Russian Caravan, or Russian Gold?

A few days ago I was leisurely walking along the aisle of my local supermarket when I came across a tea I'd been curious to re-try for a long time. I first tried Russian Caravan at my boyfriend's house about 6 months ago whilst I was looking for something warm to soothe my sore throat. It was winter here in Melbourne, and I was suffering from one of my many never ending, hideously long colds. My lovely boyfriend (Wombat's Whisky Review) had not yet started his whiskey collection at the time, otherwise I would have spiked my tea with some whiskey pronto. That stuff does amazing things for your throat!

Unfortunately, I did not enjoy my virgin brew and poured it down the sink after a few sips. Sin! I hear you cry. So, given my less than positive experience at the time, I decided to give this tea another chance, hoping that perhaps my initial tasting was unfavourably affected by my sick taste buds.

Let me first start of by saying that despite its strange name, this tea does not originate from Russia. Instead, it is a blend of oolong, keemun and lapsang souchong teas that are produced by a Chinese tea plant. The only reason this tea has reference to Russia in its name is because it was named after the camel caravans that facilitated the transcontinental tea trade and transported tea from Asia to Europe through Russia.

Camal caravans

The blue Twinings box describes this tea as 'aromatic and full-bodied, with a sweet nutty taste'. The first time I tried this tea it tasted mellow with no hint of sweetness of any kind (sugar, anyone?). It also tasted very malty and I am not sure if this was because I added milk, thereby diluting the tea and its taste.

During my second tasting I tried this tea black with a slice of lemon, and this time I found it had a very strong smokey flavour that I did not like. To the nose this tea smelled nutty, but I unfortunately did not taste any nuttiness when I sipped it. This was disappointing for me as I enjoy eating all sorts of nuts and would have liked to taste the flavour in my cup. Visually, the brew had a beautiful rich golden colour that is prevalent amongst many black teas. However in my opinion it's smokiness was this tea's downfall, and I am sad to say that I did not enjoy it the second time round either. 

In all, Russian Caravan is unfortunately not Russian Gold. I would have loved to love this tea, but it is not one that I would make a bee-line for on cold nights. In my opinion it is much too smokey, but I can see how the smokiness gives this tea it's distinct hearty taste that would no doubt be enjoyed by many fellow tea drinkers!