Carävan Resurrected

In the past, I had always steered away from this tea bc I’m….not a fan, usually, of smoky teas. or at least I wasn’t, this past year year though? give me all the smoky teas. also, give me all of the dianhongs. so, I was surprised (and excited) when A&D finally had some teas in stock and jumped and bought their custom set and uh. I love this. I was worried about too much smoke, but this is perfect.

plus, the lil guitar pick that came with it? perfect.

the 7th tea of Christmas is also exciting, but I was in need of something stronger this morning. I’m ready to go home and try it.

See note on the original Caravan:

https://steepster.com/Morgana/posts/44892#likes

Except the link doesn’t work (why?), so I’ll repeat it here:

So here’s what happened.

I put this into the Breville to steep, and then forgot about it and took my 4 year old to pre-K. When I came home I remembered, and the timer on the Breville indicated it had been available for drinking for approximately 54 minutes.

I figured it would be cold and probably not very good, but I tasted it anyway.

WOW.

It was lukewarm. But the first thing I noticed was the mouthfeel. Thick. Not really chewy, but thick and textured, somewhere between broth and syrup. And then, unexpectedly, the most wonderful flavor. Gently smoky, with a naturally sweet, smooth undercurrent of tea that tastes like… bread on the initial sip, and as it rounds out in the mouth, plums?

Enough. I have to go make more of this and see how it is hot.

While it’s making, I’m backtracking to the dry tea. Fairly large, brown tippy leaves. A very smoky smell, that has the salty, meaty smoke thing going on.

And yes, it’s even better hot! The thickness of the mouthfeel isn’t as apparent, but there’s a carby sweetness, sort of yam-like, to both the aroma and the flavor. The smoke is an accent, not the main event, but a noticeable one. There’s a lot of depth and character here, something that reminds me of what I like about Samovar’s black teas. That particular quality is more apparent as the tea cools. Too cold, as my first cup has now become, and the magic goes poof. Would not recommend this as an iced tea. But any range between right out of the pot and lukewarm is delicious. Like a nice wine that’s left to breathe, it changes with time. One flavor may not be better than the others, just different and equally wonderful.

I was moved to give this a 100, but I can’t bring myself to do it on a limited edition. It would just be too sad to have decided on a perfect tea, and then have it be unavailable.

I can’t really improve upon what I said there, except that this being no longer a limited edition, I have given it my first 100 rating!

It’s a rich Yunnan with some smoke around the edges, and it is sensational.

I’ve had this sitting in my cupboard for a while. Been occupied with drinking pu’er and oolong as of late, so my small collection of black teas has been somewhat sadly neglected.

Anyway, had a cup of this with breakfast a few days back. Didn’t take any detailed tasting notes but the smoke note has faded from what I remember. Sweet, smooth. Definitely need to finish this one up soon though, it’s lost a fair amount of its original flavour.

Thank you Boychik for this sample. This tea was pretty good. I was not sure if I would like it but I did. It was not too strong or too smoky. It had a strong smoky character and second unexpected character behind that, a nice sweetness. I might eventually buy this one.

I brewed this once in an 18oz teapot with 6g leaf and boiling water for 4 min.

Ha ha… my mom finds this tea absolutely repulsive and gags anytime I open it up and wave it around. She says it smells of burning bodies. Dramatic much?

Like any smoked lapsang souchong style tea, the predominate flavour is campfire smoke and burnt plant matter. I think it is slightly more robust than most of its kind but it’s still a surprisingly smooth and smokey-sweet tea.

I don’t reach for this type of tea very often but when I do crave the stuff there is nothing better. It also provides some measure of comfort when one has to be out and about on a dark and damp Pacific Northwest fall evening. It’s the best (unless you are my mom, in which case this is the nastiest thing ever).

I have been enjoying this tea since early 2013, part of the Damn Fine Three-Pack, which I have purchased again early this year.

The leaves are handsomely dark, with a powerfully smokey yet subtly fresh scent. The aesthetics of the dry leaves coincide nicely with the hard rocker personality.

The wet leaves give a nice pu-erh aroma, very strong but not overpowering smokey scent. The brew is also very much pu-erh, with very deep and dark reds, and a very earthy aroma.

As powerfully smokey as it seems, the flavors are not overpowered. Giving mainly sweet and caramel flavors, there are faint and very subtle earthy textures underneath, and very little astringency. It could probably benefit more to make stronger with more leaves, but light makes for a great early afternoon cup.

With subtle detailing and clever traits to accommodate it’s assigned personality, this is indeed a damn fine tea.

Always good when you want a bit of tea with your smoke and milk.