Of the two unsmoked lapsangs from Trident that Daylon sent me, this is the one I was most looking forward to trying. Anything with “fruity” in the name sounds promising to me! I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml porcelain pot at 195F for 7, 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus some uncounted steeps.
The aroma of the dry leaves is of blackberry, lemon, roses, lavender, malt, soy sauce, and wood. The first steep is soft, with notes of blackberry, lemon, honey, roses and other florals, malt, soy sauce, and wood. The tea has a nice, thick body. The second steep is sweeter, and orange, molasses, lavender, more honey, and some tannins are noticeable. The orange, lemon, and blackberry/generic red berry notes are more pronounced in the next couple steeps, though the honey in the aftertaste is a little cloying. I also get whisps of pineapple in the aroma. In the next few steeps, the sweet blackberry, citrus, and honey remain constant, and I get more rose, florals (orchid?), and grass with some tannins. The fruity, floral flavours persist through many steeps, after which the session fades into malt, minerals, tannins, and wood.
This is a lovely lapsang that lives up to its name. I didn’t find it quite as compelling as the Wild Lapsang because I didn’t think it was as well balanced or complex. I liked the rose and blackberry, but it verged on being too sweet in places and the range of fruit wasn’t as wide as that in some other lapsangs I’ve had. Still, it has great longevity and is overall a very nice tea. It’s also from 2019, so the fruit may have been more vibrant a couple years ago. Thanks to Daylon for the sample.
Flavors: Berries, Blackberry, Citrus, Floral, Grass, Honey, Lavender, Lemon, Malt, Mineral, Molasses, Orange, Orchid, Pineapple, Rose, Soy Sauce, Sweet, Tannin, Wood
