"...My favorite is lapsang souchong--a black tea that roasted ina bamboo basket over burning pine where it absorbs the smoke--giving the tea a very distinctive flavor that I am utterly obsessed with..."

"...I've taken a liking to lapsang souchong because it's taste is so smoky and strong one tends to make it last..."

How can people drink that muck - it tastes like someone as been boiling kippers in the water before making the tea.

That said, it's as much the circumstances in which the tea is taken as the tea itself which adds to the experience.
I must admit the at one of the finest mugs of tea I've ever drunk was made from bog standard black tea (PG Tips, Typhoo or the like) stewed and mixed with evaporated milk until it was as orange as a builder's boot, served in a pint enameled mug and laced with a very large measure of rum, but it was served at five a.m. on an extremely cold November morning when I'd been freezing bits of my anatomy off for a couple of hours (I think anything warm and wet* would have been welcome at the time).

W


* Within reason