Kusmi Tea

Cold brewed this tea overnight. So great and refreshing. This would be nice on a hot summer day. Right now it is cold out and a little cold in my humble abode, but its a good way to keep hydrated anyway! Yum! This isn’t bitter and the spearment flavor with the gunpowder is minty and delicious.

I’m going to call my first try “user fail.” May not have prepared it long and strong enough; just couldn’t get much more out of it than spicy water flavor, even with a little milk. Won’t be so chintzy with the leaves next time and maybe we’ll get some real chai-itude out of it.

Sipdown no. 74 of 2017 (no. 355 total).

One of the things I love about Steepster is the opportunity it provides to take a trip down memory lane.

There was a time when I thought I loved lapsang souchong. I know this because I ordered a lot of it — samples and full sized tins — from various companies. At the time, I complained that I thought this one was rather on the weak side. It wasn’t smoky enough, meaty enough, resiny enough.

I look back on that with a bit of a chuckle now because I can’t imagine really enjoying something very much more smoky, meaty or resiny than this.

I’ve been drinking a couple of cups on the weekends for the past couple of months, and during my time off I’ve been drinking this daily at the end of my morning black teas. It started as a sipdown project of a tea with lower historic rating in my tealog, but as I got toward the end of the tin, I realized I’d started to think better of this tea.

Lapsang is no longer a favorite of mine, even if it might have been at one time. It’s too intense for daily drinking for me, and I don’t have the slightest urge to drink it except during winter, when it’s cold. I’ve tried making cold brew with it without success — it reminds me too much of years ago when I misguidedly smoked cigarettes for a relatively short period and washed out my ashtrays. Cold lapsang for me is pretty much gag inducing.

To be honest, the thought of the amount of lapsang I own worries me some, as I rather dread the thought of sipping it all down. But I was raised with a waste not want not philosophy, so I can’t bring myself to dispose of it. Plus, there are times when I really do enjoy it.

And so. There’s an underlying gentleness to this one, a sweetness in the aftertaste that makes me almost sad to see it go. Except that I have some from Leafspa, ATR, Mariage Freres, Rishi, Samovar, Harney, Upton, Golden Moon, and more…

Bumping the rating a bit.

Hi guys. I know I continue to be scarce. It sucks, as I miss you. All I can say is yay for cooler weather! I’m actually cold in the house today, and craving tea for the first time in a while. And what exactly am I craving? Talk about 0 to 60 in 4 seconds… I go from being “meh” about tea to wanting something dark, smoky and as intense as possible.

I have been eyeing this one for a while, I just have, as I’ve said, been knocked off my singlemindedness as far as tea is concerned, and each time I try to stage a comeback it turns out to be too halfhearted to last. As it starts to get colder, I’m holding out more hope.

The first thing I noticed about this one is that it appears to have fluffed in volume between the time I opened the inner cellophane to the time I tried to close the tin. I don’t know whether this is how you’re supposed to do it or not, but with Kusmis I open up the inner cellophane packet, pour the leaves into the tin, and discard the cellophane. This is the first time the tea grew in volume so much that I couldn’t get the tin closed. It was slightly better after spooning some tea into the Breville, but I think it will take a few more servings before it isn’t a bear to close.

It has, as expected, an intensely smoky fragrance in the tin, heavier on the ash and lighter on the salty meat than some others I’ve tried. The liquor is lighter than I expected, a sort of dark honey color. The smoke mellows in the aroma; there’s some malty sweetness lurking under the lightly smoky overlay.

Now for the taste. Hmmm… I am a little disappointed, but I think there is user error here. I have to wonder whether I need to beef up the amount of leaf some (that could be why the liquor is lighter than expected) because it tastes a little faded to me. Almost watery. Kusmi teas are subtle, but in my experience so far that has never translated to watery. I must be rusty in my tea-making skills.

Despite the wateriness, it’s entirely not horrible. It has the smoke, which I was craving, but it doesn’t have the tar/pine/resin thickness of some lapsangs. Nor does it have much in the way of bacon, beef jerky, or other salted meat. I hesitate to conclude this without further experimentation, but my preliminary assessment is it’s a sort of lapsang lite.

Made 2 drinks this morning… an instant coffee/chocolate mix to drink while driving (>_<) and this during my BLS course… I haven’t had to wake up early for a couple weeks now. Yum!

I was guessing the weight of each small Kusmi tin I have, and chose the one which weighed the most IMO.

Green Zoubrovka it is! I got so excited smelling it after I steeped it. Kusmi Kusmi Kusmi!!! It is insanely smooth and not bitter at all. (again too excited or just too much caffeine in me). I was tasting slightly buttery, sweet, green, and minty/nutty notes (classic Kusmi I presume). Ok off to enjoy another mug!

yummy! this smells like a Kusmi…its interesting how their teas have a similar underlying scent to it. This one smells grassy and sweet. The taste is not bitter at all. It is smooth and sweet. Great tea!

I love, love , love this tea. I treasure my little box of St. Petersburg so much that I am only willing to use a small amount of tea leaves each time! :P I always drink it plain, which is delicious enough. The fruity berry note is so fragrant and delightful. The caramel is sweet but subtle, so to me it tastes more like honey. Highly recommend to anyone who loves Mariage Freres’ Marco Polo. :)

I’m really enjoying this tea. It’s a nice brisk tea, by appearance and taste it has a good deal of Assam in the blend, with a hint of Russian smokiness to it.

Fans of licorice — do not miss this!

Smelled like a peppery chai in the tin, but it’s a different story once steeped. Sweet Love becomes an aromatic concoction with a strong licorice note that is at the same time herbal, sweet, and spicy, quite away from the realm of ‘chai.’ The ginseng is there, and gives it a big herbal kick, almost covering up much of the black tea. The after-taste after you swallow is sweet and spicy, just like when you eat black licorice bars.

It’s definitely not for everyone, but has become one of my favorites. There’s nothing quite like it. I enjoy it plain and unsweetened, the way Kusmi recommended it.

Finishing this one off. Had some yesterday, and blended the little bit that was left with some Caravan for today. Despite my somewhat “meh” rating, I think I’ll miss this. It was a nice, mellow afternoon tea.

I am officially all out of Kusmi.

Sipping this again, I’ve been getting this tinge of bitterness that’s sort of synthetic and reminds me of decaffenation. I know it isn’t, and the sharpness also makes me think of Darjeeling. Also, there is definitely Keemun in this; I’m getting that very slight breath of nut and smoke I personally associate with it.

Anyways, flipping through Kusmi’s teas as I drink this, I’ve concluded that Kusmi’s unflavoured blends have many more strongly disappointed reading notes compared to their flavoured’s. From my (meagre) experience, they definitely seem to put a little more effort into their flavoured blends.

This isn’t BAD, though. It’s a little sharp, but also goes well with orange. I’m beginning to run low on it, and I doubt I’ll get it again—I’d rather try some of Kusmi’s OTHER teas—although I hate that their tins are so permanently decorated. If I want to reuse it, in my obsession I’ll have to tape over all the pre-existing labels.

Had this this morning with a slice of orange in it. I’ve learned not to use concentrated citrus juices as a stand-in for the real thing. It is a bad idea. If you wish to fruit’n up your tea, add an actual slice/wedge of it. You don’t get the unbearable puckering, just a cup of deliciousness.

Drinking this in the morning because one, I drink tea any time of day regardless of its intended timing and two, I don’t for one moment believe that it is “low in caffeine” as the label reads, because as far as teas go, unless it was chemically decaffeinated, those are flimsy, inaccurate statements!

Dry leaf smells quite nice. Keemun’s in there, and I saw a few smaller, rounder chunky leaves that I thought might be a rather dark darjeeling, perhaps.

I plan to drink this as I download a few scientific papers off of the internet. I’m in the process of looking for one in particular, from the Geological Survey of Canada, but it’s proving tricky to locate. I might actually have to go downtown and into my nearest branch.

Brewed, it smells… A bit more like assam, actually. A bit of a honey scent as well.

I’m getting a darjeeling taste mixed in with darker teas. It’s mellow otherwise, and rather nice to sip and work on the computer with, although it’s getting slightly more astringent as it cools. Not unpleasantly so.