Since trying a smoky Lapsang Souchong, and even a Golden Monkey which had some smoke to it and finding them quite off-putting, seeing smoke in a tea’s description worries me a tad bit. More and more, I’m finding that there’s a type or level of smoke that I can tolerate, and one which I cannot. There’s the horror that is BBQ-Tea and the more subdued kind of smoke flavor, which usually meshes pretty well with the rest of what a tea has going on. I’m glad to report this tea is one of the latter.
I actually didn’t pick up any smoke in the first couple steeps, just a sweet vegetal flavor. A couple steeps in, the smoke started to manifest as a light and wispy aftertaste. As it went on, it became one of the two main flavors I was getting – smokiness with a nutty sweetness. I tried, but I wasn’t feeling any fruitiness as the description claims there is. The smoke along with the nutty flavor made for a savory-sweet tea to drink. Throughout the session, the tea left my mouth decently dry, though there was little to no bitterness in the flavor. On my first session, I treated this tea a little too harshly and did get some pretty off-putting bitterness. This is a pretty good tea, if a little simple. Just glad it wasn’t meaty BBQ tea – blech.
I believe this is the last one I had kicking around from the Discover Vietnam collection on What-cha. I definitely encourage people to try some of the Vietnamese teas on What-cha. Along with the Red Buffalo oolong of some internet fame, the Wild Boar black and Fish Hook green tea were of particular note to me. Not really sure which of those are currently in stock, as I think they all ran out at the end of last year, but get ’em if you can. Worth a try at the very least!
Flavors: Nutty, Smoke, Sweet
