Lapsang Souchong Smoky Black Tea (Yan Xun Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong)

Rinsed with 190F water before cold-brewed for 4 hours.

Taste, like a sweet ripe plum, rocky-coast breeze scent. Liquor is chilled aqua fresca viscosity.

I received this today in my long-awaited Teavivre order as a sample. It’s my first time tasting lapsang souchong.
This is truly tasty, and it reminds me of Islay scotch. Mmm… Word to the bartenders out there… This would make a nice tea cocktail.
It’s smoky as described, smooth and fragrant. Like a campfire in the woods. Yummy!

Let me preface this with emphasis that I am rating this tea based on what it is supposed to be. I actually discovered I don’t like Lapsang Souchong at all, but Teavivre makes a good one for what it is.

Dry: Small tightly rolled black tea leaves. The package reminds me of the stables- the dry leaf smells very leathery to me with considerable smokiness and another aroma that reminds me of dry cedar chips.

Steeped: Deep red-brown clear liquor. The smokiness is a bit less present in the steeped tea than in the dry leaf. A hint of malt plays around the edges of the mug.

Taste: Holy smoke, Batman! This one is bold on flavor. Strong smoke with a hint of sweet. Very smooth, with pine, leather, and cedar notes. If I were to taste a tea that reminded me of a campfire, this would be the one. Not for me and I honestly couldn’t even finish the pot, but nonetheless, a quality tea and definitely worth a trial if you enjoy potent smokey notes in your tea. For some weird reason, I imagine that someone that might like this tea may also like whiskey, cigars, and horse races, lol.

Teavivre is currently having a giveaway in exchange for reviews. I chose to review their entire “5 Featured Black Tea Sampler”, not realizing I could only have one entry. I will include my reviews for all five teas in this entry, and I’ll divide out the individual teas in a few days. <edit: after 4 years, I have finally divided out these entries…>

Leaf: Dry, I see slim twists of black tea with golden tips. It smells rich and smoky and a little acrid, as if someone briefly uncapped a permanent marker. The acrid scent could be from the masking tape I was handling a few minutes previously, though. Wet, it smells like the damp, dewy remains of a a campfire after a night of camping.

Water: I don’t have a temperature control kettle, so I just have to estimate water temperatures. My kettle is glass, though, so I can get a pretty good idea of what is going on. The temperature I used was below boiling, at the point when small bubbles are formed on the bottom of the kettle and the first bubbles begin to be released.

Amount: I used approximately 2 tsp of tea for 8 oz of water, brewing western style.

First Steeping:
1 minute: The tea is a light gold. It doesn’t taste like much on the tongue, but the after taste when I swallow is slightly smoky and malty. I will let this steep for another minute.
At 2 minutes total steeping time, the tea is now a darker, honeyed orange. It smells much more smoky. It has a very thin mouthfeel, much different from the usual lapsang souchongs I am used to. The smoke flavor is fairly light and subtle.

Second steeping:
3 minutes: I used slightly hotter water this time, because the water seemed a little too cool to properly brew the tea last time. I can immediately see the difference when I remove my steeper. The tea is a dark, rich amber. I can smell some of the underlying tea base beneath the smell of smoke. For all of the smoke scent, there is not much smoke flavor. It is surprisingly light for a lapsang souchong. With this steeping, it is very subtly sweet.

I was apprehensive about this tea because the dry leaf smells dreadful. I read somewhere that the leaves are sometimes smoked over pine tar rather than pine wood, and I wonder if that’s the case for this one, because it smells like pine tar. With heavy emphasis on the tar, and not much on the pine.

That said, most lapsang souchongs taste better than they smell, in my opinion, so I forged ahead.

When I first sipped it, I didn’t like it, though it definitely tasted better than it smelled. Now that it’s cooled a bit, it tastes nicer, sweeter and more mellow. There’s still a faint note of something that just doesn’t appeal to me though.

I have a feeling that this tea might just be too authentic for my sheltered American tastes. I’ve never really been into lapsang souchongs, but of those I’ve tried, I liked David’s the best. It was recognizably smoky, but still on the mild side.

I have a case of the blahs. Pretty sure I am having an immune freak out from the tetanus shot I got yesterday, or maybe I am catching Ben’s summer cold, regardless I feel like a shambling blob. I am hoping that tomorrow I feel better so I can do something other than lay on the couch grumbling.

Today’s tea is Teavivre’s Lapsang Souchong Smoky Black Tea or Yan Xun Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian, China. This tea is smoked over pine wood (or pine wood charcoal) from Tongmu Kuan in the Wuyi Mountains. Lapsang Souchong has a long and interesting history, in theory Laspang Souchong was created when the passage of an army delayed the annual drying, so in order to meet the demand the tea producers spread up the processing by drying the leaves over pine fires. Turns out it was a tasty idea. The aroma is very much so a pine smoke heavy black tea, lots of pine smoke goodness and a rich malt. There are also notes of molasses and roasted peanuts which blends really well with the pine resin and smoke.

After tossing the pile of leaves into my gaiwan…ok, not tossing, that would be rude to the leaves, and giving the tea its initial steeping, the wet leaves have a very rich aroma with notes of molasses, loam, malt, pine sap, and loads of pine smoke. It smells like a rich black tea steeping over a fire. The liquid once it has been freed from the gaiwan (It is what I am calling pouring now) has a slightly sweet aroma that reminds me of freshly baked molasses cookies. There is, of course, an overarching aroma of pine smoke and resin.

The first steep is quite smooth and very light. The taste is subtly sweet with notes of pine sap and sweet potatoes. This fades to a rich smokiness that lingers into the aftertaste. This steep promises that future steeps are going to have a wonderful richness and smokiness, it is a good prelude to what is to come.

On the second steep there is a strong molasses and pine smoke aroma. The taste is very strong pine resin taste with strong notes of roasted peanuts and molasses. The tea is not very sweet and has a slight astringent finish. It is smoky and brisk and quite strong.

The aroma of the third steep is very malty and molasses heavy, there is still smoke, but it is not as strong as the previous steeps giving it more of a balanced aroma. The taste is a perfectly balanced blend of smoke, pine resin, molasses, and roasted peanuts. There is a sweet aftertaste and no astringency what so ever.

On a whim I decided to give this tea a visit using Western techniques. The aroma is malty, rich, and quite smoky. The taste is very smoky with heavy notes of pine, molasses, and sweetness. The aftertaste is malty and smoky. Both the Western and the Gongfu styles of brewing made a deliciously smoky and rich tea.

For photos and blog: http://ramblingbutterflythoughts.blogspot.com/2014/05/teavivre-lapsang-souchong-smoky-black.html

The Leaf: The pile is nice and dark black, semi-curled, with a sprinkling of golden buds and stems throughout. The scent is, of course, smokey, but not overpowering and also has a kind-of pine resin quality to it.

The Brew: The liquor is a golden brown, almost with a reddish tinge. The aroma is light, and almost identical to the smell of the leaves; smokey and piney. The flavor is surprisingly light. There is a definite smokey quality to it, but also some of the maltiness of a black tea comes through. The mouthfeel is quite dry and leaves your tongue tacky for awhile afterwards. There is a slight aftertaste as well of the smokiness.

I drink all of my teas cold.

I had this sample in my cupboard that I have been saving, and since it is a gray and rainy day here, decided to try it today.

I have never had a Lapsang Souchong tea before, and it certainly does have a smokey smell of pine and peat which carries over to the brewed cup.

The taste is quite smokey in flavor as well and reminds me of campfires made with fresh pine logs, but there is also a sweetness to it.

Very interesting and tasty, and although this wouldn’t be my favorite type of tea, I am happy to have tried it and would have the occasional cup for something different.

Piney smokey aroma like a dying camp fire. Taste smokey and sweet with a little bit of pine flavor. The smokiness is not overpowering and it does not drown out all the other flavors, which I find happens in most Lapsang Souchong teas that I have tried. It is definitely the best Lapsang Souchong that I have tasted, but I have not drank too many and I do not seek them out.

I know I’ve tried this tea a few times before yet there is no tasting note nor rating. Odd! I can write something for it now while I add a few bits and pieces to my AliExpress cart for the sale tomorrow. I meant to have this tea on Bonfire night though opted for red wine instead, being my husbands and mothers birthday and all.

The leaves smell thickly smoky, wooden and cigar like.
They are thin, fairly long and curly with some having a golden shine.

Flavour is smoky though in a smooth, smoggy way with mature tobacco and leather tones. They are rather clean tasting and leave little to no after taste. Slightly sweet and clay like.

For a Lapsang it’s rather light, sure it’s smoky but not too much. I really like this tea, as a non smoker it has a nice balance, even the re steeps are pleasant.