**REVIEW** Lapsang Souchong Tea (Pt 3 Choice Brand)

Well, I'm down to the last brand of Lapsang Souchong tea I tried for this series of reviews. I've changed my initial opinion of not liking this type of tea to realizing that, like with anything, it mostly depends on brand. It definitely depends on quality - as is surely true of all tea!

This brand is from Choice Organic Teas. The tea is called Russian Caravan: a black tea blend that "marries rich Yunnan with smoked Lapsang Souchong".

So... still black tea, just smoked

I will let you see from the box where the Russian part of the story comes from:

Interesting, no? I thought so.

Choice brand flavor and aroma

This tea is the Mama Bear of the three Lapsong blends as far as aroma. It's nowhere near as strong as the Taylors (thank goodness). I wonder if that's because this of the addition of the non-smoked tea. And here is where things get confusing for me.

Yunnan is a region in China where (according to this), you can find China's oldest wild tea tree. There are different types of tea produced or from Yunnan. This box label doesn't let us know anything specific about the Yunnan tea they blended the Lapsang with. But okay. All I really care about at this point is whether or not I like the tea. And I do.

Like I said, I'm beginning to notice differences in quality. This tea is pretty decent. I can tell that this one and the Taylors brand are probably better than the Twinings. If I were to drink this tea on a regular basis, this one would win for aroma (not so strong), but Taylors would win on flavor. So, yes, I have done an about face and decided that Twinings is now my least favorite.

Bottom line

3rd place - Twinings of London
2nd place - Choice Organic Teas (came very close to a tie with the winner)
Winner - Taylors of Harrogate

Trying these teas was an interesting experience. I can't afford to try more brands unless I am offered more to try for free. If I do get to try other brands, I will do updated postings. For now, I will give Taylors the winning ribbon.

Stay tuned for my review of non-smoked black teas. I bought those myself because they are affordable and I drink black tea on a regular basis. Cheaper than coffee, I will tell you that!

Peace
--Free

**REVIEW** Lapsang Souchong Tea Part 2 (Taylors Brand)

The next tea up in this review series Taylors (of Harrogate, if that's important to ya). It

Pricing/Availability

On Amazon (which is were I get offered most products for review), this is Prime-priced at $6.28/box of 50 bags. Also, if you are purchasing this, it's sold as as "add-on" item. It's also available as a loose tea in a tin. Other sellers have it for various pricing scales. If you do get this on Amazon, be sure to shop around for the best price and seller. My sponsor was good on delivery and packaging.

What's surprising is that Walmart prices are about the same or, in some cases, higher that Amazon for this tea. Wow. But that is only for this Lapsang Souchong. If you decide (or already know) that you like the Taylor brand, the Walmart prices for their other tea varieties is great.


Aroma, Taste, Packaging

As you can see, these bags are not individually wrapped. I don't like that. I have a little basket right next to my coffeepot where I keep packets of tea. I have to store these in a plastic baggy - espcially because...

The smoky smell is STRONG. When I opened the box, that campfire-like smell wafted out. I didn't really like that, but I said I would try it and so I did. (This smells much stronger than the Twinings brand from the last post, by the way. MUCH stronger, IMO.)

I brewed a cup using 1 bag. The smell remains strong, but doesn't get stronger with brewing, thank goodness. I went mostly by box instructions and let this steep for 4 of the 4-5 minutes. I don't have a thermometer to see if my water was right at the recommended 100c (or 212 Fahrenheit). To be honest, I first thought the 100c was a liquid measurement. I should have known better but I'm going to play the Sarc card here. Anyway, my teapot was screaming so I'm sure the water was adequately heated.

Usually, I use only 1 bag of Bigelow's and get a nice rich cup of tea. I was surprised that, in spite of the strong smoke smell, this tea seemed pretty weak. That's probably not a bad thing because I don't know how a stronger brew of this would taste. And the taste was not bad. Really. Shocking.

The tea has a weak black tea flavor with a sort of smooth or silky smoky feel that lingers. It's actually pleasant. Next time I brew some, I will try letting it steep a bit longer to see if I like it stronger.

Bottom Line

I'm glad I got past the initial out-of-the-box smoke scent to give this a chance. If you are a true tea lover, this is worth a try. If you aren't kind of crazy about black tea, I would skip this. Or, I should say, I would skip this particular brand. I still have some other brands to try and I'm sure that there will be differences just like there are between the store brand black tea and the Bigelow's brand, right?

I give this one a 3.5 of 5 stars for flavor.

Peace
--Free

P.S.: I wrote these reviews over several days, as my fatigue and concentration allowed and just scheduled the posts. If I get the chance, I will be cutting open bags of tea to show photos of what the cuttings inside look like. I learned that serious tea drinkers take this into consideration which is why some of the prefer loose leaf/whole leaf tea. I will be scouting around for some freebies to review those next!

**Upcoming REVIEWS** Lapsang Souchong (and other) Tea

Bye Coffee Why

Long-time readers of this blog know that I love coffee. In the past few months, though, I've been loving it too much so I decided to cut back a lot. I'm having problems with anxiety and restlessness and drinking so much coffee doesn't help. Also, since I don't smoke like I used to, coffee is the enemy because drinking coffee makes me think of cigarettes!

Anyway, instead of coffee, coffee, coffee, I've switched almost completely over to black tea. I'm finding that, even though tea can be highly caffeinated, it doesn't trigger my nerves. It actually seems to calm me down a bit.

My all-time favorite tea is...

but not the kind with bergamot oil! Ugh!

                                                       
I big-a-love my Bigelow! (Minus the bergamot. Not so crazy about that.)

I love this tea so much that I can sometimes drink it without any kind of sweetener. Sometimes. I do love to add my own creamer-sweetener (see below to recipe), but that's because I need my sugar! The thing is, Bigelow's can be out of my budget sometimes and I have to use a store brand. What I find is that store brand tea is usually weak and flavorless. Ugh.

I recently got the chance to try a new (to me) kind of tea called Lapsang Souchong. (Yeah, I had to copy/paste that one!)

So, what is Lapsang Souchong?

My brain is lazy today so...

There ya go

I will refer to this tea as L.S.

I read several stories about how this tea came to be. One is that while some warrior and his crew were  in the middle of a battle, they brewed tea one night around a campfire. The teas became flavore by the smoke from the fire and... voila. There a other stories I won't go into, but it's aslo said that this particular tea is the first black tea in history.

When I was told about this tea having a "smoky" flavor, I almost passed on it. Every Google search came up with that same general description. I just wasn't that tempted. I thought that saying that my tea would be "smoky" is like saying my coffee would be "buttery".

Wait a minute. I do LOVE buttery coffee, right? When I first heard of buttered coffee back when I learned about the Keto diet, I had the same reservations.

Once I decided I might try this tea variety, I still wanted to know more about it - especially whether or not it would be any better for me than regular black tea.

Possible health benefits...

I gathered these bits and pieces from around the web. Sorry for not tracking my sources.

• Immune sytem booster This is one of the big draws for me. I've always heard about tea being good for you. This L.S. is supposed to be some kind of super booster. This could help you fight off colds and other nastiness. Hopefully. 
• Caffeine alternative.  You get caffeine, like with coffee, but this tea has less and is supposed to release into your system all through the day instead of with one big bang. This is exactly what I was looking for.
• Helps in weight loss I just heard cheers going up all over! I myself have quit banking on anything for weight loss except for calorie cut back. However, I know that some things can help suppress appetite. L.S. is supposed to help the metabolism work faster and better. 
• High in antioxidants & heart healthy We have all heard about antioxidants protecting against cancer. This tea (and maybe most others) has a combo of antioxidants that can help (they say) protect your DNA from the damage of free radicals.The antioxidants also help with evening out blood sugar and lowering blood pressure. That sounds good to me!
• Has nutrients and minerals that are good for lowering bad cholesterol. Yay.
• Relaxing and energizing? L.S. good source of L-Theanine which helps reduce stress levels. Of course, there's also caffeine. Apparently, when the caffeine is combined with the Theanine, there is the effect of relaxation and mental alertness and energy. ~shrug~ Okay.

Because I got to try more than one brand, I decided to review them separately. The brands are:

1. Twinings
2. Taylors
3. Choice Organic

By the way, I learned that some cooks like to use a smoked tea as a rub for the pot roasts and other meats.

Other Tea

For those who aren't adventurous and just want to enjoy a plain, old, good cup of tea, there's black tea. I already pointed out that Bigelow is a favorite of mine. I also pointed out that it can be pricey. Still, I will do a single post review on black tea from Bigelow Earl Grey (with and without bergamot), Tetley, and PG Tips.






Benefits of Black (and green) Tea

I was surprised to read that black tea can be just as healthful as green tea. All this time, I've been hearing more about green tea benefits. I like green tea on occasion but, to paraphrase someone, I'm not a son of gun about it.

Here is some of the info I scoured when looking at the benefits and other news about tea:

From Organic Facts:

• Treats Diarrhea. Black tea has a healing effect on intestinal disorders due to the presence of tannins. It is advisable for all diarrhea patients to sip plain, black tea slowly for maximum benefits. (I actually remembered hearing this during my younger years when elders discussed natural remedies.)
• Improves Digestion because black tea is rich in abundant tannins and other chemicals that have a positive and relaxing effect on the digestive system of human body. This anti-inflammatory quality of black tea is also helpful for curing digestive disorders. (This must be why my British former mother-in-law could eat so heartily and keep a nice figure.)
• Prevents Breast Cancer. Drinking tea, either black or green (my emphasis) varieties, aids women in preventing cancerous growth in the breasts, especially women in the pre-menopausal phase. Tea assists in raising the level of globulin hormones during the female menstrual cycle periods. The presence of theaflavins in black tea destroys abnormal cells in the body before they cause any major damage or change into cancerous cells.
• And more pros for plain black tea it is...  rich in antioxidants known as polyphenols and also has minimal contents of sodium, proteins, and carbohydrates. According to Boston’s School of Medicine, it reverses the abnormal functioning of blood vessels, which may lead to strokes and other cardiovascular conditions. (I haven't gotten to the stage of drinking my black tea "plain black" yet, so...)
• Here is a warning about drinking too much tea: Black tea is also known to cause acidity issues in the stomach. Therefore, do not get addicted to black tea. Furthermore, avoid drinking tea after lunch or dinner, as it may lead to poor digestion, whereas at other points in the day, it can promote healthy digestion.

Info from WebMD:

• I found this very interesting: Green tea, black tea, oolong tea -- they all come from the same tea plant, Camellia sinensis. The leaves are simply processed differently, explains Weisburger (82-year-old John Weisburger, PhD, senior researcher at the Institute for Cancer Prevention in Valhalla, N.Y.) Green tea leaves are not fermented; they are withered and steamed. Black tea and oolong tea leaves undergo a crushing and fermenting process.
• "In my lab, we found that green and black tea had identical amounts of polyphenols," he (Weisburger)tells WebMD. "We found that both types of tea blocked DNA damage associated with tobacco and other toxic chemicals. In animal studies, tea-drinking rats have less cancer."

Bottom Line

Moderation really is the key - whether you are doing something that is either good or bad for your health. I hope that you stick around for the reviews I will be posting. 

Peace

--Free