Lapsang Souchong

[aet]

The greatest shortcut is a vendor who understands what a particular customer wants to taste.

..the biggest responsibility ( pressure on vendor ) , in my opinion.
I read in one tea book , saying that Good tea vendor remembers the taste of his / her clients . Although I do my best to do so, yet I always stress on "buy sample first" . So many variables involved between me and customer in matter what is gonna be like in the cup.
Just I can share my personal experience , if I may.
Speak of the smokey stuff ( sorry for diverting to the different tea now ) . I had request from new customer and she wanted very smokey puerh. No need to explain even to beginner that No.1 would be Xia Guan TF which is known for such a taste. I have also added another , even more "smoked" cake , which feels like eating smoked sausage. Like really something at the edge what I could still drink.
She didn't listen my suggestion of buying samples first and bought full products . Later send me a message that those are not smokey enough! ;DDD

[aet]

when the base tea is already top, the smoking can only make it different, not really better I guess.. but it’s so delicious:) ..but as I read somewhere, traditional smoking is becoming a rarity due to low demand..

yep, I feel the same. Yet, I have to say , smoked Lapsang is more appealing to me than puerh. Sometimes I feel like my body requires that sausage-ish taste ( or do I just miss our Moravian smoked meat ?
And yes, it is low demand on that traditional heavy smoke stuff, yet there is a demand on light smoked ( which hard to achieve by general farmer using traditional method in his wooden barn ) . There are some producers making it in special chambers with more accurate control of the smoke influence ,yet I can't say if they use at least on log of pine tree or some artificial solutions to add that unique aroma ( but I believe those would be big TF who have state controlled stuff , not just some random chemicals ) .
Also have to add, that the smoke notes particularly, have different spectrum taste in different storage environments ( at least for puerh , not sure about Lapsang coz I haven't tried wet stored one yet ).
With puerh , after storing such a tea in Guangzhou for example , in 2 years the smoke in leaves blends in and turns in to some kind of weird sweet fruit ( can't describe exact taste ) combination , which probably some enthusiast could write an essay about
The only downside of this is, that once you bring it home ( to not that wet environment ) it will "dry off" ( loose that moisture ) and those sweet notes will turn back to the smokey ones, and in many cases, adding some excessive disturbing sourness or other ugly notes ( especially if you are not expecting this ) .
Although Wuyi is located in area with higher humidity , they pack the tea mostly in small packs and so the moisture is preserved well inside alright , so wouldn't be worry much about that...this is mostly referring to puerh.
But I can imagine that few years stored ( in not air tight pack and semi-humid environment ) smoked lapsang might be interesting. I had a Dancong from 2016y and it was cool.

[Ethan Kurland]

The greatest shortcut is a vendor who understands what a particular customer wants to taste.

..the biggest responsibility ( pressure on vendor ) , in my opinion.

Thanks for sharing.
I don' trust my memory of customers' preferences. I always refer to what they tell me when they are thinking about new purchases of tea. Your story shows how that is even difficult as you provided the smokiest tea which when tasted was somehow not smokey enough.
Regarding samples: A ski resort in New Hampshire had a program of giving potential buyers of condominiums they were re-selling a free weekend stay in them. It was a disaster. People were bothered by ordinary sounds (wind) etc,
No condo was > 10 years old; they were better than new ones because being owned by people wealthy enough to have a second home leads to improvements (caulking; extra sealer on the roof....) yet, potential buyers preferred to buy land, a tiny lot, & arrange construction of their choices of 4 types of buildings the resort allowed. (Rumor was that as locals disdained "flatlanders" more & more over time, quality of workmanship got worse & worse. I rented a new condo one winter & almost froze to death.)
Samples of tea are easily upsetting. There are days & even weeks when we are off our normal perception. Things we usually love may taste ordinary; or, we do not notice something such as our water filter is no longer working until we already decided we were glad we only bought a sample & not a regular packet.
One trip I took to Taiwan years back, every tea tasted flat. Eventually I realized that the trip on the plane had dehydrated me too much for my tastebuds to work properly. I did not sample teas for a few days to allow my senses to recover. Cheers
Cheers

[GaoShan]

Samples of tea are easily upsetting. There are days & even weeks when we are off our normal perception. Things we usually love may taste ordinary; or, we do not notice something such as our water filter is no longer working until we already decided we were glad we only bought a sample & not a regular packet.

I agree with this up to a point. I've had teas I normally enjoy taste flat for some reason, whether it's minor changes in steeping, my mood, or something else. However, I also hate being stuck with 50 or 100 g of tea I truly don't like, especially if it's expensive, as good lapsang usually is. If I get a 25 g sample and don't like my first session with it, I'll wait a week or so before trying it again. I often still don't like the tea, but sometimes my experience is better. This once again comes down to a vendor knowing their customer's tastes and making good recommendations.

Many years ago, I tried a smoked lapsang that was awful, probably because it was made from low-quality material. I've been meaning to try a nicer version of this lapsang style, but I suspect I'll always prefer the unsmoked version.

[aet]

I don' trust my memory of customers' preferences.

me too. that's why I write all that in my notes. I have full history of our clientele , samples they tried ( notes if any response ..etc. ) , all notes from comunication related to the taste notes.
Yet, I recomend only samples first ( so it just helps me to narrow down the sample recomendation ).
I have found out that even if you create categories - subcategories - tags or any other elements on your website to make more distinguishable / separateble products based on particualr preferences ( like we have a special tag for smoky puerh for example , or special category for 1st time buyers - narrowed sellection ) ....still , people will ask like......" what is your best tea ? " ...define the best tea , right?
I guess it's like a customer service which you can never please.
In this era , when people use to have everything in 1-2 clicks without thinking. Kinda lazy attitude sort of.
Same as stuff you can see on Reddit with repeating questions....consequently answers are like " look , 1st. page on google says this "
AI might be future on this. You just type " I want this that and such a tea " ...and you get like list of the shops - products .
Next time u just say with your lazy and bored voice " teeeaaa " ....and Ai automatically pick stuff for you ( based what it learned from your buying preference ...not only tea but even food , parfumes u like etc ) , order it , pay from your credit and it will show up at your door

Sorry getting too philosophical here. have to get back to work now

Cheers!

[teacreacha7]

Funny this thread has been having some recent traffic, because I just tried Lapsang Souchong from Steeping Room for the first time! I am quite agreeable to a nice smokey note -- it reminds me of some of the single malt Scotches I used to enjoy! Since I don't drink alchohol anymore, this is a really welcome addition to my tea collection. I don't typically eat when I have a tea session, but I can't help but feel this would pair well with a savory meal

cheers!

[Andrew S]

I am quite agreeable to a nice smokey note -- it reminds me of some of the single malt Scotches I used to enjoy! Since I don't drink alchohol anymore, this is a really welcome addition to my tea collection

Ha... It's interesting to hear other people's preference like that. Perhaps counter-intuitively, I enjoy peaty (and non-peaty) whiskies, but I dislike any kind of smoke in my tea (whereas roasty aromas and flavours in tea are perfectly fine for me).

I had my first Lapsang in many years yesterday, and... I think I need to give it a bit more of a chance.

It's hard to compare it to any other kind of tea, and I think it's important for me to avoid trying to pigeon-hole it into the hongcha category, and instead just try to enjoy it for the rather different creature that it is. Perhaps I should try it again on a much colder day. Or outside. And I've got a slightly older example as well - perhaps I should have started with that one instead.

That said, it was pleasant in terms of mouthfeel and aftertaste, and the smokiness was not harsh, though it was very prominent, and just opening the bag and immediately smelling a campfire in my home was an experience... It reminds me of the importance of the difference between 'bad teas' and 'teas that I don't enjoy'.

Andrew

[Bok]

As it happens, a little article on Lapsang in the Guardian: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfr ... ibly-wrong

[filipes]

There are some producers making it in special chambers with more accurate control of the smoke influence ,yet I can't say if they use at least on log of pine tree or some artificial solutions to add that unique aroma ( but I believe those would be big TF who have state controlled stuff , not just some random chemicals ) .

I heard that some farmers, apart from smoking over pine tree, also smoke the tea over pine resin, which adds stronger aroma. But that probably classifies as a traditional method. I have no illusions that some producers use more unorthodox methods, but since I have no way of knowing that, I just rely on my taste, comparing teas from different shops and different prices..

There is a nice video of Tongmu area and traditional "smoking house", also the bushes,

Although Wuyi is located in area with higher humidity , they pack the tea mostly in small packs and so the moisture is preserved well inside alright , so wouldn't be worry much about that...this is mostly referring to puerh.
But I can imagine that few years stored ( in not air tight pack and semi-humid environment ) smoked lapsang might be interesting.

I'm waiting for a shipment of smoked Lapsang, that was produced some 12y ago and stored in Wuyi until now. I'm also curious and will let you know once I can properly taste it.

[GaoShan]

Today I had what I'd describe as an okay unsmoked lapsang. It had some grilled peach, orange, and sweet potato, and lots of honey, earth, moss, and minerals. There was none of that silky mouthfeel I associate with some really nice lapsangs, and it was astringent from the beginning of the session. If I'd had this before trying some better lapsangs, I wouldn't have understood the hype around this tea type. I can sort of see what it was aiming for, but it didn't quite make it. It's actually made me want to drink some of my nicer lapsangs.

My lapsang quest has been put on pause because I have so many other teas. I still need to drink my samples from Daxue Jiadao, and I haven't investigated Hojo, Tong Xin She, or other lapsang-heavy vendors. These teas are pretty expensive, and I have so many teas from Taiwan to get through! I'm still enjoying lapsangs from Wuyi Origin, What-Cha, and TheTea, which are more reasonably priced, but I do want to get into the fancier ones eventually.

[Ethan Kurland]

Years back I had some lapsang souchong from Wuyi Origin that was the best I ever had.

I don't remember all the reasons why I have not had any LS in my cupboard since then. I guess it is one of the teas that I only drink outside. Unfortunately, most homes that have LS in them, have poor quality LS.

Gaoshan, sounds like you have a lot of good tea. Better too much, than not enough .

[GaoShan]

Years back I had some lapsang souchong from Wuyi Origin that was the best I ever had.

I don't remember all the reasons why I have not had any LS in my cupboard since then. I guess it is one of the teas that I only drink outside. Unfortunately, most homes that have LS in them, have poor quality LS.

Gaoshan, sounds like you have a lot of good tea. Better too much, than not enough .

Wuyi Origin has some fantastic, affordable lapsangs. I haven't had any of their smoked LS, but their unsmoked lapsangs are excellent. Particular favourites are their Wild Lapsang (very floral and fruity), Old Bush Lapsang (well structured, earthy, silky), and Floral Lapsang (a "budget" tea that is floral, sweet, and much nicer than the price tag would indicate). I've had a couple of their Jin Jun Mei and haven't been as impressed, though they're still very nice teas.

I have a lot of tea, period, a substantial proportion of which is good.

[filipes]

Gaoshan, apart from those you mentioned, I also recommend you try Chawangshop. Talking about silky.. you would probably like it. Only thing it’s a double - smoked/unsmoked tea

[Balthazar]

Gaoshan, apart from those you mentioned, I also recommend you try Chawangshop. Talking about silky.. you would probably like it. Only thing it’s a double - smoked/unsmoked tea

I wasn't aware he had offered another more recent version until your post brought it to my attention, thanks. The 2019 version he used to carry was a positive surprise for me. I like Chawangshop but it's not a place I would have expected to find excellent Lapsang (well, at least not before I tried the mentioned one a couple years back). It seems the 2022 pair he now offers has better base material, but same processing.

Did you have the 2019 version, by any chance?

[filipes]

I have not, so can’t compare.. but I would place it with the top teas from those other shops mentioned it’s tempting to buy some more