Yikes!! My tasting note is certainly going to pale in comparison to the two that preceded it!
I was feeling like something interesting and on the “heavier” side tonight, so chose to brew up this tea. I like lapsang souchong in moderation (and particularly with milk), but who knows what this one will be like (well, a couple people do. But not me!)
The aroma of this tea is like smoked meat. Beef jerky. Campfire. It’s quite strong, and to my untrained nose, smells much like any lapsang souchong.
The flavour, however, is where it differs from other lapsangs I’ve tried. The smoke is unbelievably smooth here, no astringency, no sharp bite at all. In fact, the tea finishes with a surprising sweetness! I used about 2 tsp of leaf for 8 oz. of water, and am surprised at how delicious this is! It definitely doesn’t require any additions, although I’m certain it would hold up to them.
Hopefully I can get in a few more infusions tomorrow!
ETA: Second infusion, a couple minutes. This is truly unlike any lapsang I’ve previously tried. The smoke is still heavy in the second infusion, but there’s this amazing sweetness to it, and I can really taste the black tea underneath it. I have to admit that although this is a neat experience, I really can’t see myself ever really selecting such a tea to drink just on a whim (or if I did, I’d be dosing it with sweetener and milk and these nuances would be lost).
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Oooh, one of my friends loves Lapsang. I’ll have to pick this up for him.
Unfortunately this is one of the ’David’s Reserve Sample’ teas that I got from the rewards program! :( There are a couple reward packages left, I think, so if you’ve been collecting points on the site you may be able to get one…?
It’s the smoked oolong instead of it being a smoked black tea that makes it so wonderful.
It’s a smoked oolong?!
pretty sure it is
Neat! I wouldn’t have known. Not that good at telling things apart yet, especially with the smokiness on top.
So, for the sake of classification, were the leaves fully oxidized? I mean, is it like the mi lan xiang black that Verdant offers where leaves that are typically used for one class of tea are processed as a different class? Or is this actually a heavily-oxidized oolong that had a further processing step of smoking?
Oooh, one of my friends loves Lapsang. I’ll have to pick this up for him.
Unfortunately this is one of the ’David’s Reserve Sample’ teas that I got from the rewards program! :( There are a couple reward packages left, I think, so if you’ve been collecting points on the site you may be able to get one…?
It’s the smoked oolong instead of it being a smoked black tea that makes it so wonderful.
It’s a smoked oolong?!
pretty sure it is
Neat! I wouldn’t have known. Not that good at telling things apart yet, especially with the smokiness on top.
So, for the sake of classification, were the leaves fully oxidized? I mean, is it like the mi lan xiang black that Verdant offers where leaves that are typically used for one class of tea are processed as a different class? Or is this actually a heavily-oxidized oolong that had a further processing step of smoking?