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“Steepsterites, I am f-f-f-f-f-freezing! And when chillsome, something smoky is (also) good. What luck that I happened to buy a new one when ordering from Chi of Tea! LS and smoky flavoured black...” Read full tasting note
“I made a large pot of this to relax with this morning. I think it was an excellent choice. Although I really like this tea, I don’t think it is one that I could actually drink that often – I have...” Read full tasting note
Chinese black tea smoked over pine gives this tea its classic smokey characteristics. Takes well to cream and sugar. Excellent chai base!
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Steepsterites, I am f-f-f-f-f-freezing!
And when chillsome, something smoky is (also) good. What luck that I happened to buy a new one when ordering from Chi of Tea!
LS and smoky flavoured black teas in general, be it actually smoked like LS or an naturally occurring pseudo-smoke like Keemun, are some of my favourites. I’ve said more than once that ‘smoky is good, very smoky is very good’ and I stand by that. There is just that little proviso with LS that I can actually get them too smoky. That is, it’s not the fact that there’s too much of the smoke. It’s the other parts of it that there isn’t enough of. I like the sweetness of the finish, and I’ve had an LS where this finishing note didn’t really show up at all until the second steep. That’s just not ideal for me. The perfect LS needs to have both those aspects.
The aroma of the leaves is definitely smoky, even charcoal-y, and after steeping the tea smells strongly of smoke and ashes. Fresh ashes though. Like the site of a campfire after it has almost completely gone out. (I used to be a girl scout. I know what that smells like. It’s significantly better than what your clothes smell like when coming home.)
Taste-wise this is an LS right after my own heart! It’s heavy on the smoke, but that sweet note of fruit, almost sugary, is coming through loud and clear. This is pretty much ideal. I’ve previously named the LS from AC Perch’s my standard LS, but I might have to do some more comparison to see how this one holds up, because this is seriously nice.
The thing about LS, for an LS lover, is that it’s very easy to describe. Or very difficult, whichever way you look at it. It’s certainly un-complicated. At first there’s a lot of smoky notes, slight wooden and just a smidge sour. Then, when swallowing, an incredible sweetness blossoms up. Sweet, yet with a certain quality of freshness.
This, however, in no way means that LS, however much of that sweet note it’s got, should be mistaken for a sweet tea. It’s not actually sweet at all. It’s harsh and prickly. The sweetness is merely there in a finishing note, and seeming all the sweeter still because it’s contrasted with the smoke.
If you like smokies, if you are an LS lover, do ask this one for a dance.
I made a large pot of this to relax with this morning. I think it was an excellent choice. Although I really like this tea, I don’t think it is one that I could actually drink that often – I have to be in the right mood for it. One thing I noticed this morning is that while it was very hot, the smoke was extremely strong and I didn’t get any other notes, though as it cooled a little bit, it got that underlying sweetness which makes me love this tea. It is so suprising that such a harsh, savoury tea has that sweet note.
I, too, used to be a Girl Scout. Camp was the best part of my childhood. As for the lapsang souchong, coming from you, I take the high rating quite seriously! It must be some pretty good stuff…
Eh, I preferred the weekly meetings and learning to do stuff, really. That whole sleeping in tents on the cold ground like sardines with other kids and being away from home omg wasn’t really so very huge on my list. But then again, that might also have something to do with me not having been very good at forming tighter friendships with the other kids. I just had a small handful of my very close friends and the rest merely loose acquaintances and people I knew. (Also, in my family it was slightly difficult to avoid being one, when my father used to be one and his brother still leading a group of 10-12 yos, and both my cousins at my age were. :) Every time I started getting tired of it, I was persuaded to wait until I’d moved into the next age group, because my father knew that it was most likely because I was close to that age and I was getting bored with the level of things we were learning. Turned into 10 years total in the end)