Compagnie & Co Day 8
Oh dear. Along with hibiscus, licorice, and fishy puerh, smoked lapsang is among my least favourite things. Authors who don’t know much about tea tend to have their characters drink smoked lapsang as a sign of connoisseurship, which seems way off the mark to me. I guess readers haven’t heard of aged sheng or Wuyi yancha. To me, smoked lapsang is about as subtle as a hammer. I steeped the 2 g sachet in 250 ml of 190F water for 3, 5, and 7 minutes.
The dry aroma is of heavy smoke, with overtones of ashtray and burned rubber. The first steep has notes of smoke, malt, tobacco, and wood. At a stretch, I could call this pine smoke, but it’s really like drinking the ashes of a campfire. The aftertaste lingers. The second steep still tastes overwhelmingly of smoke, with malt, wood, and honey in the background. The tea is a bit sweeter, but the liquid smoke aftertaste is pronounced. The tea calms down slightly in the final steep, with the smoke being less obtrusive.
I’m not giving this tea a rating because I knew from the outset I wouldn’t enjoy it. Having said that, the later steeps were more balanced than I expected. I think this tea is of decent quality; it’s just not my jam. I tried a 2015 pine-smoked lapsang from Daxue Jiadao and even that didn’t persuade me to enjoy this type of tea. I have 30 g or so left in my tea museum, awaiting the day that my tastes change or I find someone to swap with.
Flavors: Ash, Honey, Malt, Pine, Smoke, Tannin, Tobacco, Wood
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Smoke is a migraine trigger for me, and my head can’t tell the difference between “real” smoke in the air outside and the smell of smoke coming off of a smoked Lapsang Souchong… the one time I tried drinking some I got a terrible migraine and said never again. It felt like trying to drink tea while sitting by a campfire having the wind blow the smoke directly into your face the whole time.
I’m with you, @Leafhopper. I don’t want smoke in my tea, my steaks, my bacon or ham, my paprika, my cocktails, or my clothing. I don’t get migranes, just… yuck.
I don’t get migraines from smoke either, but that’s a great reason to avoid this tea. I don’t mind smoked salmon or smokey marshmallows in s’mores, but smoke always overwhelms every other flavour in tea for me.
Smoke is a migraine trigger for me, and my head can’t tell the difference between “real” smoke in the air outside and the smell of smoke coming off of a smoked Lapsang Souchong… the one time I tried drinking some I got a terrible migraine and said never again. It felt like trying to drink tea while sitting by a campfire having the wind blow the smoke directly into your face the whole time.
I’m with you, @Leafhopper. I don’t want smoke in my tea, my steaks, my bacon or ham, my paprika, my cocktails, or my clothing. I don’t get migranes, just… yuck.
I don’t get migraines from smoke either, but that’s a great reason to avoid this tea. I don’t mind smoked salmon or smokey marshmallows in s’mores, but smoke always overwhelms every other flavour in tea for me.