Lapsang Souchong: The Smoky Tea, and the Unsmoked Original

Lapsang Souchong is a red ("black") tea from the Wuyi Mountains in Fujian, and the style most people know is smoked over pine wood, which gives it a campfire, bacon and resin aroma. In China the tea is called Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong (正山小种), and it's considered the oldest red tea in the world: the ancestor of every black tea you've ever drunk. Today the finest versions are often unsmoked or only lightly smoked, tasting of dried longan, honey and sweet potato. Brew it with water around 95 °C and short gongfu steeps, or 3 minutes in a mug.

I'll be upfront: I hated Lapsang the first time. It was a teabag in a hotel, and it tasted like drinking an ashtray. For years I filed it under "novelty teas". What changed my mind wasn't a better smoky tea but an unsmoked one: a Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong from the Wuyi nature reserve, poured for me by a friend who'd just come back from Fujian. It tasted of dried longan and honey, with a faint pine note in the aftertaste, as if the tea remembered the forest. Only then did I understand what the smoky version was built on.

These days I keep both on my shelf. The unsmoked one for gongfu sessions. A good, gently smoked one for cold winter mornings and, honestly, for cooking. More in the red tea guide.

Where Lapsang comes from#

Lapsang comes from the Wuyi Mountains in northern Fujian, the same mountains that give us Wuyi rock oolongs. Its home is the area around Tongmu village, deep in what is now a protected nature reserve. "Zheng shan" means "true mountain", and it originally distinguished tea from this core area from imitations made elsewhere. "Xiao zhong" means "small variety", after the small-leaf local tea bushes.

The Western name "Lapsang Souchong" comes from the Fujian dialect. "Souchong" is a rendering of xiao zhong; the origin of "Lapsang" is less certain, and different explanations circulate.

The oldest red tea#

Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is usually described as the first red tea. A popular legend tells of soldiers who passed through the area during a harvest and camped in a tea factory. The work was interrupted, the leaves lay around too long and oxidized, and to save them, the workers dried them quickly over fires of local pine. The result was dark, sweet, smoky, and sold well to foreign traders.

Whether or not it happened like that, the tea became one of the great Chinese exports of the 17th to 19th centuries, and its methods later travelled to other regions: Keemun in Anhui, for example, was developed in 1875 by applying Fujian red tea methods. So in a sense every black tea, from Keemun to Assam, has Lapsang in its family tree. More on the red tea family in my Dian Hong guide.

How it's made: where the smoke comes from#

Like all red teas, Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is withered, rolled, fully oxidized and dried. What makes the traditional version special is how the withering and drying are done: in wooden buildings with several floors, over pine wood fires burning below. The warm smoke rises through the floors and bamboo trays, and the leaf absorbs it.

The result depends on how much smoke is used:

The famous modern tea Jin Jun Mei also comes from Tongmu. It was created in the mid-2000s from the same local bushes, using only buds, and it's unsmoked: a very fine, sweet, delicate red tea.

My side-by-side: smoked vs unsmoked#

How to brew Lapsang Souchong#

Gongfu#

For heavily smoked teas, use a little less leaf. Use a porcelain gaiwan or a clay pot you keep for smoky teas: smoke aroma lingers in unglazed clay. All teas are in the gongfu brewing chart.

In a mug or teapot#

About 2–3 g per 250 ml, water just off the boil, 3 minutes. Strongly smoked Lapsang takes milk well. Unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong is best without.

In the kitchen#

This is where heavily smoked Lapsang really shines. A strong brew makes a good base for a marinade or a broth, and ground leaf works as a smoky rub. It's the one tea I keep in the kitchen as well as on the tea shelf.

How to choose a good one#

• Decide which style you want. Smoked, lightly smoked or unsmoked. Good sellers say which.
• Smell the dry leaf. Good smoked Lapsang smells of pine and dried fruit. A harsh, acrid, chemical smoke smell is a warning sign.
• Taste for sweetness under the smoke. If there's nothing underneath, the leaf is poor.
• Look for origin. "Zheng Shan" or Tongmu origin suggests the traditional area, although the name is widely used.

Storing Lapsang#

Store it airtight, dark and away from other teas, because the smoke aroma travels. Red teas keep well; drink it within about two to three years. Over time, the smoke softens a little.

Myths about Lapsang Souchong#

"All Lapsang is smoked." Not in its homeland. Many of the best Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong are unsmoked or only lightly smoked.

"The smoke is added flavour." In traditional Lapsang, the smoke comes from drying the leaf over pine fires.

"It's a novelty tea." It's the oldest red tea in the world, and the ancestor of black tea.

"Smokier means better." Good Lapsang balances smoke and sweetness. Overpowering, acrid smoke usually means low-grade leaf.

My honest take#

If you've tried smoky Lapsang and hated it, you're not alone, and you're not wrong about what you tasted. Try an unsmoked Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong. If you love smoke, move up from teabags to a good traditional Lapsang and brew it gongfu; you'll taste how much sweetness is hiding under the pine.

The bottom line#

Lapsang Souchong, or Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong, is the Wuyi red tea that started it all. The smoky export style is dried over pine; the unsmoked original is sweet and honeyed. Both are worth knowing, and the best tea sits somewhere between the two.