Lapsang souchong - online puzzles

Lapsang souchong (; Chinese: 正山小種; pinyin: zhèngshān xiǎozhǒng), sometimes referred to as smoked tea (熏茶), is a black tea ( Camellia sinensis) that is originally from the mountainous Wuyi region in the province of Fujian in China. It is distinct from other types of tea, as the leaves are traditionally smoke -dried over pinewood fires, imparting a distinctive flavor of smoky pine.

Xiǎozhǒng or Siu2 zung2 (小種) refers to the larger, coarser tea leaves that are found lower on the branch. Lapsang souchong is a member of the Bohea family of teas, but is not an Oolong tea, as most Bohea teas are. ("Bohea" is the pronunciation in Minnan dialect for Wuyi Mountains, which is the mountain area that produces a large family of tea in South -East China ).Lapsang souchong from the original source is increasingly expensive because of increasing demand for this variety of tea, as Wuyi is a small area.

History

The story goes that the tea was created during the Qing era when the passage of armies delayed the annual drying of the tea leaves in the Wuyi Mountain. Eager to satisfy demand, the tea producers sped up the process by drying the leaves over fires made from local pines.According to some sources, Lapsang souchong is the first black tea in history, even earlier than Keemun tea. After the lapsang souchong tea was used for producing black tea called Min Hong (meaning " Black tea produced in Fujian"), people started to move the tea bush to different places, such as Keemun, India and Ceylon.

Processing

“Souchong” (小种) refers to the fourth and fifth leaves of the tea plant, further away from the more highly prized bud (pekoe) of the tea plant. These leaves are coarser than the leaves closer to the bud and have fewer aromatic compounds.