Lapsang Souchong

I’ve been drinking Lapsang Souchong Black Dragon by Upton Tea’s every morning for a couple of weeks and truly love it. Late yesterday I received an order from Narien Teas (ten days from order to delivery and they have a lot of small inexpensive sampler bags).

This one is a bit stronger than Black Dragon when it comes to the smoky effect. Black Dragon has a tad of natural sweetness enfolded in there. I’d call this one a more vigorous, robust smoke flavoured tea. It’s very good. My difficulty with Lapsang Souchongs is that I don’t have the palate to pick out the individual notes very well. I seem to like them all and they provide a bracing start to the day. I have yet to give my heart away to any one brand of LS but I’ve given my heart away to this genre of tea.

Doulton’s Shakespeare: A Tasting Note in 5 Acts
Act II scene 5

“By the pricking of my thumbs,
Something wicked this way comes.”
MacBeth, Act IV scene 1

I consider one of the best parts of MacBeth to be the witches. They cackle, plot and give prophecies that have (said like Robot Chicken’s version of M. Night Shyamalan) a tweest! Plus they inspired the title of one of Ray Bradbury’s great stories (I’m a big Ray Bradbury fan too). They’re dark and naughty, but they aren’t the ones who do all the murdering in the play. Therefore to me this tea embodies the Witches from Macbeth.

I think that Upton’s Black Dragon is the best subtle LS that I’ve had. Having said that, this tea is the most robust wicked-awesome LS that I’ve had. This is a smokier LS, but it’s the smoothest smoky LS that I’ve ever had. It also has an uncanny sweetness that reminds me of Cafe Du Monde’s beignets. The sweetness may be due to residual from my oolong marathon yesterday, but I’ll try this tea again in the near future to confirm that it’s this tea that has the sweet characteristics that I’m attributing to it. This is like the best witches brew ever. So if you’ve had Upton’s Black Dragon (or any other subtle-smoky LS) and decide to further your Lapsang Souchong adventure, then I highly recommend this one as the next step up on the smoke scale. TG

Lapsang Souchong “Cat Sound” Scale: This tea made me go back to my Life in Teacup note and drop the rating a few notches. This also wins over the “Purr like a lion” from the LiT tea.

ETA: I got 4 very good steeps out of this one, but I think the 5th would become too watery.

I have never given a tea 100 points before, and l’m not exactly sure what a 100 point tea would have to do for me. Massage my feet? Cook me dinner? This as close to 100 as it gets for me. I surprisingly fell in love with this tea. It’s not as bitter or as strong as you would expect from the smell – and this is coming from someone who’s perhaps had Lapsang souchong once, maybe twice years before, so I don’t really have anything to compare it to. But I enjoy this tea so much and I find that the smell along centers me somehow, easing away stress. I picture myself in the deep woods, in autumn, with every sip. It’s magical. Really.