Smoky Assam Souchong Black Tea

Funny story…one of the younglings at work is also a fledgling teaist and was so excited when she ordered herself a Black Friday Vadham loose leaf sampler. Until she got to this one.

Today, she carried it into my office, almost at arm’s length, with a woebegone expression. “I hate not liking tea, but I can’t stand this one. Could you use it?” I laughed out loud because I think that was precisely my first gut reaction to lapsang souchong many years ago.

That said, though it’s not a deliberate go-to for me, I fired up the office kettle and steeped a trial cup. The leaves are long and luxurious, and the smoke strength is actually mild enough to suit me. Especially nice with a couple of snagged biscotti: the holiday office snacking season is upon us.

Run in fear it is the Lapsang monster! Come to terrorize your taste buds! …. or not? This is pleasant. Deep woodsy hints, the smoky notes hit next but gently, unlike Lapsang which generally, I feel, leaves me feeling like I was on the wrong side of the campfire smoke. Clean and smooth mouthfeel. Leaves a slight smoky after taste but it also feels clean like a mountain top rain.

This is not a subtle or in your face smokiness, but a very balanced in between. This one is a great candidate for grandpa style brewing as I’ve never gotten any bitterness from brewing too long or too strong. I don’t get a whole lot of maltyness, I was surprised it was an Assam. It is a mild, smooth, smoky cup of tea. Maybe even a good introduction tea to those who think all tea is strong and bitter.

Discovery TTB #6

I’m not generally a big fan of smoky teas, but this one is lovely! It has a good amount of smokiness without tasting burnt and the malty flavor of the Assam adds a nice depth to the flavor. I may be hang on to this one!

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

This tea is nice sized whole leaves, unusual for an Assam. I underleafed a bit because the smokey smell from the bag was a bit overpowering. Even with that, it is all smoke and not much malt or other flavor. Might underleaf even more and add some regular Assam to it and that might make it more palatable. Not great but I’m still going to work through this.

The smokey flavour permeates from the dry leaves and the tea itself also has a very strong almost smoked ham-like scent.

The taste of the smoke is a bit too overpowering for me. You can taste a bit of the sweetness and maltness of the Assam in the back. The tea isn’t by any means bad, it just isn’t my cup of tea (pun intended).