The label created for his tea was taken from the i-ching, a collection of ancient Chinese wisdom. A set of 6 lines (broken or solid) correspond to 1 of 64 possible outcomes. You may recognize these symbols from the flag of South Korea, it uses 4 of the 6 trigrams (3 line sets).
“Fire over wood”, the image of ‘the cauldron’ — thus a superior man consolidates his fate by making his position correct
“The fate of fire depends on wood; as long as there is wood below, the fire burns above. It is the same in human life; there is in man likewise a fate that lends power to his life. And if he succeeds in assigning the right place to life and to fate, thus bringing the two into harmony, he puts his fate on a firm footing.”
“Every person of good will can in some way or another succeed. No matter how lowly he may be, provided he is ready to purify himself, he is accepted. He attains a station in which he can prove himself fruitful in accomplishment, and as a result he gains recognition.”
“In a period of advanced culture, it is of the greatest importance that one should achieve something significant. If a man concentrates on such real undertakings, he may indeed experience envy and disfavour, but that is not dangerous. The more he limits himself to actual achievements, the less harm can the envious inflict on him.”
“If a man who, in a highly evolved civilization finds himself in a place where no one notices or recognizes him, there is a severe block to his effectiveness. All of his good qualities and gifts of mind needlessly go to waste; but if he maintains that he is possessed of something truly spiritual, the time is bound to come, sooner or later, when the difficulties will be resolved and all will go well.”
“One with weak character coupled with honored place, meager knowledge with large plans, limited powers with heavy responsibility, will seldom escape disaster.”
“In a ruling position, a man who is approachable and modest in nature will succeed in finding strong and able helpers who complement and aid him in his work. Having achieved this attitude which requires constant self-abnegation it is important for him to hold to it and not let himself be led astray.”
I love origin stories for tea, and lapsang souchong has a crazy one. Knowing this story helps develop a deeper love for black teas in general, promotes camaraderie between Asia and the West, and builds up one of my favourite teas: Jin Jun Mei
The Wuyi mountain range in Northern Fujian, China, has an environmentally protected area that is referred to as Zheng Yan, located just West of Wuyishan city. There are several teas on this site, including another lapsang souchong (2021 Lapsang Souchong Mild Smoke) that come from this Zheng Yan area. Teas from Zheng Yan frequently sell for a much higher price, though it’s evident that by lumping this tea into the conversation (at this very low price) that it’s certainly not always the case. The Wuyi mountain teas are known to connoisseurs around the world, though historically it is Da Hong Pao oolong and the other Rock Teas (Yan Cha) that are to thank for this outstanding reputation.
If you’re a citizen living in the Zheng Yan area, its likely you’re involved in tourism or tea in some capacity. While the yancha’s are originally what made the area famous, there is another (slightly more modern, though with an already impressively long history) facet of production that is very exciting to talk about — Black tea (red tea to the Chinese).
To name the most important two: Lapsang Souchong and Jin Jun Mei. They were conceived in the same iconic tea village called Tong Mu, which is located in the far North of the Zheng Yan protected zone on the border (albeit across a mountain peak) from the neighbouring province of Jiangxi.
Tong Mu village is a quiet place. It exists in a valley with rugged mountains on 3 sides, and is so far away from anything of value that for the greater part of history it has been left alone. Here it should be mentioned that Jiangsu and Fujian historically aren’t the best of friends. During one invasion in Spring, the Jiangxi army decided rather than travelling through the well guarded valley to invade Fujian, they would trek over the Southern mountains, and Tong Mu village was the first Fujianese resting spot for these tired soldiers.
It was the middle of the spring harvest, pickers were out gathering tea, the producers were beginning the withering process when all of a sudden, a battalion of enemy soldiers showed up. The farmers hid in the homes and factories and waited for the soldiers to pass. The soldiers are said to have used the piles of fresh tea leaves as beds, and once rested; kicked the tea around to torment the Fujianese farmers. Once the soldiers left the area the farmers rushed out to survey the damage to their tea and crops. The tea leaves were withered much further than usual and several were crushed by boots; considered by all to be in horrible condition. It was a disaster, but this tea represented the majority of the annual income these farmers would earn, so they had to do what they could to make the tea sell-able.
Tea is normally dried over charcoal because it provides adequate heat with little smoke. There was no time to prepare enough charcoal to dry the tea — fresh pine branches were used instead. Anyone who has ever burned pine knows the beautiful aroma is makes, especially if the needles are included, but damn does it ever smoke a lot, especially when the wood hasn’t been properly dried. Nothing was going according to plan so far, and drying this low-quality tea over such amazing amounts of smoke didn’t go so well for them either. The end result was a jet-black leaf with a powerful smokey scent.
No locals would drink this tea — no Chinese would drink this tea, but this was Fujian! The province with ports to a curious Western world! A representative from Tong Mu brought this smokey black tea to the Southern ports and pleaded with the exporters to get at least something for it. He received a very small amount of money and returned to his village the mountains.
Half a year later this smokey black tea arrived in Europe and was very well received — people loved it. You see, green tea deteriorates over time, there is a freshness that you just can’t keep. Especially when the tea is exposed to 6 months of sea air with no ability of vacuum sealing, temperature, or moisture control. This new black tea was not based on freshness, so there was nothing it could lose. If anything, the long journey dampened the fragrance of smoke and allowed it to blend better with the tea.
Half a year later there was a representative from Europe in Fujian looking for the source of this mysterious new smokey black tea. His journey took him to Tong Mu where he met the people of the village and explained that Europe wanted more of this tea and were prepared to pay a higher cost for it than green tea. The villagers were pleasantly surprised (also very likely mocking and condescending the Western worlds poor taste in tea) but have been creating smokey lapsang souchong ever since.
A couple things:
1) Not all lapsang souchong is smokey (in fact, is can be generalized that only low grades of lapsang souchong are smokey — to a point though)
2) Not all smokey teas are lapsang souchong
Europe, North America, and especially Russia are very fond of smokey black teas. India makes them, Japan makes them — anyone can make them. Cypress wood, cherry wood, yuzu tree wood, oak, bamboo — you can get smoke from any kind of wood. Pine was used in the case of Tong mu because pine is what they have an abundance of. I’d like to share an opinion that I think most connoisseurs of Smokey Lapsang Souchong can agree with: smoke is not the most important part.
Singpho Falap is a smokey tea from India. Now, admittedly I haven’t had so many but every one I’ve tried has almost made me gag and I can’t finish a pot. Imagine an ash tray full of cigarette butts, sitting out in the rain, and then you have to drink the water. Gross. The best I’ve had reminds me of that.
Japanese smoked teas are of a higher quality than India. I haven’t had any smoked teas from Japan I thought were unacceptable, but they also don’t deliver a wow factor like the upper tier teas from China do. The difference in quality is not about the smoke, it’s about the harmony of smoke and tea. This must be very hard to accomplish because I see it so rarely.
Not all lapsang souchong from China is created equal, first of all, most tea will not come from Tong Mu. It’s a very small village, that is making at least 3 types of tea (jin jun mei, lapsang souchong, and yancha). Teas which come from Tong Mu tend to be very expensive, and of very high quality. Maybe it doesn’t matter that a tea comes from Tong Mu, maybe any area can make a good smokey tea? That’s how I thought when I started drinking these teas. Why should someone care if a tea is made in Tong Mu?
1) Wisdom — I guess is the correct word. Smokey tea is not commonly consumed in China, so it should be reasonable to expect that few experts are dedicated to its creation. Smokey tea has a large Western audience but not necessarily that of connoisseurs, so there is little emphasis on high quality versions that require an expert hand in their creation.
2) Potency, not power (and the two of those are not synonymous) is the key to great tea. Tea grown with fertilizers at low elevations will not be potent. Tea bushes harvest multiple times per year will not produce potent tea. Tong Mu being nestled high up in the mountains, in a protected area where agriculture is forbidden encourages tea to grow slowly and potently.
These factors — generational knowledge about when to harvest the tea, how to prepare the wood, the environment and tools used in the smoking process (which is very much like a peating chamber for Scotch whisky) puts Tong Mu’s flag at the peak of the smokey tea pyramid. It’s possible that one day a producer will challenge Tong Mu for this top position, but I think it’s far away because there isn’t even a clear 2nd place right now.
Some strains of tea found in the Wuyi mountains can have a beautiful cassia cinnamon flavor to them naturally. Smoke is used in tandem with this natural cinnamon aroma to create the best of these teas on the market. Smoke can also be a crutch to cover low quality. I think it would take some experience to understand exactly what I’m saying here, but once you try your fair share of smokey teas, you will notice an acrid, ashy flavor in the lower quality ones. It’s definitely not something anyone looks forward to, and not something I ever aspire to sell.
While this Lapsang Souchong is heavily smoked, I think it’s still with great care and reasoning. Yes, the heavily smoked teas tend to be cheaper and are marketed towards newer tea drinkers, but there is no shame in enjoying them. We all start on the path of tea at different points, it’s expected that at the beginning tea drinkers will prefer to be slapped in the face with flavor rather than teased, so China will provide both styles. A significant reason that this tea is so cheap is the broken nature of the leaves. If you’re brewing your tea with intuition (not measuring), you have far less control over the process than you would by brewing with larger leaves. The reason is that larger (fuller, unbroken) leaves release compounds slower, as they have less surface area than if the same leaf was broken into 10 smaller segments. With the more expensive version of this tea on this site, you can see the beautiful long leaves it boasts, the smoking in it is less intense, as to showcase the original aromas of the tea more. It’s something I think everyone would move towards, a quality that is revealed by experience. But we all need a starting point, why not start here?
That being said, ho-boy did I ever drink a lot of this tea to come up with this following line of text:
The perfect brew is made using 1g tea : 59g water from rolling boil, steeped for 2minutes and 8 seconds, bonus points for having high iron content in the water.
Can you imagine sitting in the dark red light of a dry cedarwood sauna, alone, whipping your back over your shoulder with the little branch things? But instead of what they are supposed to be, they were pine branches, but somehow the needles aren’t agonizingly painful (there is no pain here). You pick up a little cup of water and splash it on the hot stones, it wasn’t just water — it had sugar in it! Now there is caramel bubbling all over the stones, and its sweet fragrance is filling out the air. You worry you’ll get in trouble for making a mess but quickly realize this is your fever dream fantasy, so you sit back and start eating the cinnamon bun that you were always holding with your 3rd hand. Something peculiar about it strikes you, and as you look a little closer. It’s not a cinnamon bun after all — it’s an imposter! A spiral shaped carrot cake covered in cream cheese and smoked paprika. You wake up and the sky is orange. This tea tastes like that.
