Customer Reviews

Lapsang Souchong Tea, 125g

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I discovered Whittard of Chelsea many years ago on a visit to London, and have since made it a habit to stop by one of their stores whenever I am in Britain. I'm delighted to see, though, that my favorite tea company's products are now also available over the internet.

Lapsang Souchong tea comes from the mist-enshrouded Wuyi Mountains in the northwestern corner of China's Fujian Province (north of Guangdong [Canton] Province), whose greatest tourist draw besides its mountains is its coast line on the Taiwan Straits.

This tea has an unmistakeably smokey note, which for years made it a particular favorite with the "single malt and cigars" crowd of English clubs and drawing rooms. That aroma is created during the tea's smoking process, which involves the withering of the tea leaves in bamboo baskets hung on racks over cypress or pine wood fires, after they have been rolled and placed into wooden barrels until they emit their own aroma. The finished tea leaves are characteristically thick and black. Legend has it that this smoking process was discovered by accident during the Quing Dynasty (1644 - 1911), when an army unit camping out in a tea factory interrupted the processing of the recently-arrived leaves and the workers then resulted to drying the leaves over pine fires to make up for the disruption and get to the market in time, creating an instant sensation there.

Because of its potent aroma, Lapsang Souchong should not steep very long. The rule of thumb is that the paler its orange color, the more likely you'll truly enjoy it.