Lapsang Souchong

This is the right time of year to talk about Lapsang Souchong. This tea was made for sitting next to a fire in cold weather. Outside of a few African teas, it's unlikely that you'll find a more husky, robust black tea.

Souchong is a Chinese tea that gets it's smoky flavor from being smoked over a pine fire. The story is that during the Qing era, the passing of armies would delay the drying of the tea in the Wuyi hills, so the workers would speed up the drying process by drying it over a fire. Hard to say why a passing army would delay tea from drying, but there it is.

I've also heard that the tea was originally dried too close to fish that was being smoked. Lapsang Souchong was produced in an area that had a substantial fishing industry.

Isn't it interesting how all these teas have their little stories about how they came to be.

Well, I think as far a Lapsang Souchong is concerned; you're either going to love it, or hate it. It's pretty strong. Personally, I like it a lot. There really isn't any sort of a nuanced description that I can offer for this tea, because it pretty much just tastes like smoky tea. There's a difference between some of the different varieties of Lapsang Souchong, and you can certainly find something of a higher quality if you're willing to pay for it.

So that's it. A little bit about Lapsang Souchong. I think maybe I should start a blog about Kung Fu movies, because that's what I feel like writing about now.

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