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“A sample from ashmanra to share with my dad, and we did that this morning before I go off traveling again. This tea is quite smooth and not terribly smoky as Lapsang scan get. A very pleasant and...” Read full tasting note
“This was part of my Mother’s Day gift from Superanna! Many thanks! I am using this as my final May prompt for a tea with surprising (or was it unusual?) ingredients, because Japanese black is rare...” Read full tasting note
Matsumoto san Family has been producing tea in the Shizuoka region for several generations. Samurai, their ancestor, traded his sword for farming tools and started tea production. Today his descendant chooses to create a unique tea. That’s how, after green, black and oolong tea he created the first Japanese smoked teas, exclusively produced from Japanese wood, in condfidential quantity.
This tea is the encounter of a black tea harvested not far from the Fuji mountain and the famous Nagano Japanese Maple tree. Smoked with maple wood chips, results a liquor more subtle than its Chinese cousin (Lapsang Souchong) developing round and warm notes.
A sample from ashmanra to share with my dad, and we did that this morning before I go off traveling again. This tea is quite smooth and not terribly smoky as Lapsang scan get. A very pleasant and lingering aftertaste that would go well with a leftover piece of pie or even a spicy taco. Hmmm I must be hungry for lunch. It’s an enjoyable cup, thanks for sharing!
Flavors: Smoke, Smooth
This was part of my Mother’s Day gift from Superanna! Many thanks!
I am using this as my final May prompt for a tea with surprising (or was it unusual?) ingredients, because Japanese black is rare to me as is a tea being smoked over maple!
This tea is one of Dammann Freres’ Grand Cru line. I found only one other Japanese smoked black on Steepster and that was from tealyra, and it is smoked over cherry or sakura chips instead of maple.
I have had Dammann Freres’ L.S. Crocodile which is much smokier than this one, but this is still smokey enough for those who like that. I do!
Superanna and Ashman typically do not like smoke and I don’t even recall them getting past the smell to try it, but Superanna wanted to try this one. She liked it! (Ashman was taking a woodworking class from Roy Underhill and made me a Roubo bookstand which I have been VERY EXCITED about, so he wasn’t here to try it,)
I am thrilled that she liked it! I don’t know that I would have guessed right away that it was a Japanese black instead of a Chinese black tea as I have only had one or two other Japanese black teas and they were not smokey. You can definitely tell it is unique, though. This smoke was more campfire than smoked meat in aroma, and the tea was a little more drying than a Chinese base to me, which makes it go that much better with food. Yesterday we had it with Godiva chocolates that were part of my gift, and this morning I had it again with breakfast.
This came right on time, because I was nearly out of smoked lapsang!
Glad you enjoyed it!