Firstly lets orientate ourselves - Tong Mu Guan has been a centre for black tea & Lapsang Souchong for over 400 years. However the area, until more recently, did not hold a particularly special place in the heart of the Chinese tea drinker. Early Lapsang was of the type we are more familiar with in the West - smoked using the pine wood of Tong Mu Guan : it had a very strong fragrance and a smell that some liken to tobacco. These unique characteristics appealed to the export market with very few drinkers in the Chinese domestic market. Domestically tea from Tong Mu Guan fetched low prices and we are told that the 'mountain tea gardens were barren, and the production process was on the verge of being lost'
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This all changed around 2005 when local tea companies, with the help of the government started to use their knowledge of traditional tea making to make the now famous and highly sought after Jinjunmei and the unsmoked style of Lapsang Souchong. This move has seen the revival of the area as a centre for Chinese black tea rather than just a centre for export!
Let's talk about processing...
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The tea is picked and processed on the same day and the processing is the same apart from the 'smoking'. The teas we have chosen are from wild tea bushes : the Wuyi QiZhong cultivar [wild tea]. Picture the scene : the tea 'plantations' of Tong Mu Guan are sparse and most of the tea bushes are growing among the grass and other trees which will need to be navigated during the plucking.
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The steps are : Plucking, withering, rolling, oxidation, drying, sorting, roasting.
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Let's start with withering. For the unsmoked lapsang souchong the tea is put into the withering bed you can see below with the fans beneath. Outdoor withering is also possible [and is pictured below also] depending on the weather!
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The withering normally needs around 8-12 hours depending on the conditions of the tea leaves - something which is assessed by the tea maker. If the Lapsang is smoked then the fresh tea leaves are placed into the smoking room. This is a specially designed room in which the tea leaves are placed on a bamboo sheet and pine-wood is burnt below them. The smoke will be absorbed by the fresh tea leaves - so withering is the first step where we see differences in making smoked Lapsang Souchong. You can see the wood and the leaves in the smoking house in the pictures below :-
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The tea is then rolled - a process that leaves the tea very tightly bound together - therefore the leaf is fed into a machine that you can see below to open all the tea leaves before the next step which is oxidation
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And there you have it - beautiful smoked and unsmoked Lapsang from the famous Tong Mu Guan region. The tea should be prepared in the Gaiwan and multiple infusions enjoyed. We hope you will get a chance to experience these beautiful teas. Explore more here>> [unsmoked] & here [smoked]
