Lapsang Souchong Wild Black Tea - assertively smoky (or ‘tarry') and is for the taste enthusiast

Lapsang souchong (Chinese: 正山小种) originally from the Wuyi region of the Chinese province of Fujian. It is sometimes referred to as smoked tea (熏茶).Lapsang is distinct from all other types of tea because lapsang leaves are traditionally smoke-dried over pinewood fires, taking on a distinctive smoky flavour.

It is a very unique type of black tea from the Fujian province of China comes with a very distinctive exotic smoky flavor. After plucking, the leaves are withered over cypress or pine wood fires. After the rolling process, they are placed into wooden barrels until they begin to emit their own pleasant aroma. As a final step they are placed in bamboo baskets and hung on racks over smoky pine fires where they dry and absorb the essence of the smoke. An acquired taste in black teas.

Some enthusiasts drink our Lapsang Souchongs ‘straight up’; or, for a delicate suggestion of smoky flavor is add a pinch or two of it to their favorite black tea blend.

Tea Information

• Grown on Tongmu village on Zheng Shan, WuYi Mt.(武夷山), Fujian province
• Strong and smoky, similar to the smell of a campfire or of Latakia pipe tobacco
• Heavy flavor of smoked and pine
• Deep red, bright liquor
• Low caffeine

Tea History

According to world tea historic recoding, Lapsang Souchong is one of China’s oldest tea, and among the first teas that some Dutch traders brought back to Europe in the 17th century. Much later, the English, even royal household and many famous people, including Winston Churchill in modern times, would acquire a taste for this kind of strong ‘tarry’ tea made by the magice leaves from far east country of China. In the year 1662, Princess Catherine from Portugal who when was married to Prince Charles had brought along her favorite Lapsang Souchong tea to England. Her passion of tea played the important role to promote the tea reputation in England. So Lapsang Souchong tea was treated as a luxury drink in England, France, Dutch and The Netherlands.

Lapsang Souchong is classified as a scented black tea because of the fact that it is smoked. It is made in the Wu Yi Shan, a mountainous region of rocky cliffs and bamboo and pine forests located in northern Fujian Province, China. The original and authentic Lapsang Souchong is called Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, and is made from fresh leaf plucked from the tea gardens located around Tongmu village on Zheng Shan, within the protected nature preserve that surrounds the smoking sheds.

Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is delicately smoked during the withering step of tea processing. Pine wood is burned in an outdoor firebox and the smoke is drawn into the lower level of the smoking shed. The fresh leaf is laid out to wither on a slatted floor above, and the smoke wafts up to scent it.

Finished black tea from other places is smoked in these sheds, too, but this already fully-oxidized leaf is given the equivalent of a 'hot' smoking, which creates a stronger, smokier tea. Our two 'modern style' Lapsang Souchongs are manufactured this way - one here and one on Taiwan.

Tea Map

Grown on Tongmu village on Zheng Shan, WuYi Mt.(武夷山), Fujian province, China