After months of wondering about the infamous lapsang souchong, I finally got to try one this morning. I was visiting some friends who are also massive tea drinkers (although their tastes differ from mine a bit), and they let me look through their stash. I pulled this one out and expressed my keen interest, and we all agreed to try it since none of us had ever had it before.
The smell of the leaves is something else! I thought campfire; one friend thought brisket; more than one of us seemed to think bad. Indeed, it was smoky in the way that’s a few shades past a good smell, to that dark headiness that just causes a headache. Rather overpowering. The tea, however, was fine. The smokiness was much more subdued to the point of being pleasant, and it just had a nice, black tea-style headiness. I thought it was decent; the other friend visiting the house seemed to like it; the husband who was hosting loved it; his wife was quite “meh.” That’s the fun of wild-ass teas like lapsang souchong, though – you never know what kind of reaction you’re going to have!
