Lapsang Souchong: A Complete Guide to the Original Smoked Black Tea

Lapsang Souchong is a black tea from Tongmu village in the Wuyi Mountains of northern Fujian, and it is the oldest black tea in the world. The leaf is withered and dried over smouldering pine, which drives a resinous smoke into the tea itself rather than onto its surface. The cup is amber to deep red, smells of woodsmoke and dried longan, and tastes sweeter and rounder than the aroma suggests. A short steep is essential; the smoke turns harsh and ashy if you push it.

A tea that began as a mistake

The origin story told in Tongmu, and repeated by the Jiang family who have made the tea for twenty-four generations, runs like this. Some time in the late Ming, around 1568 by the family’s reckoning, a unit of soldiers passed through and slept on tea leaf that had been picked and spread to dry. By the time they left, the leaf had reddened. To salvage it, the maker rolled it and dried it over pine fires, since pine was the only fuel at hand. The result was dark, smelled of resin, and nobody locally wanted it. It was carted down to the market at Xingcun and sold cheap. The next year buyers came looking for more and offered several times the price.

Treat the specific year with caution. The story is oral tradition, not a document, and the dating varies between retellings. What is not in doubt is that Tongmu produced a smoked black tea by the early seventeenth century and that Dutch traders carried it to Europe around 1604, where it became the tea that started the European habit. The old export name was Bohea, from the local pronunciation of Wuyi.

What the name means

Zhengshan xiaozhong is the Chinese name. Zhengshan means true mountain, used here to separate tea from the Tongmu core and its immediate neighbors from cheaper leaf grown elsewhere and smoked to imitate it. Xiaozhong means small-leaf variety, referring to the local cultivar rather than to the size of the finished tea. Lapsang Souchong is a romanisation of the same name filtered through the export trade.

The smokehouse

Tongmu’s traditional building is a two-storey timber structure the trade calls the green tower. Leaf is spread on woven trays across the upper floor; a fire of damp pine burns on the ground floor. There is no solid floor between them, only spaced beams, so heat and smoke rise through the leaf. The same building does the withering and the final drying, which is why the smoke is described as going into the tea rather than sitting on it.

Withering over a low pine fire takes the leaf to a soft, pliable state at roughly 30 C, with the room closed to hold the heat. After rolling, fermenting and a brief pan stop to halt oxidation, the leaf goes back over a stronger fire for eight to twelve hours, turned regularly so the smoke reaches every surface. The finished leaf is glossy black with a reddish undertone.

There is a supply problem that shapes the modern market. Commercial felling of the local masson pine is restricted inside the nature reserve, and pine from outside cannot be brought in because of quarantine rules against pine wilt disease. Makers work from managed deadwood and from stock, and the craft itself is short of trained hands. That combination is why genuine smoked Tongmu tea is expensive and why so much of what is sold as Lapsang Souchong is leaf from elsewhere, smoked hard to cover its weakness.

What it tastes like

Dry leaf smells of campfire and resin, which is either the point or an immediate no depending on the drinker. Brewed, the smoke softens and the tea underneath shows dried longan, honey and a faint cocoa note. The body is fuller than the color suggests, and the finish is sweet, with a drying, slightly tarry edge that lingers. A good smoked tea tastes like tea with smoke, not like smoke with a memory of tea.

The unsmoked version is a different drink and worth seeking out if the smoked style puts you off. It shows honey, stone fruit and a clean maltiness, and it brews like a light gongfu black tea.

Brewing and cooking

Use 3 g per 150 ml at 95 C and steep for 90 seconds to two minutes. The first infusion carries most of the smoke; the second is where the tea shows through. Do not exceed three minutes, or the cup turns ashy and bitter.

• 95 C water. Cooler water leaves the smoke flat and the body thin.
• 90 seconds to 2 minutes for the first steep. Shorter than you would brew an unsmoked black tea.
• 3 g per 150 ml. More leaf makes the smoke overpowering rather than richer.
• Two to three infusions. The second is usually the most balanced.
• For cooking, use it as a stock or a rub. It works with duck, pork, mushrooms and dark chocolate.

Buying and storage

Smell the dry leaf and ask yourself whether the smoke is soft or sharp. Soft smoke smells of resin and wood; sharp smoke smells of ash and tar, which usually means the leaf was smoked fast and hot to hide poor material. Look for whole, glossy strips and a reddish undertone. Broken leaf and heavy dust are common in cheap lots.

Store it sealed and dry, away from other teas. The smoke migrates: a bag of Lapsang left in a tin with green tea will ruin the green tea within a week. It keeps for two to three years and the smoke mellows rather than fading entirely.

Health, in proportion

Smoked tea contains the same polyphenols as other black teas plus compounds from the smoke itself, including some polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. Levels in properly made tea are low, but this is one tea where drinking several strong pots a day is not obviously a good idea. The evidence on tea and health is associational at best, and no tea treats disease.

Frequently asked questions