Sunday, September 27, 2009

Black Dragon Lapsang Souchong

The perfect day for a Lapsang Souchong. Nasty, cold, rainy. I brewed
up a pot of Upton's Black Dragon for 5 min at 212 degrees. What a love-
ly tea. The dry leaves were beautiful, large and dark brown, with long silvery buds, covered with down. The scent of it brewing was definitely smoky- that wonderful dark pine fire scent. But there was a hint of sweetness there, too. The liquor was not nearly as heavy as many Lapsang I've had. The blend was, of course, smoky, but there was that sweetness again, with a good, complex tea under it. With it I had some fine mellow bleu cheese. Someone in a sidebar on a teablog I was reading mentioned pairing the two and since I love them both, I thought, why not? I am so glad I did. The two together are wonderful. The cheese smoothed away any rough edges of the tea and the tea seemed to add dimensions to the cheese. Definitely a fortuitous pairing.

For those of you who sometimes feel a bit overwhelmed by tea terms that are thrown around, In Pursuit of Tea's website has a Tea Glossary listed under "About Tea". It is a fairly long list that is certainly helpful.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I will have to give Upton's Black Dragon a try! I recently had my 1st Lapsang and even though I wasn't turned off, I found it a little overpowering.

Marlena said...

Oh good, it's really a nice one.