YunLanXuan
Edit CompanyRecent Tasting Notes
This tea makes for a nice robust everyday tea. It is not as sweet as some of the new style non smokey Lapsang’s I’ve had and that doesn’t really bring out those lovely sweeter molasses/honey caramel tones I love in these teas until later steeps. It does have a lovely mix of roasted sweet potato, charred bread crust, cocoa, dark honey, at times dark chocolate, molasses, rye bread and currants. I’m still searching for my chocolate caramel tasting lapsang and I have others that I prefer in my cupboard but this is a nice robust tea.
1tsp/150ml
Scent: Roasted sweet potato, dark chocolate red fruit, dark rye and honey
15s. Roasted sweet potato, charred bread crust, cocoa, honey and currants underneath.
20s. Stronger dark chocolate notes, with dark rye and a touch of honey with red fruit under Neath. Not overly sweet. Hint of molasses and dark chocolate, robust roasted grains note . fruit and honey underneath.
30s dark honey, rye bread hint of cocoa and dried red fruits.
40s. Honey, cocoa, grain and red fruits. not as strong as last steep increase steep time.
70s molasses, cocoa, grain notes,
Cocoa, grain notes and honey.
120s. Dark,honey with grainy malt note a bit of cocoa and a little astringency
I’m a little confused.
a> I’m not sure this is the correct place to log this tea. It seemed like the one that fit the best – so this is where I’m putting it.
b> I thought Lapsang Souchong was smoked tea – additional smoke applied to it?
This is my second tea of the morning from yyz awesome samples. This is a great black tea, I really like it, I would restock more of it. What it’s not (or at least to me – sometimes I live in my own little world) is a traditional Lapsang Souchong. If you just handed me this tea, I would think – awesome, great black tea with a hint of smokey notes – I would never think it’s a Lapsang Souchong.
Regardless of what it’s called and my thoughts on what it should be. This is a very nice tea. I’m really enjoying it this morning.
ETA: Sorry all that was appalling grammar, corrected for clarity.
I’m glad you like it. In the packet it smells like chocolate. I’ m trying to figure out how to bring out the notes when brewing. This is the right place for this tea, same packet and everything;-)
A lot of the Lapsang Souchong produced for the Chinese market is not really smoky at all. Part of this seems to be preference and part of this is changes in the laws that restricted the use of pine in the smoking process in order to encourage conservation. Some of the retailers market this teas as zheng shan xiao zhong others as Lapsang Souchong. Tastybrew’s husband brought one back from Asia as well with similar observations.http://steepster.com/TastyBrew/posts/198176#comments
Often these teas are labeled as ‘sweet’. But pretty well all the LS I’ve had lately have very little smoke. I had one sample that I’m still searching for that was like a caramel chocolate oolong.
I remember reading an article about a regulation change in China that resulted in a lot lesser smoked Lapsang. but I know close to nothing about Lapsang so not sure if that could be one of the teas they were referring to…
PS. If you want this in the future this aliexpress store usually has it at a good price.
http://www.aliexpress.com/item/China-5-1-black-tea-excellent-paulownia-small-gift-box-premium-tea/1232127517.html
Oops, obviously, your answer wasn’t showing when I posted mine yyz, much better than mine :-)
Yours is much more concise;-). I find that these unsmoked LS seem to be either very sharp fruit flavoured, chocolaty, or sweet potato focused on flavour. Sometimes it really depends on what water temperature you use when brewing.
Interesting yyz, fits a lot more with my palate…I’ve had only 2 heavy smoked lapsang and I wasn’t really fond of them.. But I have also tried a “lighter” one from Teavivre and i really enjoyed it, fits the profile you just described…
Oh just a warning about that tea site. The sellers ads list everything as 100g, but most aren’t you have to look downward in the add to see what the actual size is. This one usually comes in a 40g size.
Joseph Wesley LS was very good.
Wow, that’s a nice review, lots of good stuff going on :-)
Boychik, I should try their samples some time, they seem to have some nice teas. I’m really looking for something I received as a sample from a dealer who’s nor selling right now. The tea was amazing. It actually tasted like a caramel chocolate oolong. I have some I really like but they either don’t have the right texture, are more fruity or sweet potato dominated or have strong molasses tones. I really like them, but they are not the one I’m looking for. This is a nice tea though and often available for good value through aliexpress.
do you want a sample?
Sure! I’ll pm you.