Weishan Maojian: The Yellow Tea With Pine Smoke

Weishan Maojian is a small leaf yellow tea from Weishan in Ningxiang County, Hunan, and it is the only yellow tea with a pine smoke finish. The leaf is rolled into fine strips, given a short menhuang, and dried over a pine wood fire, which gives a resinous smoke that sits on top of the sweet, chestnut base. The smoke is the signature of the tea and not a defect, and it is the reason drinkers either seek it out or avoid it.

The category has one other smoked tea, lapsang souchong, and the comparison is worth making because it explains what Weishan is not. Lapsang is fully oxidized red tea smoked heavily for preservation; Weishan is a lightly processed yellow tea smoked lightly for character.

The place and the method

Weishan is a township in western Ningxiang, in the hills west of Changsha, at 300 to 500 meters. The area is forested, and pine is the local fuel, which is the practical origin of the smoke.

The leaf is picked as a bud with one or two leaves, rolled into a fine tight strip, and given a short menhuang of about 24 hours. It is then dried over a pine fire in a way that lets the smoke pass through the leaf.

The smoking is short compared with lapsang. A few hours rather than several days, and the fire is kept low so the smoke is resinous rather than ashy.

Smoke as a style, not a fault

A drinker meeting Weishan for the first time often assumes the smoke is a processing error, because it is unusual in a yellow tea. It is deliberate, and it has been part of the tea for as long as the tea has been recorded.

The smoke is also lighter than in a lapsang. It sits alongside the chestnut sweetness rather than over it, and it fades across infusions rather than dominating the first one.

The traditional justification is preservation, as with any smoked tea, and the modern one is character. Both are true: the smoke does help the tea keep, and it is also the reason to buy it.

Brewing it

Use 90 to 95 Celsius, four grams per 150 millilitres, and steep two minutes. The smoke extracts quickly, so a long first steep makes the cup taste only of pine.

Expect three infusions. The first is smokiest, the second is balanced, and the third is sweet with a trace of smoke.

A gaiwan works well because it lets you smell the wet leaf, which is where the balance between smoke and sweetness is clearest. A mug hides it.

• The only pine smoked yellow tea.
• Smoke is the style, not a defect.
• A few hours of low fire, not several days.
• Smoke fades across infusions.
• First steep is smokiest, second is balanced.
• Store away from other teas, the smoke migrates.

Buying and storing

The tea is produced in small quantities and is not widely exported. A buyer is more likely to find it in a Hunan specialty shop than in a general tea retailer.

The smoke makes storage a specific problem. A Weishan in the same container as an unsmoked tea will scent it within weeks, and the loss is one-directional: the smoked tea does not suffer, the other one does.

Keep it in its own sealed tin, away from other tea, and expect it to hold for two years. The smoke fades slowly and the base tea goes flat faster than the smoke does.

A drinker who dislikes smoke should not buy it hoping the smoke will fade. It is the tea. A drinker who likes lapsang should try it, because it is the same idea applied to a lighter leaf and the result is quite different.

The smoking method in detail

The drying is done over a wood fire in a covered structure that lets the smoke pass through the leaf without the flame reaching it. Pine is the fuel because it is the local wood, and its resin gives the smoke its character.

The fire is kept low and smouldering. A hot fire burns the leaf and gives an acrid note; a low one produces the resinous smoke the tea is known for. The producer judges the finish by the smell and by the colour of the leaf.

The total time is a few hours, which is short by the standards of a smoked red tea. That is deliberate: a yellow tea is lightly processed and a long smoke would bury the chestnut base that the menhuang produced.

Who the tea is for

It is a tea for drinkers who like smoke and who are willing to have the smoke be the dominant note. A drinker who wants a delicate yellow tea should choose Junshan or Mengding.

It is also a tea for drinkers who like lapsang but find it too heavy. The same idea applied to a lighter leaf gives a smoke that sits alongside the tea rather than over it.

And it is a regional tea, drunk in Ningxiang as an everyday cup rather than treated as a rarity. That is worth knowing because the marketing around rare yellow teas can make any of them sound precious, and this one is not.

• Pine is the local fuel and gives the smoke its resin.
• Low smouldering fire, never flame on the leaf.
• A few hours, short by smoked red tea standards.
• A long smoke would bury the chestnut base.
• For drinkers who like smoke as the dominant note.
• An everyday tea in Ningxiang, not a rarity.

The regional context is worth adding. Hunan produces both this tea and Junshan Yinzhen, and the two are at opposite ends of the yellow tea spectrum: one is a delicate bud tea with a global reputation, the other a coarse smoked tea known mostly within the province.

That contrast is useful for understanding the category. Yellow tea is not a single style, and the two Hunan products share a class and nothing else.

A drinker who has had one and not the other has sampled a category at one of its extremes.

The tea’s position within Hunan is worth one more sentence. It is drunk locally as an everyday cup and sold in nearby cities, and it has no national marketing behind it. That is why it is cheap by yellow tea standards and why it is rarely discussed outside the province.

A drinker looking for value in the category should notice that pattern: the teas with the least marketing are often the ones with the most process behind them, and the smoked tea is a clear case.

The smoke and the storage question

The smoke compounds are volatile and they move. In a shared container they leave the smoked tea and enter whatever is beside it, and the direction is always one way: the smoked tea loses intensity and the other tea gains an unwelcome flavour.

That is why the tea needs its own tin and why a tea shop that stores it loose beside other teas is doing damage to its stock. A buyer who receives a lapsang-scented green tea has found the cause.

Within its own container the smoke is stable and the tea keeps for two years. Beyond that the base goes flat and what remains is smoke over a tired leaf, which is not a good drink.

A drinker who buys a large quantity should divide it into small sealed portions so that opening one does not expose the whole supply to air each time.

One more point about the balance. The best Weishan is the one where the smoke and the sweetness are still distinguishable, and that balance depends on the length of the fire and the age of the tea.

A fresh Weishan is smokier than a year-old one, because the smoke volatiles dissipate faster than the base compounds. A drinker who finds a new tin too smoky can leave it open for a few weeks and the balance will shift.

That is an unusual piece of advice for a tea, and it follows from the smoke being a surface phenomenon rather than a part of the leaf.

Frequently asked questions