because they smell sort of intimidating. But I’m glad I got the courage to try this one! The dry leaf scent was VERY smoky. Steeped, it wasn’t as strongly smoky as I had feared. The taste is incredible – the smoke was very prominent but I do get the sweetness Angrboda talks about under that.
Backlogging – I had this yesterday morning so I’m just going off my notes. The dry leaf had loads of apple pieces and the pink peppercorns look so pretty, with the scent mainly mild black tea with perhaps a hint of apple. The steeped tea followed in the same vein as the dry scent – black tea with a little apple. The first few sips were just black tea with a strong apple aftertaste but after cooloing a little bit, I could taste sweet apple, tart berries, hibiscus, and peppercorn.
I ordered this again a few weeks ago but they only had 1 ounce left, so I couldn’t stock up like I wanted to. Glad I got it again though – this batch isn’t quite as creamy and the nilgiri is a little more prominent, but it is stil delicious. So glad to have this back in my cupboard!
This was a free sample I received from Tealicious a while back. The samples I received, particularly this one, were very generous! I found this to be extremely pleasant. The base, a mix of kenya and what I suspect to be ceylon, supports the flavours well. The peach is more prominent then the apricot here but both flavours are clearly evident. This tea gives an almost juicy aftertaste, as if I were actually eating the fruit. Very natural and not at all artificial-tasting!
This was the third free sample I got with my last Chi of Tea order. I’m glad I didn’t order this – it really is not for me. I just don’t like Chi of Teas orange flavouring. It is sort of powdery and artificial. The orange in this blend was very dominant and although the ginger and oolong were present, they seemed to almost be an afterthought. I definitely wouldn’t purchase this.
Another free sample from Chi of Tea with my last order. This is very perfumed – I could smell it strongly through the packet. It smells sort of like rose flavour turkish delight. It tastes pretty similar to the dry scent – very sweet, rosey flavour. But it is so strong it comes across as a little artificial. I steeped for 2.5 minutes – perhaps if I steeped a little longer the sencha minght come through a little more?
I was a little worried that this would taste overwhelmingly of mint, because dry, mint is all I can really smell. I made this as a chai tea latte and suprisingly the mint wasn’t dominant! The spices are warming, but the mint (which appears right on the back of the sip) is cooling. It is a strange sensation! Suprisingly good!
Chi of Tea sent me a free sample of this with my last order. The noni leaf (I assume it is the noni leaf) is HUGE! The rest of the sample is made up of quite finely ground herbs and whole berries.
The dry tisane smells like sage, I don’t get much of the other herbs – I can smell them, but only together, I couldn’t pick out any individual scent other than the sage. Dry, it looks really good – very vivid green herbs against the bright red berries. The taste is unremarkable, though. It has a very mild flavour and although I get a nice juicy note from the berries somewhere near the front of the sip, there isn’t much to back it up. It is quite flavourless, really.
Ooooh are we seeing another lapsang lover in the making here?! :D
That sweet, sometimes fruity note is, for me, what makes lapsangs spectacular, so I’m really glad that you found it as well. :) Smoke is all good and well, but only smoke gets boring.