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Adagio | China The story goes that the tea from the Wuyi area was delayed one year because of the passage of an army through the mountains. This greatly delayed the tea harvest and drying of the leaves. In order to meet the great and still growing demand for their tea, the tea producers speed up the drying process by roasting the tea over pine wood fires. This gave the tea an amazing smoky flavor.

I was very surprised by this tea. I had read the story, and another story on Adagio's site about Russian caravans picking up the smoky flavor along the way, but I wasn't expecting such a strong wonderful aroma. It smells like a wonderful campfire, a rich smokey smell with subtle spicy hints hidden inside. I would compare the smell of this tea strongly with the smell of cloves. While I was trying to pin down the familiar smell I went to my cupboard and picked up a jar of cloves and the smell was almost identical. If you were roasting cloves you would get an experience similar to the smell of this tea.

Lapsang Souchong is very dark in color and transparent. It has a subtle taste compared to how powerful the aroma. It is a very easy drinking tea with a wonderful after taste consistent with the taste of the tea. The after taste also has a very slow fade allowing each sip to slowly wind down prolonging the lifetime of a cup considerably.

As great as this tea is it is even better as it cools down. It seems to get even smoother as the heat flows out of it. At room temperature it is still good but I would put the idea temperature between 105 and 110 degrees.