Lapsang Souchong Loose Tea Tin

Lapsang Souchong Black Tea

One of the most recognizable teas to emerge from China’s historic tea trade, Lapsang Souchong traces its roots to the Wuyi Mountains of Fujian Province, one of China’s earliest and most important regions for black-tea production and the historic export trade. Souchong teas from this area were among the early Chinese black teas to reach European and American markets, eventually becoming part of the thriving eighteenth-century tea trade.

The exact origin of the smoked style has been passed down largely through local tradition. According to the best-known account, military activity in the Wuyi region disrupted tea production during the seventeenth century, leaving freshly harvested leaves at risk of spoiling. To finish the tea quickly, producers dried the leaves over fires made from local pinewood. The resulting tea took on a pronounced smoky flavor.

Today, Lapsang Souchong remains known for that characteristic preparation. The smoked style is dried over pinewood fires, allowing the leaves to take on their signature aroma and flavor.

History: By the eighteenth century, The British East India Company imported several varieties of black and green tea, including Souchong, Bohea, Congou, Hyson, and Singlo.

Souchong was also among the teas caught up in one of the defining events of the American Revolution. On December 16, 1773, colonists boarded the Dartmouth, Eleanor, and Beaver in Boston Harbor and destroyed their cargo of East India Company tea in protest of British taxation and control of the colonial tea trade. Among the 340 chests recorded aboard the three vessels were 10 chests of Souchong black tea.

The Souchong consumed in eighteenth-century America would not necessarily have carried the intensely smoky profile associated with many modern Lapsang Souchongs, but it belonged to the same historic family of Wuyi black teas. Its presence in colonial trade connects this unusual Chinese tea tradition directly to the story of tea in early America.

Tasting Notes: Pine smoke, wood, malt, robust black tea

Ingredients: Black tea leaves

Size/Type: 3 oz loose tea sealed in a matte black signature tea tin

Shelf Life: 3 Years

Hand Packaged by Oliver Pluff & Co. in Charleston, South Carolina