The second week of isolation in Belgium, which means more time to drink tea. I wanted a break from the puerh tea I’ve been drinking so I went through my box of samples and found one from last summer: the Pine Sap Lapsang from white2tea.
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Pine Sap Lapsang
The Pine Sap Lapsang is a lapsang souchong from Fujian Province and was featured in the white2teaclub of July 2019. I have already tasted some of other the versions (which you can read over here) and I actually forgot I still had one left. As the name suggests, this is a smoked lapsang souchong hong cha that was smoked over pinewood.
The dry leaves are twisted and medium-sized and the colour is black. I’m getting a very strong aroma of charcoal, some subtle spicy notes and summer fruits.
The aroma of the wet leaves is not that different. It’s mostly charcoal with some very light fruity notes. The colour is chocolate brown and I see medium-sized leaves and stalks.
Tea Tasting
- Water 90°C
- 5g for 150ml Zisha teapot
- 1 rinse
- 6 infusions
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Infusion 1 (15 sec): I’m happy the flavours are not as strong as the aroma. I’m getting light notes of burned charcoal and there are also very subtle notes of fruits. It’s mainly roasted and burned flavours, but not overwhelming.
Infusion 2 (20 sec): the charcoal is a bit sharper and the fruitiness is also peeking through. The charcoal is good, while the fruitiness is even better! It’s not that prominent, but I’m getting hints of summer fruits. The aftertaste is like the smell of BBQ.
Infusion 3 (25 sec): the charcoal is not as dominant anymore. I’m also getting fruity notes again, but not as strong as the charcoal. There are no big changes in flavours, only some slight changes in intensity.
Infusion 4 (35 sec): the fruity notes seem to have disappeared and it’s only some roasted charcoal that I’m getting.
Infusion 5 (45 sec): the charcoal notes are still present, but are definitely not too intense. There is also a light sweetness in the finish, which disappears as fast as it showed itself.
Infusion 6 (60 sec): no big changes here. Only some notes of burned charcoal.
Conclusion
This tea was part of the white2teaclub. I have already tasted the other lapsang teas (in this article), and this was the only one I had left. It was ok, but that’s about it. It’s a good thing it was part of the tea club because I would not buy this one myself. The flavours were ok, but nothing more. The charcoal notes were not too overpowering and I only got some light fruity notes in the early infusions. For me, this is a basic tea. It’s not bad, but nothing much is going on.
