Lapsang Souchong (煙小種)
archetype: Old hunter by the smoky hearth
An old hunter warms himself by a smoky hearth: resinous pine smoke, smoked date, a forested masculine strength.
History
The first red tea in history, born in the Wuyi mountains at the end of the 16th century. By tradition, a military detachment occupied the village of Tongmuguan during the harvest, and the picked leaf had to be dried in haste — over a pine fire. The result was a tea of vivid smoky aroma, which quickly went into export and became the foundation of the European 'black' tradition (the very name 'black tea' comes from the colour of the dry leaf of lapsang). Today the Tongmuguan lapsang is a protected variety; the smoking is done exclusively over the fire of Pinus massoniana.
Terroir
'Zheng shan' ('the true mountain') means leaf only from the Tongmuguan valley itself. Anything smoked elsewhere has formally no right to be called lapsang.
Leaf
smoked pine resin, black date, tar, warm wood; in the depth — a honey berry and dried fruit long, warming, leaving in the chest the sense of a warm fire; the aftertaste lasts an hour
Properties
high content of ferulic and gallic acids, melanoidins of roasting; mildly tonic, helpful in seasonal blues and the sluggish fatigue of winter dense, warming; felt as a wide warm palm laid on chest and shoulders medium (40–55 mg)
Brewing ritual
a 150 ml clay gaiwan — to keep the heat; 95 °C; 5 g / 150 ml. 10s — the first smoke: pine, date; 12s — the peak: smoked wood, tar; 15s — a warm forest depth; 22s — a long smoky trail; 35s — the finale — embers in the hearth.
When to drink
day and evening — especially after coming in from the cold. late autumn and winter. when frozen from within, when sad 'for no reason', for long solitary work, before a long conversation