July 2019 – Underhill Lounge

Lapsang-A-Palooza

The first two most likely Chinese teas you will find in America are probably jasmine or the sort of indeterminate Chinese black tea usually served in Chinese restaurants. The next most likely is probably Dragon Well or Gunpowder Greens. After that, you might find the smoked version of Lapsang Souchong. A certain amount of Scotch drinking and/or cigar smoking tea drinkers are quite fond of the in-your-face, drinking a campfire, flavor of Smoked Lapsang. While I used to be among the Scotch fancying Lapsang drinkers, cigars have never appealed. And, I haven’t drunk a Lapsang Souchong tea for a few years.

A smattering of single dose 8g samples of Lapsang from Fujian province teas arrived via the July @white2tea club and presented me with the option to revisit my opinions and prejudices regarding this opinion provoking tea.

Traditional Lapsang

As I discussed in a previous post, “Traditional” Lapsang Black teas from the Wuyi region of Fujian province are NOT smoked.

This tea is very similar to the “Lapsang Wild Tea” from Yin Xiang Hua Xia Tea. There are notes of sweet potato and dried fruit with a dry menthol/camphor finish. This is a very well balanced black tea and I could see making it a daily drinker (if I didn’t have so much other tea to drink).

Traditional Lapsang
Traditional Lapsang
Traditional Lapsang
Traditional Lapsang

Herby Lapsang

I don’t know if this feels Herb-ey to me. I feel like there is a bitter-sweet orange character along with a bit of sweet potato and a very long finish/aftertaste. More elegant than the “Traditional Lapsang”, this is one of the better black teas I can remember having recently.

Of the Lapsangs, this is my favorite. It has great length of flavor, nice character, and a very clean feel. I would definitely make this a special occasion black tea, if it were available.

Herby Lapsang
Herby Lapsang
Herby Lapsang

Fruit Bomb Lapsang

The last of the “traditional” lapsang is the Fruit Bomb. This one didn’t really grab me. It didn’t have the elegance of the Herby Lapsang or the slightly rustic character of the “Traditional”. Just not a very complex tea. I’d drink it again, but I wouldn’t search it out. (Of course the problem with single dose samples, is you never know if it is your mood, a fluke in preparation that day, or some oddness.)

Fruit Bomb Lapsang
Fruit Bomb Lapsang
Fruit Bomb Lapsang
Fruit Bomb Lapsang

After the fruit bomb, we switch over to the smoked versions of the tea.

Pine Sap Lapsang

Pine Sap Lapsang, on the other hand, is a smoked Lapsang Tea.

For a Smoked Lapsang, it is fairly balanced, you can tease out the tea elements underlying the campfire scents and flavors. It shows a bit of affinity for Oolong teas with a strong menthol element in the finish. However, it is a tea you will be tasting ALL day. You might brush your teeth once, you might brush your teeth twice, but you are still going to be tasting campfire and pine sap when you go to bed at night. So, if you don’t enjoy smoky flavors, this probably is not a tea for you. A good tea for cold winter nights (and it might make a nice addition to a hot toddy).

PIne Sap Lapsang
Pine Sap Lapsang
Pine Sap Lapsang
Pine Sap Lapsang

Smoked Lapsang

It’s funny, this lapsang is actually smokier tasting up front than the Pine Sap Lapsang, but somehow I enjoy it more. Weird.

Anyway, this is pretty much exactly like drinking a campfire. Super-smoky, but with a decent, somewhat sweet, black tea backbone. Interestingly, while it is smokier up front, the smoke flavor recedes more in the aftertaste, isn’t as cling-ey, and it is the core of the sweet tea flavor the sticks in your mind. If I were drinking smoked Lapsang, this is the one I would drink.

Smoked Lapsang
Smoked Lapsang
Smoked Lapsang
Smoked Lapsang

While I enjoyed trying all these Lapsangs, the ones that really stuck with me were the “Traditional” and the “Herby” Lapsangs. I am definitely now more curious about black teas from Fujian!

#Tea #Cha #White2tea #Lapsang #TraditionalLapsang #PineSapLapsang

Unaccustomed Soil

Unaccustomed Soil by Sol Sol; Label Link: Unaccustomed Soil (Not on bancamp, but on most streaming services.)

The first couple times I listened to Unaccustomed Soil I was a little disappointed it was so, uh, Jazz-ey. As in Chord changes, solos, etc.

Among the group, I was only familiar with Swedish Saxophonist Elin Forkelid, (aka @elinforkelid on instagram, check out her Semla reviews,) mostly from her work on the Anna Högberg Attack album Attack, which as it sounds, is kind of an aggressive work, (and has one of the best album covers of all time).

Once I consoled myself that this wasn’t to be another “Attack”, I started to appreciate Unaccustomed Soil on its own terms, which are for the most part fairly quiet and relaxed.

In general, the rhythm section locks into a groove, while the horn and guitar run melodies over the changes. The only real exception, where some skronk and scrape enter the picture, is the tune Gotta Get Out.

My initial response was to compare it to some of the music along the Jim Black/Chris Speed axis, music which hides its power in pleasant melody and rhythmic repetition.

And I still think that comparison holds, but I also wonder if they might be wrestling a bit with the post “Kind of Blue” stylings of some of their Nordic kin on the ECM label.

In any case, it is hard to dislike an album that is as nice, yet at the same time interesting, as Unaccustomed Soil.

#DavidStackenas #MauritzAgnas #AnnaLund #ElinForkelid #SolSol #UnaccustomedSoil

Jinjunmei

Jinjunmei from Yin Xiang Hua Xia Tea.

Jinjunmei is a Black Tea from the Wuyi region of Fujian, specifically, a village named Tongmu.

Unlike traditional and smoked Lapsang teas, Jinjunmei is a relatively recent innovation.

“In 2006, another innovation took place in Tongmu. A Fujian official asked Jiang Yuanxun, the biggest manufacturer in Tongmu, to make some tea as a gift using bud tea and without the familiar smoking. The tea was made by Liange Junde, the tea master that worked for Mr Jiang at the time, and the tea Jin Jun Mei was born. In 2007, it went into production and rapidly became the most expensive black tea ever sold in China.”
Seven Cups Tea

Jinjunmei is essentially the type of early spring, carefully picked, all bud material that would normally be used for Silver Needle (or Baihao Yinzhen) White Tea. But, instead of being processed into White Tea, it is fully oxidized and then dried.

As I mentioned, Baihao Yinzhen, due to the labor necessary to carefully pick the individual spring tea buds, tends to be the most expensive of Chinese White Teas.

Making a Black Tea from this type of material is a true conspicuous luxury move.

The early flavors/scents are citrus-like. Secondary flavors evoke peach and pear. The aftertaste is subtle yet lengthy, returning to the citrus-like character, with a touch of mint-camphor overtone.

It is a lighter and subtler tea than the unsmoked Wild Lapsang, as you would expect from the material.

It is another great tea to try, whether it ends up being your favorite Black tea will be a matter of personal taste.

#Tea #Junjunmei #Cha #Yinxianghuaxiatea #DrinkTea #InstaTea

Jinjunmei
Jinjunmei
Jinjunmei
Jinjunmei

Lapsang Wild Tea

Lapsang Wild Tea from Yin Xiang Hua Xia Tea.

The process for making Black Tea probably originated in Wuyi area of Fujian. There are different myths about it.

Allegedly, most tea was processed as green tea up until a raiding party invaded a Wuyi Mountain village during the tea harvest. The villagers fled from the raiders. When they came back they discovered that their tea had turned black. It was ruined! They dried it anyway and found that some people enjoyed it, especially, the English, (who would later go on to found entire tea industries in India and Sri Langka based on imitating this tea).

The difference between Green Tea and Black Tea IS that the leaves are allowed to oxidize before they are finally dried.

There is a type of Black Tea from Fujian that is usually called “Lapsang Souchong” in the West. Most often it is a tea that is dried over pine wood.

However, “traditional” Lapsang Souchong is not smoked, and even the more traditional smoky kinds have a lighter smoke character than you might expect.

This is not a smoked tea!

The early flavors remind me a bit of sweet potato, the middle flavors are stone fruit, and the late flavors and aftertaste are a bit menthol/tarragon.

It is a delicious and complex Black tea which rewards multiple steeps.

#Cha #Tea #DrinkTea #BlackTea #RedTea #YinXiangHuaXiaTea #InstaTea

Lapsang Wild Tea
Lapsang Wild Tea
Lapsang Wild Tea
Lapsang Wild Tea