Lapsang Souchong (LS) is a black tea originally from the Wuyi Mountain in the Fujian province of China. The original LS is produced by the specified tea tree (called Xiao-zhong) which originated from Tongmu village (桐木村 Tongmu Cun) that is part of Xingcun Town (星村鎮 Xingcun Zhen) at Wuyi City (武夷市 Wuyi Shi) of Fujian Province (福建省).
HOJO particularly focuses on the Lapsang Souchong produced from the Tongmu area, which is located at the national nature preserved park of Wuyi Mountain at Fujian Province. The high mountains with its thick pine forests and heavy mist provide the ideal environment for growing top quality tea. The best Lapsang is produced right here. In addition, we choose the organic tea as our own standard. Our original Lapsang Souchong has a very distinctive and aromatic flavor which is Dried Longan Flavor in addition to a subtle smoky flavor. The secret is due to the drying process using the pine tree. The adjustment and control of the fire that is called Wen-huo (文火, smoldering fire) is the most critical factor in producing this tea. The Real Lapsang Souchong is rare as Wuyi Mountain is a small area and there is a great demand for it. There is a significant difference between real LS and widely available LS.

Why was black tea made from Oolong Tea Leave?

LS has had a long history behind it. With more than 400 years of history, it was said that LS is the world’s first black tea. LS was produced as early as during the Qing Dynasty. Dated back to 1604, the Dutch imported LS to the West. It was regarded as a precious medical product and sold at pharmacies. At that time, there was no other black tea in the market. Thus, it was believed that LS is the earliest black tea invented, and Tongmu Village was the cradle of the black tea in the world. The Dutch dominated the European trade in LS until 1669, when the English first imported it on a commercial scale. By the time the English East India Company began trading in tea, the drink was well established at the English courts, where it was no longer valued primarily for its medicinal benefits, but was drunk socially, as an invigorating beverage.

According to historical records, in the year 1662, Princess Catherine from Portugal who when was married to Prince Charles had brought along her favorite LS tea to England. Her passion for tea had played the important role to promote the LS in England. LS was treated as a luxury drink in England, France, Dutch and The Netherlands. In England itself, LS is recognized as the representative of Chinese Tea, and it used to serve England’s Royal Family thus it was known as the Royal Black Tea in England.

The name of LS originated from Wuyi Rock Tea (武夷岩茶).  It was an oolong tea in the very beginning of history. Its name was recorded as early as year 1734, where the name Souchong or Xiao-zhong referred to the best quality tea trees grown at the rocky area of the mountain which was used to produce the oolong tea.

Why the Wuyi Rock Tea became the LS?
It is said that during the Qing Dynasty, due to the unstable political situation, the army marched to the Xingcun Town (星村镇) at Tongmu Village (桐木村) and stationed in the tea shop. The Xinchun Town was the original places where many tea farmers lived and produced oolong tea. The farmers used to produce the oolong tea, after withering, oxidized, maceration and partially dried, the wet mass of semi-processed tea leaves will be sold to the tea shop and the subsequent drying was done in the tea shop. Due to the invasion of army, the workers in the tea shop went into hiding to save their lives. Because the bag of tea leaves was still warm (due to the non-enzymatic oxidation which caused an increase of the temperature of tea leaves), the soldier laid down to rest on the bags of tea. The next day, when the soldiers left and the workers returned, they found that all the tea leaves inside the bag turned red and gave a specific fragrance (due to post fermentation under the humid and warm condition). However, they were not able to dry it at once since the drying facility was occupied by the freshly processed tea leaves sent by farmer in the morning, yet they did not want to waste the product, thus, the worker roasted the tea leaves in the pan to dry it and at the same time, lighted up the fire using pine wood in the room to accelerate the drying. As the smoke from pine wood was absorbed by tea leaves, the final product resulted in producing the scent of smoky pine. When it was introduced at Fuzhou, it drew the attention of foreign traders and was widely sold to European market, and eventually became used as a tribute to the royal court of UK.

How the Lapsang Souchong was named?
In the very beginning, when LS was produced, people was astonished by the ‘black’ appearance, thus it was called Wu-cha (乌茶, means black tea). When brewed, the black dry tea leaf gave a reddish liquor, and thus, the name Hong-cha (红茶, red tea), is used. Since it was produced using the Xiao-zhong (小种) tea leaf, the name “Xiao-zhong Hongcha is used (the pronunciation in Chinese, 小种红茶). Throughout history, Hokkien or Fujian (福建) people were the main group of people actively involved in tea manufacturing and trading. They spoke the Min-Nan language (闽南语). When the tea was first brought to Fuzhou (福州, a city with a seaport thatwas  located at Fujian Province), it was introduced as Souchong black tea by those Hokkien people (小种Xiao-zhong, is pronounced as Souchong in Min-Nan language).
After all, since the tea was produced at Tongmu Village, it was also called Tongmu Xiao-zhong (桐木小种). Besides, some people called it Xingcun Xiao-zhong (星村小种) since the tea was gathered at Xingcun town for trade purpose.
Due to its increase popularity, many tea producers would take old tea or other varieties, and sent them to Xingcun Town where smoke was added to the finished product before trading. However, due to its poorer quality, people named it as Yan Xiao-zhong (烟小种， means smoky souchong).
At the later stage, other counties started to product black tea. From a geographical point of view, Tongmu Village was located deep inside the Wuyi Mountain. Thus, tea produced from there was named as Nei-shan Xiao-zhong (内山小种，means inner mountain Souchong) and is the opposite to tea produced from other areas that was recognized as “Wai-shan Xiao-zhong (外山小种, means outside mountain souchong). During Qing Dynasty, the Min-nan language pronounced the word内as Lap, thus, the name Lapsang was invented.
Looking at its fame and promising earning which could be gotten from the sale of LS, many tea producers took old tea and smoked it heavily, and sold it as LS. Eventually, the authentic LS producer used the word正 (pronounce as Zheng in Chinese, meaning genuine) in replacement of内. At last, 正山小种 (Lapsang Souchong) is used in Chinese writing up to the present time. The naming of LS is summarized in the following table:

The tea garden at Tongmu Village is scattered around the Wuyi Rocky Mountainous area (800-1500m a.s.l). At this mountainous area, the present of primitive forest is rich in decomposed soil and it consistently supplies minerals to ensure exuberant growth of the tea plant naturally. One of the essential factors for good black tea is its mellow taste. This taste is originated from amino acid found in tea leaves, known as theanine. Young buds contains high level of theanine and when tea leaves receive sun light, theanine is converted to polyphenol such as catechins. At high elevations, the area is often covered by fog which blocks direct sun light on tea leaves. Consequently, tea leaves are very rich in theanine as the conversion to polyphenol is not effectively taking place.

Besides, at high elevation, there is a huge temperature different between day time and night time. During the daytime, there is sufficient sun light and tea leaves vigorously produce plentiful of substances such as amino acid and carbohydrates, which are essential for the exclusive quality tea as well as the growth of tea leaves. At night, if the temperature is high, the metabolism is continuingly taking place, and tea leaves will consume the substances that were produced during the day time. However, at high elevations or mountainous area, the lower atmospheric temperature at night caused the tea leaves to become less active and therefore those substances are remaining in the leaves.
With these factors, you will discover that the tea leaves are very rich in substances that contribute to the quality of black tea.

Due to the high Wuyi mountainous area and low temperature, the only cultivars that survive under this stringent growing conditions is the Wuyi cultivars (武夷菜茶). The first flush comes rather late on account of the lower temperature. The plucking season starts only somewhere in the second week of May. When the first buds grow and fully develop, it is called Zhu-ya (驻芽, which means fresh leaves without buds). This indicates the starting of the harvesting season. Usually, black tea in China is produced using 1 bud plus 1-3 leaves, and black tea with plenty of buds is highly sought after, such as Keemun, Yunnan Golden Bud Tea, etc. (please refer to the table below). For LS, the more mature the tea leaves, i.e., the first two to three leaves are plucked. In the production of black tea, the combination of amino acid and polyphenols content at the right ratio contributes to the good quality of tea. The content of amino acid is higher in young leaves than more matured leaves, while the polyphenols content is higher during summer (more sunshine and higher temperature), but it is gradually reduced due to the aging of matured leaves. Thus, the timing of plucking is important to obtain the leaves with the right content of both substances.