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“I keep seeing Gunpowder being described as being smoky. I don’t get it. I can’t for the life of me find any smoke in it at all. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nichts. In the aroma of the dry leaves...” Read full tasting note
“I bought this from a coffee shop in Logan, UT. Pretty darn tasty, actually!” Read full tasting note
I keep seeing Gunpowder being described as being smoky. I don’t get it. I can’t for the life of me find any smoke in it at all. None. Nada. Zip. Zilch. Zero. Nichts.
In the aroma of the dry leaves I kind pick something up that I think must be what some are interpreting as smoke, but to me it isn’t smoke. To me it’s more plant-y hay-y. No sign of smoke in the steeped tea aroma either.
I have brewed this really really carefully, and still all I can find is slightly butter-y vegetableness with a fair amount of astringency. Mind you, my gunpowder is old and of a fairly low quality, but I cannot find smoke anywhere in the flavour. I wouldn’t be able to find smokyness in this if my life depended on it.
I just don’t get it. How do you get it to be smoky???
It’s smokeeyyyyyy! :)
It’s probably because it’s really really really light. Seeing as you can deal with something like lapsang you probably don’t think this is smokey in comparison.
The gunpowder I had from Teas, Etc was not smoky. The one I had from Adagio was. I don’t know if its the quality or what. Someone out there has to know, please comment.
Well the whole smokiness could also be due to freshness. I have some really ancient gunpowder (meaning it’s been sitting in my cupboard for a while) and that stuff isn’t smokey anymore.
I don’t get smoky either in my limited gunpowder experience. I get “dusky” or “musky” depending on the tea. More pungent than other greens but not smoky.
Never looked this up to confirm it, but I always thought the “gunpowder” was a reference to the appearance of the tea rather than its flavor.
I’m with you – I can’t really see smoky from gunpowder. Toasty, maybe, but that’s typically as far as I can go.
I’ve never found gunpowder teas to be smoky either – even though some say that’s how they taste right on the packet! Glad I’m not the only one.
Ricky, I think you might be right there. This is only my second Gunpowder ever and the first one was before I started paying this much attention to flavour. This particular one is both old and cheap and came in questionable packing.
Gmathis, it is the pellet-y shape that gave it its name as far as I know.
I’m so glad I’m not the only one. This is something that comes back to bother me again and again, and you’ll likely see me complain about it in frustration again later on. I’m feeling like I’m missing out on something!