Lapsang souchong was first created in 1646 by the people of the Wuyi Mountain region when they were fleeing from Qing soldiers who were advancing through the area during the Manchu unification campaign against the Southern Ming. Before they fled, to avoid spoilage of newly plucked tea leaves, the leaves were quickly dried over fire and buried in sacks. Afterward, despite the strong odor, the tea leaves were shipped and sold to Dutch traders. At the time, the months-long journey from China to Europe necessitated preservation methods. Wuyi tea, ( lapsang souchong), was better able to preserve its quality. That is the history of how this tea was created.
I gave Lapsang Souchong a try because a bunch of people said they loved it. I also love history so knowing the story got me excited. In America, I’m used to very a small, simple selection of teas, Lipton tea bags are the standard. I started drinking more loose-leaf teas just a few months ago and started doing more tea courses as well. I’m learning about a lot more teas and the history and production of those teas. So what did I think about the lapsang souchong? The more and more I learned about it, the more and more I wanted to try it. so I bought it from a company I usually buy my herbal teas from.
The company Mountain Rose Herbs Lapsang Souchong tea is what I bought. I tried this tea for the first time, that I had lapsang souchong. I was very disappointed. Disappointed in all the people that recommended it. I didn’t think I could trust them again. Disappointed that this was a famous tea. What did this tea taste like, it tasted like liquid smoke! Some of you may have not had liquid smoke, you can look it up online. It’s basically smoke flavoring and it’s bad. A few things in America have it in it. I wasn’t expecting a tea to taste like it. It was so bad smelling that I have to force myself to try it, when I tried it I couldn’t drink more than a sip. So my trust in the tea community was gone. But then I went to a tea festival, and in the bag that you get with your ticket, they gave you a free Tea sample. I posted a Tea haul from the festival and there was a little red mystery tea, it had only Chinese words on it. I Google translated it and here’s what it said it was that it was lapsang souchong, and I was scared. I decided to drink it. I opened it up it didn’t smell like liquid smoke like the first one. I made it it was just a normal black tea. Now yes I’m saying normal as it wasn’t liquid smoke! It had a little hint of smoke at the end of the taste but that was it. It did not taste like liquid smoke. My trust in the tea community came full force back in. Now what did I learn? I learned that some companies are not good with all tea. As tea drinkers, we need to do research.
What tea should I try next? Comment with any suggestions!