“Thank the Lord for a review function on this website! I bought a box of these, assuming it would be similar to Lapsang Souchong - then came on here to see if LS was still available. Imagine my surprise when I came across all these negative reviews. Fortunately I hadn’t opened the box and went back to the store to get a full refund. I’ve now got some LS from Waitrose (thank you to the reviewer who suggested this), which not only tastes great but was considerably cheaper.
So I may not have sampled the chemical taste, but you get one star for the inconvenience of having to return for a refund.”
“I thought maybe this was just a name change to attract people who didn’t know that Lapsang Souchong was a lovely smokey tea. Unfortunately not. It may be ‘inspired by’ but it tastes bloody awful. Gone is the comforting rich smokey/ almost spice taste, and we’re given something that’s really indistinct with an aftertaste that is slightly oily with a vague hint of ashtray. It’s really unpleasant.
Very disappointing Twinnings. This is not in any way a suitable replacement. Please go back to the original version and I’ll even forgive for dumbing down and changing the name. :-).”
“I am so disappointed that Twinings' Lapsang Souchong has been discontinued. I have drunk this tea every day for the past 25 years. Distinctively Smoky cannot be considered a replacement. It bears no resemblance to Lapsang, and tastes disgusting. It is frankly undrinkable and I had to throw it away.”
“extremely disappointing :( 'distinctively smoky' where is the smoke? what have you done to the delicious bonfire-y boggy marsh water flavour that is our beloved Lapsang Souchong. this tea is more of a chemically polluted muddy puddle flavour. even having to pay double the price for the original flavour would be better than this.”
“So I used to drink Earl Grey then you mucked about with it and it tasted like soapy water so I switched to Lapsang Souchong. Which I enjoyed and now to my utter dismay you have discontinued the real thing and substituted the contents of the bilge in of an old tramp steamer. WHAT ON EARTH DO YOU THINK YOU ARE DOING! It’s bad enough the country going to hell in a handcart but the tea as well!!! Enough is enough goodbye Twinings.”
“Almost caused a divorce when wife presented with this in bed. Luckily she had bought it and not noticed the change. We now have 39 teabags we will not use, and hunt every supermarket for the original.
Change not good, and looks like losinf a 25 year customer”
“Why stop supplying lapsang in tea bag form ?crazy idea , I have been drinking your lapsang for years it was a great tea , if I wanted to drink a chemical infused tea I would ! but I don’t , so I will now be paying more which is fine and buying my lapsang from brew tea company instead , I don’t know who came up with this idea at twinings but they obviously don’t drink lapsang and made this decision on a cost cutting exercise , I think most people would have been happy to pay more for the original product.”
