Lapsang Souchong, The Original Version

Lapsang Souchong, aka Zhengshan Xiaozhong 內山小種 or 正山小種 from Xing Cun 星村, the origin, in traditional gongfu black tea style, and non-smoked, using both the xiaozhong cultivar and the xiaozhong processing technique

Zhengshan Xiaozhong ( zhèng•shān xiǎo•zhǒng ) 正山小種, aka Neishan Xiaozhong 內山小種, more popularly known in the West as Lapsang Souchong, Lapsang Shouchong, etc
origin: Wuyishan, Fujian

This article covers both the popularly known pinewood-smoked version and the much less known original traditional xiaozhong (ie souchong) gongfu black tea made in Wuyi.

smoked version: a tea not liked by producers

When I asked Xiao Lan to send me the sample of pinewood smoked Lapsang Souchong together with the others, she frowned. “I’ll have to double vacuum pack it and then put it in another sealable plastic bag.” Normally I ask producers to send me the samples that show potential in the initial tasting so I do not have to carry a big bulk as I travel through various tea regions. “I do not understand why any person would take on liking this kind of taste” she complained. Her immediate family did not produce that tea; it was from her mother-in-law’s nephew who did not like dealing with all the troubles of sales.

disclaimer: my position

Before I write on, I have to state very clearly that I think the taste profile of a good smoked Lapsang Souchong is unique, rich and reasonably attractive to certain taste inclinations. To me, the value of a tea is dependent totally on its taste profile, origin, uniqueness, and the skills involved in its production. Its social status to me is irrelevant.

That understood, I hope the following text will be interpreted as fact findings, comments on the tea’s physical properties, observation on market conditions, and not of cultural discriminatory origin.

origin: facts, fables omitted

Smoked “Souchong” black tea has never had any popularity in China, where it is made. Not in the south, like Fujian, its origin, nor the north, where the vicinity to the political centre would have bigger influence on tastes and trends. This smoked tea that may have been popular in the West has never had any regard locally at all. Maybe other than the few who would feel chic and different sipping a cup during high tea in one of those shiny international hotels in Beijing or Shanghai. The tea began as an export product about one and half centuries ago and remained so.

All sorts of ridiculous sayings populate books, magazines and the websites from different countries in both English and Chinese (and likely many other languages too) about the origin of this tea and how it is the best of all Chinese black teas. Or how it is the first of black teas. I can sum it all up with this: they are all generations of parroted wild claims, imagination and personal opinions.

london tea menu, 1800

As described in the black tea chapter in the Tea Categories section of this site, the first black tea was not produced in Wuyi and it was not Lapsang Souchong. Neither did it precede gongfu black tea. Since black teas were originally intended for export, and UK had a better share of them (1), it is fair to look at what London had to sell to understand the situation. By 1800, teashop menus, such that of Twinning, had the higher price “congo” (or congou, i.e. traditional Gongfu black teas, not the “modernized” version of congou) and souchongs (2), and no mentioning of Lapsang Souchong, or anything similar. The popularity of Lapsang Souchong happened some 60 years later (3). This is totally different from all those popular fables out there.

To tea producers, when referring to the Lapsang Souchong the rest of the world understand, there is always the prefix “the smoked type”. That means there is a non-smoked type. In the original 1992 edition (so a bit more factually reliable and less condescending to political or commercial influences) of the authoritative reference Tea Canon of China (Zhongguo Chajing), the first line that mentions the smoked type states “Some (in areas outside of Wuyi) smoke low quality gongfu black teas to produce Xiaozhong Gongfu (i.e. Souchong Congou). People call them “Smoked Xiaozhong” or “Imitation Xiaozhong” (4).

footnotes

1. Tea Guardian > Black Teas: Origin & Production

2. Jane Pettigrew, A Social History of Tea, 2001, National Trust Enterprises

3. Reginald Hanson, A Short Account of Tea and the Tea Trade, originally published in 1876, reprinted in 2005 by Elibron Classics

4. Chen Zong Mao, Zhongguo Cha Jing (Tea Canon of China). 1992, Shanghai Cultures Publisher, p 220