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“Thank you, Mr. Richard Zhang, at Vicony Teas for this free sample! I’ve only one more free sample to go. Note: I edited this post due to a slight error with brewing instructions, on the Vicony Teas...” Read full tasting note
Lapsang Souchong
Lapsang Souchong originates from the Tongmu Village, Wuyi Mountains in Fujian, China. The Fukienese word ‘souchong’ literally means ‘little variety’ or subvariety. Lapsang Souchong has had a long history behind it. With more than 400 years of history, it was said that it was the world’s first black tea.
Laozong means “old tea bushes” in Chinese. The Bohea Lapsang Laozong Black Tea was made with the tealeaves harvested from the semi-wild tea bushes more than 30 years old in Tong Mu Guan where is the core Lapsang Souchong producing area as well as a Chinese national nature reserve. Tea made of the tealeaves from the semi-wild old tea bushes is rich in minerals, giving a very deep after taste, lingering finishing, thick taste and long lasting flavor. The Lapsang Laozong gives a completely different drinking feeling from those teas produced from tea gardens.
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Thank you, Mr. Richard Zhang, at Vicony Teas for this free sample! I’ve only one more free sample to go.
Note: I edited this post due to a slight error with brewing instructions, on the Vicony Teas website. Thankfully, they corrected it.
Leaf Quality
The dry leaves are a dark black. One of them had a golden hue to it, however. They smelled malty and sweet. The brewed leaves were very leathery in consistency. Some were a dark brown, others as black as before. They smelled muscatel, and almost acidic (in a pleasant way). They were very aromatic, and had a different appearance than other black teas (the length in particular.
Brewed Tea
The color of the brew was a hue of copper-brown. It smelled smooth, light, and chocolaty. It tasted slightly malty, woody, and was very smooth. In fact, it was silky smooth- a really nice feature of this tea. There was a slight sweet after taste, and a floral finish with each sip.
Second Steeping
The second steeping had a much more light, and brassy-brown color. This cup smelled very floral- much more than the first. A honey-like sweet aftertaste followed my first three sips. After that, the malt made a return. I liked the second steeping better than the first. It enhanced the more subtle flavors.
I am very pleased to have gotten to try this tea (thankfully it tasted better when steeped longer than the original 20 seconds). This is also my first Lapsang Souchong that has not been smoked. A pleasant experience overall.
Hi Scharp:
Thank you for your reviews.
I am sorry to say there is a mistake on our website about the steeping time and you steeped the tea for very short time. The tea should be steeped for much longer time. The Wuyi Laozong came from Tongmu, the core Lapsang Souchong producing area. It is called Zhengshan Tea. It won’t taste bitter even brewed for very long time. You may see the artciles introducing Tongmu and Lapsang Souchong on our Blog:
http://teaseek.blogspot.com/2012/06/tong-mu-core-producing-area-of-lapsang.html
http://teaseek.blogspot.com/2012/05/why-authentic-lapsang-souchong-is.html
http://teaseek.blogspot.com/2012/03/zhengyan-zhengshan-and-bohea.html
In addition, You are quite righ. “In the end, I noticed a slight floral aftertaste- something not too common for me to taste in a black tea.” The floral note you noticed is just what we call" Lao cong Wei"(the taste of old tea trees). It is an unique taste that we only can find in teas made of old tea trees. You can find the photos of the old tea trees in the above first blog.
Thank you for the correction. I’ll steep it longer later today, and edit the review. I’ll read up on those articles soon.