Lapsang Souchong

Where it grows

The districts recorded against this tea, all of them in China. Elevation is given as the band the district is recorded at, not a measurement of the garden this leaf came from.

• Wuyi Mountains — 200–700 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it. Approximate. Wuyi’s reputation rests more on its rocky, mineral soils and sheltered ravines than on altitude alone.

• Tongmu Guan — 700–1500 metres

  How firm this is: Inferred from general knowledge of the district rather than measured or taken from a source that states it.

The plants it is made from

Cultivar is the level below the variety group: a named selection of the tea plant, propagated as clones from one parent. Most consumer writing stops at the country and the category, which leaves out the layer that decides how the leaf behaves before anyone picks it.

• Cai Cha — Camellia sinensis var. sinensis

  Its variability is the reason older Fujian teas taste less uniform than modern ones, and is a genuine quality in categories where complexity is wanted.

How it is made, in order

Read top to bottom: the list is the production sequence, and the sequence is what makes this tea its category rather than a neighbouring one. The same leaf from the same bush becomes a green tea or a black tea depending on where the heat falls relative to the bruising, so reordering these steps would not vary the tea — it would produce a different one.

1. 1. Withering — Reduces water content, softens the leaf for later handling, and permits early enzymatic and aromatic development.
2. 2. Rolling and shaping — Ruptures cell walls to expose leaf juices, and forms the leaf into the shape it will hold through drying and storage.
3. 3. Oxidation — Allows polyphenol oxidase to act on leaf polyphenols after cell rupture, converting them into the larger coloured compounds that give oxidised tea its colour and body.
4. 4. Drying — Reduces residual moisture to a level at which enzymatic, microbial and oxidative change effectively stops, stabilising the leaf for storage.
5. 5. Pine smoking — Exposes withering and drying leaf to pine smoke, so phenolic smoke volatiles are absorbed into the leaf and persist into the finished tea.

The route it is made by

The steps above are what happens; this is the named production route they belong to, with the other teas made the same way.

• Pine-smoked souchong — An orthodox black tea route with a brief pan step inserted in the middle of it and pine smoke applied at both ends — the only black tea route that applies heat before the drier.

  Where it is practised: The Tongmu valley and the wider Wuyi area of Fujian. Unsmoked souchong from the same district is now the larger part of the trade, and the smoked style is more popular abroad than at home.

What its chemistry turns on

Every true tea contains caffeine, catechins and amino acids, so listing them would say nothing about this one. What differs is what the processing above does to them — and that is the same list of steps, read for its chemistry instead of its craft.

The compounds that substantially decide what this tea is: Guaiacol.

• Withering
  • creates Geraniol
  • creates Linalool
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Theasinensins
  • raises Methyl salicylate
  • raises Nerolidol
  • raises Soluble sugars
  • lowers cis-3-Hexenol
  • lowers Green-leaf volatiles
  • lowers Leaf lipids
• Rolling and shaping
  • converts Leaf lipids
  • creates Theaflavins
  • raises Pectins
• Oxidation
  • converts Carotenoids
  • converts Catechins
  • converts ECG (epicatechin gallate)
  • converts EGC (epigallocatechin)
  • converts EGCG (epigallocatechin gallate)
  • converts Epicatechin
  • converts Linalool
  • creates Beta-damascenone
  • creates Beta-ionone
  • creates GABA (gamma-aminobutyric acid)
  • creates Linalool oxides
  • creates Tea cream
  • creates Theaflavins
  • creates Thearubigins
  • raises 2-Phenylethanol
  • raises Geraniol
  • raises Nerolidol
  • lowers Anthocyanins
  • lowers Theogallin
• Drying
  • creates Strecker aldehydes
  • raises Beta-damascenone
  • raises Thearubigins
• Pine smoking
  • creates Guaiacol

These are statements about the leaf and the cup. What any of these compounds does in a body is a different kind of question and is not answered here or on the pages linked from it.

History

Made in the Tongmu valley of the Wuyi mountains, and the earliest black tea for which a production tradition is documented. The pine-smoke drying that Western drinkers associate with the name was a solution to wet weather and the demands of long sea transport; the tea sold locally in Tongmu today is largely unsmoked, which surprises people who know only the export style. The heavily smoked style was standardised for the European export trade, and most of it has long been made outside the protected Tongmu area — the style and the origin diverged early.

Brewing

• Western brewing (teapot or mug)

  1–1.5 g/100 ml · 95–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Western teapot

  Open in the brew assistant

• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan)

  4–5 g/100 ml · 90–95 °C · 5 authored infusions

  Needs: Gaiwan

  Open in the brew assistant

• Mug infuser brewing

  1–1.5 g/100 ml · 96–100 °C · 1 authored infusion

  Needs: Mug infuser basket

  Open in the brew assistant

Vessels this tea suits

Recorded against the tea rather than against a brewing style, because the vessel does not always follow from the method — a whisk needs lateral room whatever the schedule says, and compressed leaf needs a pick before any method applies at all.

• Silver teapot — A heavily smoked tea in a vessel that takes up nothing is the one case where a non-porous pot is worth the heat loss.

Common mistakes

• Steeping it as long as an Assam, which makes the smoke overwhelming
• Buying a large quantity before tasting it
• Assuming all Lapsang Souchong is smoked — the original Tongmu tea is not.

When the cup goes wrong

Written against black tea as a category rather than against this tea in particular, and worked back from the symptom to the likely causes in order. 19 apply to the category; the first 6 are shown.

• My chai catches on the pan or boils over — A scorched note runs through the finished drink, or the pan foams over the moment your back is turned.
• My chai is harsh and drying rather than rich — The drink is strong enough but unpleasant with it: a rough, drying grip on the tongue and a flat cooked note, rather than the round sweetness a good chai has.
• My chai tastes of hot spiced milk rather than tea — The drink is pleasant and sweet and the tea is nowhere in it — no colour to speak of, no briskness, and nothing that would tell you tea had been involved.
• My iced tea has gone cloudy — Tea that was clear when hot turns hazy or milky once chilled.
• My iced tea tastes watery once the ice melts — The tea is good for the first mouthful and thin by the bottom of the glass.
• My milk curdles or separates in the tea — Flecks or threads appear when the milk goes in, or the surface breaks into small islands, and the drink looks grainy rather than smooth.

Every diagnosed brewing problem

If you like this

Grouped by why they were suggested, strongest reason first. Nothing here is a blended score — a suggestion appears under the best reason that exists for it, and never under a weaker one as well.

Compare this tea with another

Written comparisons

Where TeaHQ has set this tea against another in full, rather than deriving the comparison. Each one is a written page with the points of difference argued out.

• Black tea styles compared — Five black teas that share a processing route and almost nothing else. Anyone who has decided black tea is one flavour has met one of these and generalised from it. Put the two side by side
• Keemun vs Lapsang Souchong — Two Chinese black teas frequently described as smoky, only one of which is. The confusion has cost a lot of people a cup they did not want. Put the two side by side
• Russian Caravan vs Lapsang Souchong — One is a smoked tea and the other is a blend containing a smoked tea, and the difference matters because the second has no recipe at all. Put the two side by side
• Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, smoked Lapsang, and Wai Shan — One of tea's most famous names covers an unsmoked tea, a smoked version of it, and a large volume made outside the protected area and sold under both. The three are routinely presented as one product. Put the two side by side

Where this tea is drunk

Documented practices that name this tea. Each page describes what is done and by whom, and separates what is recorded from what is repeated.

• The Canton System — The arrangement under which all European maritime trade with China was funnelled through one port and one licensed merchant guild for roughly eighty-five years — the bottleneck through which effectively every pound of tea Europe drank had to pass.

Guides covering this tea

• Scented and flavoured are two different productions, with a difference you can taste
• Smoked tea: what actually varies between one and another
• Wood, smoke, camphor and medicinal: the heavy persistent aromas
• The accidental-invention legends of oolong and smoked black tea