Lapsang Souchong

Our Fujian mountain black tea is well-known for its distinctive flavour; full-bodied and smoky it is often likened to a good Islay Whisky. Lapsang Souchong is probably the most famous Chinese black tea, it makes an amazing accompaniment with savoury, meaty dishes. 

Story

Map of Origin

Lapsang Souchong is a very well-known black tea, originally from the Wuji mountains in China. It is most well known for its distinctive, smoky flavour that creates a strongly savoury infusion that pairs well with strong, meaty flavours and is often compared to drinking good scotch whiskey.

Less well-known is that the development of the smoky, whiskey flavours is not by design; but a by-product of a need for a fast and effective preservation method for tea leaves.

As the story goes, villager tea farmers on the Wuji mountains often found that their harvest were at risk of damage and ruin from the passage of armies who cared little for trampling over the livelihood of village folk; and roving marauders who would loot, slash and burn as they travelled often decimating crops and ruining harvests.

In order to make sure that the precious tea leaves made it through harvest to market, the villagers had to find a way to speed up the process of preserving the leaves to get them to market before they could be stolen or destroyed, and so a method of quickly oxidising leaves was proposed with the leaves being laid out over pine fires to speed up the oxidisation process. As a result, the leaves naturally infused with the scent of pine smoke which, instead of ruining the leaves, made them a hugely popular delicacy with the British and Dutch who would pay premiums for these specially smoked teas.

Today the smoking method is a little less provincial and the leaves picked for smoking are of much higher quality; but Lapsang Souchong serves as a wonderful reminder that necessity is the mother of invention!

Production Information

To Enjoy

Place one teaspoon per cup into an infuser, filter or teapot. Add freshly boiled water and infuse for 4 minutes. Serve immediately or remove leaves to prevent spoiling.