A pleasantly delicious tea and a first time trying this brand and blend of tea; good quality teas, you can tell in the taste.
I am not too familiar with this type of blend, but I expected a heartier flavor profile. It is very tasty but not what I thought it would be; I was expecting a smokier taste, not as much as Lapsang Souchong but at least contributing to the flavor. This Russian Caravan is smooth…actually, this is all I can say about it, there is really no depth or complexity to it. I am aware that this type of blend does have some Lapsong Souchong blended in for flavor and intrigue, but the only time you taste smokiness is in the aftertaste and then it’s only a whisper on the palate. When drinking, Russian Caravan is somewhat malty, again, not as much as drinking Assam alone but noticeable.
Not a hearty tea however, a good afternoon tea.
Would I recommend this blend, yes…for the afternoon or when you don’t feel like a heavy, malty blend. I would like to try this same blend from other vendors for comparison.
I would say try this for something different, quiet and refined.
Preparation
People who liked this
Comments
On the write-up for this tea on the Mark Wendell website they state: “Our special blend contains no smoky aromas.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I find personally, because lapsang souchong can really be absolutely overpowering in blends. Also if you’re doing it “Russian style” in which you make a really strong zavarka in a small pot and use that throughout the day in small quantities, topping it off with hot water from the kettle…. Lapsang that steeps that way seems to release much more of the smoke flavor than wha’s released in the normal English steeping method of 5-5 minutes, The idea of Russian Caravan is that the Silk Road overland caravans exposed the bundles of tea to nightly campfires and that it took on a smokiness as a result. If the goal was to actually try to recreate that, I’d think the smoke taste would be extremely subtle. Lapsing is actually deliberately smoked. Its a taste unto itself, but is really difficult to incorporate subtly, without totally masking what’s there, imho. Anyway, in a tea like this, I find it’s far better to err on the side of subtlety, and this seems to be the deliberate decision they made.
On the write-up for this tea on the Mark Wendell website they state: “Our special blend contains no smoky aromas.” This isn’t necessarily a bad thing, I find personally, because lapsang souchong can really be absolutely overpowering in blends. Also if you’re doing it “Russian style” in which you make a really strong zavarka in a small pot and use that throughout the day in small quantities, topping it off with hot water from the kettle…. Lapsang that steeps that way seems to release much more of the smoke flavor than wha’s released in the normal English steeping method of 5-5 minutes, The idea of Russian Caravan is that the Silk Road overland caravans exposed the bundles of tea to nightly campfires and that it took on a smokiness as a result. If the goal was to actually try to recreate that, I’d think the smoke taste would be extremely subtle. Lapsing is actually deliberately smoked. Its a taste unto itself, but is really difficult to incorporate subtly, without totally masking what’s there, imho. Anyway, in a tea like this, I find it’s far better to err on the side of subtlety, and this seems to be the deliberate decision they made.