Lapsang souchong is the grand progenitor of all black teas, born more than 400 years ago in the Tongmu village area of the Wuyi hills in northern Fujian, China. The Wuyi hills are a UNESCO world heritage site.
"Lapsang souchong" as known in the West does not exist in China. "Souchong" derives from a local dialect term for "small type" (of leaf); the meaning of "lapsang" is unclear and may be a Western concoction. In China the tea is called zhengshan xiaozhong. The authentic Chinese version can have a trace of smokiness but is far superior in taste to the Western export product.
Legend holds that in the 16th or 17th century, soldiers passing through Tongmu bedded down on freshly picked tea leaves, crushing them. Despondent farmers tried disguising the body-odour stench by curing the leaves in pinewood smoke. Dutch traders found that tea treated this way survived long sea journeys better than raw green types.
Victorian advertising called the tea an enhancer of cognitive ability for "men of brain power". In 2023 Twinings, one of Britain's most popular tea brands, announced it would no longer sell lapsang souchong. A substitute called "Distinctively Smoky" received scathing reviews and was withdrawn in 2025. Sainsbury's and Morrisons have also discontinued it.
Leaves are hand-picked by caichanu (female tea-pickers), who identify the right leaves four or five down from the tip. In Tongmu, only two traditional three-storey wooden qinglou buildings remain where leaves are pressed and smoked. Jiang Junfan, in his mid-60s, belongs to a family that has made the tea for 24 generations. Much lapsang souchong exported to the West is now sourced from elsewhere in China, sometimes using chemical substitutes for the smoky flavour.
In 2020 China reached an agreement with the EU that no tea can be sold as lapsang souchong in the EU unless it comes from specified towns in the Wuyi hills and the smoking involves pinewood.
In 2005 villagers in Tongmu invented Jin Jun Mei ("Golden Eyebrow"), a new black tea using tender unopened buds from the same bushes. It is not smoked and a pot can sell for about one-quarter the price of gold. China's economic boom has created a sizeable market of wealthy customers willing to pay exorbitant prices for the genuine article.
QOTD: "Everything I am today I owe to people, whom it is now to late to punish."