Classic Smoky Lapsang Souchong

Day 12 of the Kiani advent calendar. uh… I was not expecting this to be glittery? Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed watching the glitter swirl, I just wasn’t expecting a straight tea to be coated in glitter. I’m generally not a fan of smoky lapsang, but I powered through for the sake of completeness. My first thought upon sniffing the dry leaf was that it smelled like BBQ Bissli, which has long been one of my favorite chip-type snacks. So I brewed it up, watched mesmerized as the glitter swirled, and took a sip. And it was… smoky. Sort of a medium smokiness, but more than my personal preference. But then I ordered spicy Chinese food and paired the smoky tea with the spicy food (cumin layered tofu & onions). Perfect pairing. The smokiness and the spice were just a beautiful combo, each taking a bit of the edge off the other. I even made a second steep to go with the rest of my meal, something I’ve never done before with a lapsang. Not a tea I’d keep in stock but one I did unexpectedly enjoy!

I’ll note that this is from the 2022 advent calendar. Folks who had it in the 2021 advent calendar apparently found it totally un-smoky! So my guess is that one of three things is going on: something about the processing of the tea changed from year to year, the source changed, or my palate is more sensitive to smokiness than other people’s because I don’t often drink LS. But I don’t know which of those things it is!

Adventaggedon Day 24: Tea 3/8

Oof.

This tea was just like getting sucker punched in the gut two times in a row. I was so excited to see a smoked Lapsang Souchong for today. I even said to myself, out loud, as I opened the packaging “it’s a Christmas miracle”. However, then I opened the package and saw the glitter. That was punch one because it meant I was decidedly not brewing this in my Lapsang yixing pot.

Punch two was that, upon closer inspection, it didn’t appear to be smoked at all. No smoky smell no matter how close to the glitter bomb of a packet I got as I huffed away at the tea leaves. I decided to abandon my gongfu plans and steep this Western style instead while watching my all time favourite holiday movie: Olive The Other Reindeer! It was definitely not a ‘classic smoky’ Lapsang at all but drinking it with the movie made me feel a little better and it was still tasty.

I honestly think it’s just a double up of the unsmoked Lapsang that was already in the advent but with glitter. That was a nice tea though, so it was great tasting it again – I just wanted a smoked LS, y’know?

As an aside; I feel like I’ve been really harsh on this advent’s very liberal use of the glitter dust. I just want to say clearly that I’ve enjoyed this advent a lot overall and I understand that there definitely are people who would want all the glittery teas! Like, I follow a few people on IG who have been thrilled to see all the fun and gorgeous glitter blends – especially people who bought this advent as a way to sample/try straight and traditional blends they wouldn’t have otherwise. It makes teas (like a smoked Lapsang) that might otherwise have been intimidating feel a little more fun or accessible, y’know?

It’s like Mariage Freres with the blue teas or even DT with the stevia – it’s not gonna work for everyone but ultimately the companies do it because it does work for a lot of people. We can kind of get lost in our bubble here on Steepster or on IG and because we see people who share the same opinion as us over and over it’s easy to forget that for the most part we’re kind of all outliers.

The average tea drinker? Definitely not as exposed to the quantity of teas that we are or drinking that many teas daily. So the gimmicks like glitter and butterfly pea flower don’t feel so exhausting or over played.

I don’t know – it was just something I thought about today as I opened up the packet and groaned at the glitter. It’s not for me but it is for someone!

Kiani Tea Advent Calendar 2021 – Day 24

So… This is the name of the tea listed for day 24, but the tea inside the pouch is decidedly unsmoked. It does seem like an unsmoked Lapsang to me though. Plus there’s glitter (again). sigh

I mean, it’s a lovely Fujian black tea. Thick, malty, bready, with oodles of caramelized dark brown sugar and molasses. There’s a prune-like dried fruit note as well that really lovely. Perhaps dried cherries as well, though not quite as tart. It has that trademark (to me at least) Fujian caraway/rye note as well.

It’s a yummy tea, but 1) I was looking forward to the smoked version, and 2) why glitter whyyyyyy?! :|

ETA: Forgot the jam! For Day 24, it was Orange-Cinnamon Spread and I was surprised by how much I liked it. I’m not generally a marmalade fan, I find it simultaneously too sweet and too bitter. But this version didn’t seem bitter at all and the cinnamon really added a nice accent. Very festive!