I really, really want to like this tea, but I’m not sure how I feel about the smell.
Lapsang souchong was my intro to loose-leaf tea, so there’s some sentimental value to a good lapsang. But this one kind of left me scratching my head.
As far as the taste, it’s very lightly sweet and smoky and has a delicate flavor. You can’t really add anything to it without overpowering the flavor, so it’s best taken straight. I’ve had several cups over the past couple weeks and I keep revisiting it, but it’s just weird. The best cup I had was brewed at about 5 minutes with water freshly boiled. Lower temperatures or steeping it for a shorter amount of time left it tasting really weak.
The smell is overpoweringly smoky. Almost like someone took a bunch of pine needles and liquid smoke (not a good one) and dumped it over tea leaves. The taste is fine if you can get past the smell, but the smell is too strong for lapsang. It smells like a campfire, but there’s something artificial about it. The more time I spend around it, the more I think there’s something chemical-y about it.
I’m not sure I would recommend it to someone wanting a good lapsang. I would probably recommend it as an ingredient for a good steak rub or to make a bourbon infusion with. Not sure I’d recommend it to any of my tea-drinking friends though.
Like the taste, but just can’t get behind the way it smells. It just makes me want steak.
Flavors: Earth, Pine, Smoke, Sweet
