China Fujian Tong Mu Wild Lapsang Souchong Black Tea

Thanks to Daylon for sending me a sample of this tea, which I’ve wanted to try for a while. It’s usually out of stock, and I now understand why. I steeped 6 g of leaf in a 120 ml teapot at 195F for 10, 12, 15, 18, 20, 25, 30, 40, 50, 60, 90, 120, and 240 seconds, plus another few long infusions.

The dry aroma of this tea is an intoxicating blend of peach, lychee, pineapple, lemon, roasted almond, malt, violets, and other flowers. My nose was glued to these leaves for an inordinate amount of time. The first steep presents lemon first, and then reveals malt, roasted almonds, sweet potato, violet, zucchini, orange, pineapple, straw, and soy sauce. Lemon zest is noticeable in the next steep, as are notes of chocolate, baked bread, rose, cream, peach, and pineapple. Orange comes out in steeps three and four, along with all the other complex notes this oolong has to offer. I also notice malt and wood more in these steeps, along with orchid and orange blossom, though at this point my brain is overwhelmed and is probably just throwing out flavours at random. The next couple steeps are more malty and vegetal, with the same amount of citrus but less pineapple and stonefruit. I’m beginning to detect some minerality, and there’s a noticeable soy sauce aftertaste. By the one-minute mark, all the fruit except the citrus has disappeared and the tea leans on its malty, bready, vegetal, floral, and sweet potato profile, with whispers of tannins but no real astringency. The final steeps give me citrus, malt, pine, wood, minerals, roasted almonds, and tannins.

My whole review of this tea could have been “Wow!” This is what other black teas want to be when they grow up. As Daylon has mentioned, it’s very similar to the Lapsang from TheTea.pl, though I think the range of fruits is even wider. (This would be a perfect opportunity to break out my newly acquired 2021 Lapsang from TheTea for comparison!) This tea has excellent longevity and lovely, complex, comforting aromas and flavours, especially in the first few steeps. Thanks again to Daylon for giving up some of this tea for me to try.

April 2020 harvest

Decent, fairly smooth structure and a zippy floral-lemon-raspberry-woody taste. First two infusions prepared gongfu coat the mouth in tea oil and aromatics. The leaf can be somewhat temperamental with high temperature, producing a drying, tannic bite in the throat. 200F or less for me, which is what I usually do with these red teas from Wuyi.

It’s missing some depth and intensity — especially in the retronasal action — compared to my memory bank of the 2017 harvest: https://steepster.com/derk/posts/392085 Regardless, I was able to move through the 50g bag with ease as a work tea. Eucalyptus is a surprisingly strong note when left to steep absentmindedly.

2017 harvest 96; 2020 harvest 84; average 90

Finally below 200 teas in my cupboard. That doesn’t include all the ones that don’t have an entry here :P I dream of the day I have less than 100 teas.

Oh yeah, I joined the US League of Tea Growers. How did I find it? I don’t know. But somebody from the European Tea Growers Association has opened an invitation to USLTG members, in which a group will be doing an 8-day educational tour of Sri Lanka tea estates this January. Considering it. If only I had a business to write off the trip as an expense.

This was my first sipdown of the month as I finished a mini-sample of this tea on the very first day of the month. I received the sample as a freebie with a more recent What-Cha order. As those of you who read my reviews are well aware, I am a huge, huge fan of Wuyi black teas. If I have one complaint about this specific style of tea (lapsang souchong/Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong), however, it is that teas of this type can often get a bit astringent. I did not have that complaint with this particular tea.

I prepared this tea gongfu style. After a quick rinse, I steeped 6 grams of loose tea leaves in 4 ounces of 203 F water for 5 seconds. This infusion was chased by 15 additional infusions. Steep times for these infusions were as follows: 7 seconds, 9 seconds, 12 seconds, 16 seconds, 20 seconds, 25 seconds, 30 seconds, 40 seconds, 50 seconds, 1 minute, 1 minute 15 seconds, 1 minute 30 seconds, 2 minutes, 3 minutes, and 5 minutes.

Prior to the rinse, the dry tea leaves emitted aromas of honey, cinnamon, roasted almond, mandarin orange, and peach. After the rinse, I found hints of baked bread, roasted peanut, and straw on the nose. The first infusion introduced floral scents reminiscent of rose and violet. In the mouth, the tea liquor presented notes of mandarin orange, baked bread, honey, roasted almond, and roasted peanut that were underscored by hints of straw. The subsequent infusions saw aromas of cream, lemon, malt, chocolate, brown sugar, and sweet potato emerge. Impressions of rose and violet appeared in the mouth along with subtle hints of cinnamon and peach. New notes of minerals, chocolate, brown sugar, cream, butter, malt, sweet potato, pine, and lemon also emerged. The final few infusions offered lingering mineral, malt, cream, and roasted almond notes that were balanced by hints of lemon, mandarin orange, sweet potato, and brown sugar.

This was an excellent Wuyi black tea, one that should satisfy even the most demanding fans of such teas. As mentioned earlier, I especially appreciated the fact that this tea never turned astringent. If you are looking for a quality unsmoked Wuyi black tea, be sure to check out this one.

I’m working slower on this one than normal, and haven’t opened it up since last winter. Today was a tumbler fuel day, and it helped me drive through this creeping, gray ice we’re getting in Michigan right now. There’s something about this tea’s flavor that does better in the winter. It’s too bold for summer or fall, but it’s odd, silent intensity of citrus, vanilla, malt, and florals suits itself to the severe cold. Amaretto is a note this time in it’s viscous texture-there’s something about this tea that make me want to pour it over the rocks like a pure, sweet liquor. Eastteaguy and derk already wrote almond, and that’s the association I’m getting tonight.

I’m also a little on edge after listening to the prologue of a Wheel of Time: Eye of the World in Rosamund Pike’s voice. I had a hard time finishing it the first time I read the book nine years ago, but her voice gives a weight and seriousness that weighs me into the story. “The Wheel of Time turns, and Ages come and pass, leaving memories that become legend…”