Smoked Black Tea from Shizuoka. Wakoucha Tea Tasting N°22: Pine Wood, Kaneroku Matsumoto, Thés du Japon

There is something deeply psychological in smoked teas, something that pulls us back to our ancestral past when wood was the principal fuel for the biggest part of our family history. Classic Chinese Lapsang Souchong teas are for me a part of autumn, and they indicate a change in season, but I drink them because of this, not because of the tea. In most cases it is inferior tea that is used to create it, and with most you experience only smoke, so heavy that it hides all the deficiencies of the tea. 

So I wasn't very keen on trying this smoked Wakoucha sample from Thés du Japon, but boy was I mistaken ! This tea was made by Mr Kaneroku Matsumoto in Kiriyama, Shimada City in Shizuoka, the pioneer of wood-smoked Wakoucha. He is best known for his whisky-barrel-smoked black tea, but this one was smoked on pine wood. The family farm exists since the 1930ies and practices chagusaba, a very environmentally friendly way of both fertilising the teaplants and fighting weeds by covering the soil between the rows with the dried and cut high grasses that surrounded the farm. You can see a bit more in this Youtube video. 

Smoked Black Tea from Shizuoka, Pine Wood, Thés du Japon:

Sample sent to me in the summer of 2019. 16th of August 2019, 98°C, 150ml, 2 mins, 3 gram. Small, fragmented and dark brown leave with a heavy smell of burning pine wood, exactly the smell of the log fires in my parents home in the Noorderkempen, a part of Belgium where extensive pine forests were planted to provide trunks for use in the coal mines. Almost all the wood my father used came from the trees in our own garden, as during every autumn storm some of these came down (they have very shallow root systems and the soil is poor and sandy). 

Rather dark redbrown infusion. Woodfire-aroma's but absolutely not monodimensional like many LS, and when the cup is swirled sweet elements join in, ripe fruit, soft rubber (like the inside of a soft tyre for bicycles). Very pleasant, but also interesting and fascinating, I could go on sniffing it forever. The taste continues on the same line, there is smoke, abosolutely, but it does not dominate, and there are many at first hidden elements that drift through the smoke...a bit like dining in a black forest inn, with a roaring fire and a good dish of venison. Very nice complexity, very appealing ! Very long finish. When cooling a nice freshness and a nice astringency developed. Coldbrewing this tea might be quite interesting... 😊😊😊😊