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tea-sipper drank Smoky Assam Souchong Black Tea by Vahdam Teas

4307 tasting notes

So Arby won a Vahdam contest for free teas, but for some reason they weren’t shipping to Canada so Arby had Vahdam send them my way. Thanks so much for thinking of me, Arby! (And again, sorry they weren’t shipping to Canada.) I will also be adding a large amount of these teas to the teabox, to share the wealth. The teas were random teas that Vahdam chose and they sent this one and for some reason, two packages of Ayurvedic Rose Herbal Green. Luckily I will probably be a fan of both teas. I do like smoky teas and this one had the added interest of being an assam. I’m not sure if I’ve ever knowingly had a smoky assam. But it seems like it would be a good pairing. This is a good one. The leaves are very long and mostly black. Not one of those tiny leaf assams, which hey, I probably like the big leaf and small leaf assams for different reasons. I like ALL THE TEAS. Sometimes a tea company can have an off putting smoke flavor and scare most tea fans away from smoky teas for good. For example, my rating for Twinings Lapsang Souchong was a SIX. It was disgusting. I rarely rate teas so low. This tea has a delicious smoky flavor, it’s a bit sweet and like barbeque sauce. And an interesting addition to the lovely assam flavor. It is a unique flavor combination, which somehow I probably don’t already have in my tea cupboard. Since the leaves are bigger, the flavor is lighter but has definite hints of a usual assam flavor. This is a great base tea for the smoke, and both the smoke and base are elevated by each other. I like it! If you don’t like this smoky tea you might not like them in general. But the more teas you try, the better!
Steep #1 // 1 1/2 teaspoons for a full mug// 15 minutes after boiling // 3 minute steep
Steep #2 // couple minutes after boiling // 4 minute steep