Compare two teas
Side by side across seven dimensions. There is no verdict and no winner — the purpose is to understand the difference, not to be told which to buy.
Russian Caravan
Black tea
Why these two get confused
Both smoky blends, and Russian Caravan usually contains Lapsang. The caravan-campfire story is repeated everywhere and documented nowhere; the smoke now comes from deliberate blending.
TeaHQ has written about this pair
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.
- What it is
- Russian Caravan: A blend, conventionally Chinese black tea with a smoky component.Lapsang Souchong: A single Wuyi black tea finished over smouldering pine.
- Where the smoke comes from
- Russian Caravan: From deliberately including a smoked tea in the blend.Lapsang Souchong: From the pine loft the leaf was dried in.
- How much smoke
- Russian Caravan: Light, and it varies completely between packers.Lapsang Souchong: Assertive, and the most polarising flavour in tea.
- What else is in the cup
- Russian Caravan: Cocoa and dried fruit under the smoke.Lapsang Souchong: Tar and dried longan; resinous sweetness under the campfire.
- The story attached
- Russian Caravan: Named after the overland camel route by which tea reached Russia. The tale that campfires along the route smoked the tea is charming and not well evidenced.Lapsang Souchong: Generally accepted as the oldest black tea, made in Fujian before the category existed elsewhere.
- How predictable it is
- Russian Caravan: Not very. Two Russian Caravans can differ enormously in how much smoke is in them.Lapsang Souchong: Predictable within a producer, and highly variable between cheap and good examples.
In summary: Russian Caravan is the safer purchase for anyone who wants a hint of smoke rather than a bonfire, and the less predictable one for anyone who wants the same cup twice. If a particular Russian Caravan works for you, note the packer — the name will not reproduce it.
Point by point
| Dimension | Russian Caravan | Lapsang Souchong |
|---|---|---|
| Category | Black tea · fully oxidised | Black tea · fully oxidised |
| Production | In order: Withering → Rolling and shaping → Oxidation → Drying. light roast. | In order: Withering → Rolling and shaping → Oxidation → Drying → Pine smoking. medium roast, bud and three plus and spring harvest. |
| Origin | Not recorded for this tea. Blends have components rather than a place. | China — Wuyi Mountains and Tongmu Guan |
| Flavour | smoky, chocolate and fruity. medium and smooth in the mouth. Aroma: light pine smoke, cocoa, dried fruit. Moderate in character. Moderate in intensity. | smoky, woody and sweet. full bodied and rich in the mouth. Aroma: pine smoke, tar, dried longan, campfire. Moderate in character. Moderate in intensity. |
| Brewing | Western brewing (teapot or mug): 1–1.5 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 180s. Samovar service: 4–8 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 600s. | Western brewing (teapot or mug): 1–1.5 g/100 ml at 95–100 °C, first steep 150s. Gongfu brewing (gaiwan): 4–5 g/100 ml at 90–95 °C, first steep 10s of 5 authored. Mug infuser brewing: 1–1.5 g/100 ml at 96–100 °C, first steep 180s. |
| Cultural context | Used in Samovar tea culture and Russian railway tea and the podstakannik. No standard composition. Most versions combine Keemun or another Chinese black with a proportion of Lapsang Souchong; some add oolong. The campfire origin story should be read as folklore rather than as production history. | Used in The Canton System. Two quite different products share the name. The heavily smoked export style is what most Western drinkers know; the unsmoked or very lightly smoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong drunk in China is a different tea entirely, sweet and fruity with little or no smoke. Neither is a fake, but a buyer expecting one and receiving the other will be surprised. The geography and the smoking have also come apart: most heavily smoked 'Lapsang' is now made outside the protected Tongmu area from cheaper leaf, while genuine Tongmu production is mostly unsmoked. Provenance and style are separate questions here and a packet answering one does not answer the other. |
| Who may prefer it | Someone who wants presence without being dominated and wants to enjoy it on the first cup. It tolerates an imprecise brew. | Someone who wants presence without being dominated and is willing to drink something several times before it makes sense. It rewards attention to leaf weight and timing. |
Nothing above is a recommendation. The last row describes the drinker each tea suits, using each tea’s own authored fields and the same sentence structure for both, so neither can be framed as the safe choice.