Smoke defines this black tea before anything else does, but not in the heavy-handed way the style is often known for. The leaves are dried over pinewood fires, the traditional method behind lapsang souchong, and the aroma that results is resinous and warm rather than acrid. What sets this particular batch apart is where it comes from: Xingchun, a Chinese tea-growing region known for taking a lighter hand with the smoking process than most. Instead of letting the fire dominate, Xingchun's method allows floral and woody notes to surface alongside the pine character, so the cup reads smoky and sweet in close balance rather than purely charred.
In the cup, expect a thick, full-bodied liquor with a drying finish, the kind of tea that holds its own against food rather than fading into the background. The tasting notes run floral, smoky, woody and pine up front, with that characteristic dryness settling in on the finish. The region's climate helps explain the quality: mild temperatures, steady rainfall, and fertile soil, all suited to tea cultivation. Xingchun's growers pair those natural conditions with traditional processing alongside more modern refinements, which is part of why the smoke stays controlled here instead of overwhelming everything else, and why the sweetness underneath it never quite disappears.
To brew it, use water just off the boil, around 95°C, with roughly a teaspoon of loose leaf for every 240ml of water. Warming the pot first helps before the leaves go in. Steep for about four minutes, shorter if a lighter smoke is preferred, longer if the pine and wood notes should deepen, then strain before the leaves have a chance to turn the cup bitter.
