The August 2020 White2tea club is a sampling of their entire line of Lapsang Souchong (Zhengshan Xiaozhong). These big sample clubs take either one horribly over caffeinated day or a couple of days to drink for me, so I just sampled the black teas that weren’t the traditional or traditional smoked.
For all teas, I went with gongfu style with boiling water in a fast pour glazed teapot. I used a ratio of 1gram of leaf per 15ml of vessel size.
Fruit Bomb Lapsang from White2Tea
My favorite Lapsang from last year! Fruit Bomb Lapsang smells like dried cherries and tayberries. Man, I missed the tayberry season this year.
Steeped up, the leaves smell of orchids and more red berries.
Fruit Bomb Lapsang sips in strongly aromatic and fruity, tasting of cherries and tayberry. In the background is the black tea woodsiness, but overall the dark red fruity notes run the show. The aftertaste is more of that orchid scent, but the longer I wait, the more the cherry notes come back. The texture is silky to drink and very inviting. The first five infusions are consistent in flavor but on the sixth infusion, it loses flavor, never getting dry or astringent.
Fruit Bomb Lapsang is fairly close to last year but lives up to its name as a fruity and floral explosion of a tea.
Florist Lapsang from White2Tea
The dry leaves smell of graham crackers and flowers.
Stepped up, Florist Lapsang has a cinnamon graham and cherry blossom scent.
Florist sips in a balanced cherry blossom and cinnamon spice before a mellow woodsy note flows in. This tea is intensely aromatic and that flavor remains in my mouth perfectly intact after drinking.
After two infusions, Florist Lapsang broke through the cinnamon, keeping more with the cherry blossom floral note along with a woodsy note that I can’t unravel if its hickory or pine. The Fifth infusion of Florist Lapsang died, but left an astringent texture and light floral aftertaste.
Florist Lapsang wanted me to drink every drop to unravel its mysteries. This Lapsang is certainly an interesting one, but for those who want something different or on the floral leaning side. I’d say fruit bomb is heavier on the floral.
Strawberry Lapsang from White2Tea
Leaves have a faint dried fruit note but more intense baked goods.
The steeped up leaves are tart strawberries and a bit floral.
This Strawberry Lapsang starts off mellow and fruity – it vibes with cooked strawberries with a hint of birch all with a thick texture. The end of the sip is more unripe, more bland tasting strawberry, close to that white core or strawberry top (vs the intense fruity local strawberries). The aftertaste is a perfumy light strawberry. The longer I sit after each sip, the more the aftertaste lingers like strawberry flavor. With each steeping, Strawberry Lapsang gets a bit more tart underripe strawberry but also keeps that perfume berry aftertaste.
At the sixth infusion, it started to get astringent, before losing flavor to a light berry perfume.
Strawberry Lapsang is another fruity black tea. I found this one intriguing, the strawberry flavor is quite different, but I prefer Fruit Bomb assault. Though, I can see some calling Strawberry Lapsang to be the best.
Spiced Lapsang from White2Tea
This Lapsang smells of cinnamon graham crackers. Adding water fills the room in spicy cinnamon, and smelling the hot leaves burns my nose in spice.
Spiced Lapsang sips in malty and spicy cinnamon, then shift to sweet baked goods with nutmeg flavor. White2tea’s Spiced Lapsang reminds me of eating a cinnamon bun, without icing, but very generous on the spice – it even has a slippery texture mimicking butter. However, the aftertaste is low, the flavor leaves just a hint of sugar and spice after each sip, leaving me wanting more.
The third infusion shows more of a dark, malty, and rich note, trying to overtake the cinnamon flavor. There is an astringency developing adding a tickle to the throat, extra tickled by the spice. After the third infusion, the tea switched to medicinal tartness along with a hint of spice, with further infusions going light, and more medicinal, losing the spice.
Spiced Lapsang is another fun lapsang that is unique in flavor. I quite enjoyed the intense aroma and early infusions. Either way, this is perfect for those spiced tea lovers, also a demonstration of how good tea can be without added flavoring to those used to chai and cinnamon teas.
Pine Sap Lapsang from White2Tea
This one smells like ashy smokey tomatoes. After rinsing, the tea continues with a sweet smokey scent.
Like last year, Pine Sap Lapsang is smoked tea done right. It is peaty, umami, tomato, and almost hammy. Overall, incredibly smooth to drink, with a sweet aftertaste of pine and fruity tomato. Pine Sap Lapsang is not a burning plastic tire or bbq scrapings like the commonly found smoked lapsangs.
Each infusion got more umami, bit ashy, and sweet peaty and mellow, though gets a touch astringent. The later infusions get a gritty feeling from the astringency.
Pine Sap Lapsang is perfect for those smoky and peaty tea lovers – it is incredibly well done and smooth. I wasn’t in a smokey tea mood at all (especially after drinking all those fruity spicy lapsangs) and this tea still was a pleasure to drink.
