Sorry for steering you wrong. It's my favorite tea.

Following my last post here about tea, I ordered some loose leaf Earl Grey. Several users in that thread had encouraged me to try lapsang souchong, and this shop had that as well, so I added that to my order. While I am fond of smoky-flavored foods (smoked paprika is probably my favorite spice), it is just awful as a beverage...

I’m watching through DS9 for the first time and just watched this episode and absolutely loved it.

Also smokey tea is disgusting, I’d rather eat a plate of fresh Ghagh

Russian Country Tea is black blend with some lapsang in it. Much milder smoke flavor, I love it, but also lapsang straight too.

My favorite tea.

There are so many grades of lapsang souchong. Some of them even add artificial flavourings to supplement/in stead of smoking. AFAIK the original chinese version isn't even smoked, historically it's either a 100% made-for-export product, or smoking was a way to make the lower quality leaves into something more interesting, and even then more subtly than the the tarry, campfire-y version we know today.

Point being, once you've tried one souchong, you've tried one souchong. Check what's in the bag, and if you want to try again find a tea store that lets you taste or sniff beforehand. If you want to try a certainly non-smoked version, find jin jun mei; it's a premium grade tea priced accordingly though.

Full leaf tea company's Kingston Earl Grey is my favorite.

I take mine with some cream and sugar. I think it tastes kinda like the milk from a bowl of fruit loops.