I promised myself I would finish all the old tea sitting on my shelf before buying new. It takes me a while to go through even a small tea purchase, as even though I drink tea every morning and many evenings, I have gotten good at making them last through multiple steepings. I even pull White and Green teas through 3 to 4 steepings. And Oolong and Pu-erh? As many as they still have flavor.
That being said, I bought 4 ounces of this Lapsang Souchong over a year ago and am just now getting to the end of it.
Red Blossom has two ways to brew it. The first is a nice light tea; less leaves, lower water temperature and shorter steeping time. I have been doing it that way for a while, but decided to finish with a bang, so I went for the full flavor, in your face version, more like a traditional Black Tea brew.
3 tablespoons of leaves in my 32 ounce Bodum Assam, and after rinsing them I poured boiling water over them and let them steep for 3 minutes.
The end product is a beautiful dark reddish brown, almost velvety in color. The aroma fills the room with a dark, thick, juicy, ultra smoky scent.
And then there is the taste. I love the light style of brewing this tea, don’t get me wrong,. But sometimes you just need a tea to take you out back and kick the ever loving shit out of you.
This does that.
And I love it.
-E
