Lapsang Souchong Smoky Black Tea (Yan Xun Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong)
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Commercial Description
Lapsang Souchong Black Tea (Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong) is tightly strip shaped, dark smooth color. Soup presents a color of heavy red. Aroma is high and long with a flavor of pine smoke, tastes mellow and thick.
Ratings & Reviews
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
87 Aroma: 9/10 Flavor: 4/5 Value: 4/5Amanda (338 reviews) on Jun. 1st, 2014
The aroma is very much so a pine smoke heavy black tea, lots of pine smoke goodness and a rich malt. There are also notes of molasses and roasted peanuts which blends really well with the pine resin and smoke.
The first steep is quite smooth and very light. The taste is subtly sweet with notes of pine sap and sweet potatoes. This fades to a rich smokiness that lingers into the aftertaste. This steep promises that future steeps are going to have a wonderful richness and smokiness, it is a good prelude to what is to come. I steeped this tea three times.
On a whim I decided to give this tea a visit using Western techniques. The aroma is malty, rich, and quite smoky. The taste is very smoky with heavy notes of pine, molasses, and sweetness. The aftertaste is malty and smoky. Both the Western and the Gongfu styles of brewing made a deliciously smoky and rich tea.
57 Aroma: 5/10 Flavor: 3/5 Value: 4/5Alex Zorach (1453 reviews) on Sep. 24th, 2012
The dry leaf smells strongly of pine smoke, more like the British style of Lapsang Souchong, which I find is often overly smoky. But upon brewing, this tea's smokiness mellows out considerably. There's still a lot of that campfire or wood smoke smell, but it doesn't overwhelm.
Flavor and mouthfeel is exceptionally smooth. No bitterness whatsoever and little astringency.. There is, however, a sourness in the finish. Upon drinknig the whole cup, there's a lingering sweetness as well.
This tea was interesting...I did not like it as much as the traditional Lapsang Souchong that I've tried, like one from Life in Teacup, which was even less smoky and more like a Keemun. But I liked it more than any British-style example of this tea.
Overall though the tea was a bit one-dimensional, and I found the sourness a bit objectionable, which is why I would be unlikely to buy it. This was not bad, but I strongly prefer all of TeaVivre's other black teas, which have impressed me again and again.
Page 1 of 1 page with 2 reviews
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