Lapsang Souchong Production

Making the Taste Sensation

Although the process of making Lapsang is fairly simple, it does take proper know-how to get just the right amount of smokiness in the tea, otherwise the tea will end up with a flavor that overpowers that of the tea. In the next few sections we'll take you through the manufacturing process to help you get a better idea of how Lapsang Souchong comes about.

There are two types of Lapsang made in the Fujian hills - the widely known and drunk Lapsang Souchong, and the lesser known Zhen Shan Xiao Zhong (which is considered to be the better of the two teas by those who produce the teas.)

Lapsang Souchong is made both in China and Taiwan, although arguably the finer Lapsang comes from the Fujian province in China where it originated from. (The Fujian tea is milder and softer than its Taiwanese counterpart)

The beginning

The harvested tea leaves are first dried and withered over pine fires (this step is also known as pan-frying), then rolled and placed in wooden barrels, covered with a cloth and left to ferment.

This fermentation process goes on until the tea leaves give off a pleasant aroma, after which they are taken from the barrels and pan-fried once again. Once this has been accomplished the tea leaves are then rolled into strips and taken to the smoking sheds.

Smoking Sheds

The harvested tea leaves are processed not in normal tea factories, but in specially built wooden smoking sheds. These sheds are normally comprised of three stories, the two above ground level being made of woven wooden slats. This allows the pine smoke to go all the way to the top and thereby allows the tea leaves to be smoke-dried.

Some of the tea leaves (the ones which are more pliant that is) are placed in baskets which are hung on the ground floor and left to be smoked.

Smoking can last for as long as 12 hours. (This depends on the intensity of the smoky flavor that the company the tea is being manufactured for, has requested. )

At no point in this process are the tea leaves exposed to direct heat or flame. The burning pine boughs are placed in large rooms located just outside the smoking sheds. The smoke is then directed into the shed through an ingenuous system of troughs built into the floor of the smoking shed.

Finally

The smoked leaves – now moist from being exposed to the pine smoke – are once again dried.

The tea is now ready to be packaged and sold around the world as Lapsang Souchong.

...Read the next article in the series on Zhen Shan Xiao Zhong

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