2025 Smoked Lapsang Souchong

Lapsang Souchong is where black tea (hongcha) started. The original style was developed in the Tongmu area of the Wuyi mountains in Fujian, where the leaves are smoked over pinewood fires after the standard red-tea processing. Most Lapsang sold internationally is the modern light-smoke version, which has lost most of the smoke entirely. This is the traditional version: smoked properly over pinewood, the way the style began.

The signature note is savoury rather than sweet. The dry leaf has a smoked-fish character to the aroma that some drinkers find startling on a first encounter. Underneath the smoke there's the red-tea body you'd expect from a proper Wuyi hongcha. The sweetness arrives behind the smoke rather than next to it.