Weishan vs Tongmu Guan
The two Chinese districts where smoke is applied deliberately, and they apply it to opposite categories over different woods. Weishan finishes a green tea over smouldering maple or pine; Tongmu withers and dries a black tea over pine. Both produce a smoky cup and neither is a defect.
What is being compared
Why these get confused
A smoky note is often assumed to indicate a fault — scorching during firing, or a tainted storage. In both these districts it is applied on purpose and controlled, and it is distinguishable from scorching because it sits alongside the tea’s own character rather than replacing it.
Point by point
| Aspect | Weishan | Tongmu Guan |
|---|---|---|
| Category smoked | Green tea — Weishan Maojian, fixed and shaped conventionally, then smoke-dried. | Black tea — Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong in its traditional smoked form. |
| Fuel | Smouldering maple or pine. | Pine, and the resinous character is the point. |
| Where in the process | At the drying stage, after fixation and shaping. | At withering and again at drying, so the smoke penetrates further. |
| Intensity | A restrained smokiness over a green tea’s freshness. | Assertive in the export style, and absent altogether in the modern unsmoked one. |
| Province | Hunan. | Fujian. |
| How well known it is | Barely known outside Hunan. | One of the most recognisable tea flavours in the world. |
The short answer
Smoked tea is treated in English as a single thing called Lapsang Souchong, and it is at least two: a smoked green tea and a smoked black one, made in different provinces by different methods. Weishan is the more surprising of the two on first meeting, because a smoky green tea has no place in most drinkers’ mental map.
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