This is interesting. I am going to write about this tea and have been sampling a few now. The Chinese name for it is 正山小種. The way it is in English is a long story.
Basically it started off as an export black tea (red tea, that is) in the Wuyishan area in Fujian. People used pine wood as fuel in the process and the smell of the smoke got in the tea. What to most traditional tea producers was a no no became a special flavouring to the customers in the West. Thus the tea became famous.
People continue to do that now with some productions, others are cheap stuff with flavouring. There are different grades even in the former. That’s why you are getting different prices and tastes. The really traditional and original ones do fetch an extremely high price nowadays. It can retail at a few thousand for 500g in China.
