Lapsang Souchong Wild Black Tea

Lately I’ve been trying to finish off some of my samples, and avoid buying tons of new tea for a little while, but I’ll definitely get this when the opportunity appears. I’m finding I really love teas from the Fuijan region, because they seem to have that chocolatey/sweet profile I like so much. I expected this one to be smokey, since I think I’ve only ever had smoked lapsang souchong, but it’s instead a soft, toasty flavor. I loved it utterly.

If I didn’t know better, I’d have thought this was a Laoshan Black Tea. It tastes of chocolate and malt. I was surprised at how small the leaves are given that it is a wild grown tea. It is quite tasty.

What an interesting tea. I got it as a free sample from Teavivre. It cannot be farther away from the smoked version. The dry leaf has an intense sweet smell of blackberry, raspberry and malt. After steeping it for 45 secs in a gaiwan it developed a nice amber color and an incredibly sweet taste of forest berries, malt, spices and honey. Both the taste and the smell are quite complex, well balanced, and powerful.

I do not remember having anything like that before. It is probably the sweetest tea I ever tasted, with the long spicy and bitter aftertaste. This tea grabs your attention from the very beginning – as soon as you put it in a Cha He – and keeps it well after you finished the cup. It is a great tea to have a conversation over, as well as being a “lift me up” cuppa.

With the repeated infusions (starting with the 4th) the taste profile becomes simpler and less balanced: bread, biscuit and malt come forward, while berries and honey disappear. It also becomes sourish. So, you can get 3-4 good steeps and that’s that but those steeps are totally worth it.

I will most certainly order it again and put it into a heavy rotation. This is the tea that you offer to your Lipton teabag friends to demonstrate what they are missing, to recruit and convert.

I wasn’t expecting much from this inexpensive sample but the taste and aroma of this tea really caught me by surprise. Out of the bag, an explosion of dark chocolate and molasses hits your nose. Placed in a heated pot, the dry leaves emit aromas of ovaltine and s’mores. The steeped tea has a complex and wonderful chocolatey flavor that reminds me of Laoshan black tea. But there’s so much more to it than just chocolate. I also detected hints of rose, berries, and a little sweet potato earthiness in the finish. Normally I don’t care for the sweet potatoey note found in Dian Hongs however here’s it’s subtle and balanced. There’s no smokiness to this Lapsang at all, just a lingering caramel like sweetness.

The flavor does fade quicker than I’d like. By the fourth steep most of the flavor had been drained. Nevertheless, this is really an exceptional tea for the price and one that I will definitely repurchase.

This tea has a nice bready aroma. It is rich and sweet with flavors of raisin bran cereal, molasses, and maple syrup. I really enjoy the flavor of this tea. It has a nice balance to it and a pleasing aftertaste.

Teavivre makes a really lovely smokey Lapsang Souchong, one of my favorites, and although I know that all Lapsangs aren’t smokey, I kind of assumed this one would be.
It is not smokey, but it is delicious!
I dumped the 7G sample into a 16oz teapot and steeped 3 min, resteeped 5min.
The aroma of the leaf is sweet, bready, fruity, and a little floral.
The tea is essentially the same: honey, molasses, malt, stone fruit, and roses (in the 2nd steeping). I’ll have to remember to add some of this to my next Teavivre order.

Here’s Hoping TTB

I was surprised to find this in the “unflavored blacks” section of the TTB instead of in the “smoky tea” bag. Turns out, it was filed correctly. This is a lovely smooth, malty black tea with a warm honeyed sweet potato flavor and not even a hint of smoke. Quite delicious!

I got a sample of this somewhere and the other day it came up in my attempt to drink down my non-puerh stash. After looking at the leaves, I decided I would western this instead of trying to gongfu it. I used about 3.5g in my 12oz kysusu with water at 200F. It had some nice chocolatey notes, maybe a bit of maltiness, and was totally bomb-proof. I oversteeped brutally almost every time, because I’m easily distracted. After getting around 3 or 4 steeps, I just decided I’d toss the other half of the sample in there with the spent leaves and do a second session that way. Still wasn’t bitter or astringent or anything. A good one to drink if you’re distracted for sure. Pretty tasty, and I’m glad it wasn’t a smoked Lapsang.

Thanks to my tea friend for the sample!

This reminded me of the unsmoked jin jun mei from Yunnan Sourcing. There’s a light, natural smokiness that isn’t at all overwhelming like a smoked lapsang. It’s sweet, with a bit of cocoa on the finish. There’s a pretty strong molasses flavor in the middle of the palette, which I think is what reminds me of the jjm.

Lasts a good 3 steeps western, so not bad! Lovely warming black tea with a thick, sweet, sappy mouthfeel.

Sample from tea swap

I’m particular when drinking black tea; however I tend to be very open to trying anything once, twice, thrice, or more, until I am able to come to the conclusion on whether liking or disliking a tea. This tea, on the other hand, is astounding. I mentioned to the wife that there are teas that could allow one to totally give up on bread—and here is one of those teas! I’ve recently discovered that, while drinking teas such as this, you kind of give yourself the notion that “This is bread, therefore, I do not need bread otherwise—” which may compel one to forfeit bread altogether, and solely drink bread-like teas.

The color of the dry leaf is nicely dark; the aroma has cocoa notes with a touch of yeast. The wet leaf, as it progresses, changes into a fine hue of scarlet; while the color of the liquor remains that color of scarlet throughout the session.

The body of the liquor is thick, coating the mouth/throat with a layer of solidity, almost—(dare I say it) like bread? I’ve yet to meet a tea where I’ve become “full” similar, but nothing like, drinking too much beer in a sitting or two, thus becoming full (that is until you’ve gone to relieve yourself).

Overall, this was a nice tea to have early in the morning. Fortunately, I’ve had it before I can no longer have a sense of smell due to the oncoming cold stuffing my sinuses with the unwanted “junk” it brings with it.

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Side Note: Floral notes (roses?) after the 6th steep. I was unable to detect it, but the wife mentioned it.