I got some Lapsang Souchong a couple of months ago and tried it once and couldn’t finish my cup. I assumed it was because I just didn’t like smoke flavored teas, but this tea has proven me wrong.
I don’t have any fancy gaiwans or anything so I just steeped this tea Western for like a minute with nearly-boiling water and it’s really nice. I think maybe a slightly shorter steep at first would have been helpful for tasting the underlying notes, but oh well, live and learn. So the main flavors that I’m catching are the “roasted” smoke flavor and the “post-fermented” hei cha flavor. There’s also a bit of sweetness in the back of the mouth, which is interesting, and it has a very friendly aftertaste. We’ll see how future steeps go, but for now I’m all in favor of this tea!
