Ok. So, smoked teas aren’t my favorite. Also, you should never take my tea ratings as being what I think the objective quality of a tea is. My ratings are just for me, and they’re a measure of how much I like to drink a tea.
It’s smokey, of course. This was actually more smokey than I expected after having another “subtle” Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong from Aroma Tea.
In the first steep there was the aroma of hard cinnamon candy, but I couldn’t find it again after that. There was also the aroma of molasses. There are lots of woodsy/forest smells. This tea has a bitter note mid-palate which I have tasted before, but I have a hard time describing. It’s something similar to the flavor of that delicate layer of “skin” that covers a walnut.
I wish I knew what kinds of vegan food to pair with a tea like this. While I like this tea, I don’t like it enough to save it for drinking on its own.
Preparation
Comments
Same here, there are very few times smoked tea is my liking :D I think usually roasted tea can be very tricky..
It seems like a difficult balance to enhance the flavor of the tea with smoking without covering up a lot of the tea’s flavor. I am biased here, but I suspect in the case of many Lapsang Souchongs much of the purpose of smoking the tea is to cover up the fact that the tea was of poor quality to begin with.
Same here, there are very few times smoked tea is my liking :D I think usually roasted tea can be very tricky..
It seems like a difficult balance to enhance the flavor of the tea with smoking without covering up a lot of the tea’s flavor. I am biased here, but I suspect in the case of many Lapsang Souchongs much of the purpose of smoking the tea is to cover up the fact that the tea was of poor quality to begin with.