Cocktails with Lapsang souchong tea
Lapsang souchong is a Chinese black tea made from Camellia sinensis leaves smoke-dried over a pinewood fire.
Taste profile
Empyreumatic aroma of wood smoke and pine resin, with notes of smoked paprika and dried longan; the brewed tea is not bitter and carries a medium tannic body.
How it's used
A small brewed measure lends a smoky, campfire aroma as an accent, while a stronger infusion can carry the smoked-tea character as a drink's backbone; used cold-brewed, steeped into syrups, or as a lengthener, and rarely sweetened.
Substitutes for Lapsang souchong tea
Where smoke is only a light accent, another strong black tea can approximate the tannic body and amber colour, but it cannot reproduce the pinewood-smoke aroma; where that smoked character is the point of the drink, only an actual smoked tea or added smoke element will serve.
Often confused with
Unsmoked lapsang souchong / plain Wuyi black tea
Traditional lapsang souchong is smoke-dried over pinewood and carries a strong smoke aroma; the unsmoked variety and ordinary black tea lack the smoke character entirely despite sharing the name and Wuyi origin.
