Today’s review is Old Ways Tea’s 2018 Smoked Black Tea, also known as Yan Xun Xiao Zhong, Zhen Shan Xiao Zhong, or Lapsang Souchong. This tea promises a traditional pine smoke job, but not being acrid. We shall see, as smokey teas and I can be hit or miss but Old Ways Tea sells amazing tea that I save for special occasions.
Old Ways Tea generally sells their teas in prepackaged sizes. For this Smoked Tea, it is sold in 5 gram packets.
Leaf and Steeping Method
The leaf smells smokey campfire that got treated with a round of sandalwood incense to cover it up.
I’m over leafing because I feel like using this gaiwan and the whole packet of tea. I ended up using 1 gram of tea per 12ml of vessel size, steeping with boiling water. The hot leaf smells like smoke over a stone fruit orchard.
Tasting of Old Ways Tea’s 2018 Smoked Black Tea
First, Second, and Third Infusion: Dang, that is good. Old Ways Tea’s Smoked Black tea is plummy with that mix of fruity sweet flesh and a bit of a brisk tart skin. In the background is smoke with a finish of tart cherries and a sprinkle of ash that linger after each sip. The texture is slippery but the body isn’t as thick to match. If you ever lived in an area that got frequent forest fires enough to make the town snow ash, the smell of that ash is like the aftertaste of this tea.
The second infusion was very cherry tasting with slight smokey char background. Sweet and smokey, this tea would be amazing as a potato chip flavour. Some sips have a bittersweet quality, like that aftertaste of eating dark chocolate.
Fourth, Fifth, and Sixth Infusion: The flavour is full of cherries and wisps of smoke. The finish is a hickory burp. There is dryness here, with my cheeks and tip of tongue quickly feeling sandpapery. Old Ways Tea’s Smoked Black tea flavour is interesting with the high amount of fruit going on.
Seventh Infusion: I did a 15 minute steeping and the tea is cherries and bittersweet dark chocolate, with a touch of smoke, like it got a smoke gun treatment at a fancy modern restaurant. It didn’t get much drier than before and very drinkable.
Comments
Old Ways Tea’s Smoked Black tea is a smokey but mostly fruity black tea. This is smokey tea done well – it is ashy but it isn’t over the top or abrasive like a tire fire poor smoked teas can be. The fruit flavour here is fantastic and well done.
This is a must try for black tea and smokey tea lovers. Even if you dislike smoked teas, this tea is the one to show how good one can be. I can see Old Ways Tea’s Smoked Black tea being fun to pair foods with too.
(tea provided for review)
