Lapsang Souchong earns its reputation the hard way, by fire. The leaves come from the Wuyi area of Fujian province, where they're dried over pinewood, a technique that traces back to the Qing Dynasty. Local legend has it that farmers, pressed for time by marauders and needing to get their crop to market, smoked the tea in a hurry and assumed they'd ruined it. Instead they'd made the first black tea. Winston Churchill is said to have taken a cup alongside his cigars, and the style has held its following ever since.
The cup opens with smoke, the kind that calls to mind a bonfire on a cold night, then settles into an earthy, resinous body with notes of pine and cedar. Underneath that sits a quieter register of lemon, date, honey and chocolate — even dark chocolate — that keeps the smoke from being the whole story. The aroma mixes that same woodsmoke with dried fruit and toasted grain, and the liquor pours a deep amber. It's a tea built for slow drinking, one where the layers separate out the longer it sits on the tongue.
Caffeine runs moderate, typically 40-60 mg a cup depending on how long and how strong it's brewed, so it suits more than one cup in a day without tipping into jitteriness.
To brew it, use about a teaspoon of loose leaf per cup, more for a stronger pour, with water at a full boil, 100°C. Warm the pot first, add the leaves, cover them completely with the boiling water, and steep three to five minutes — longer for more intensity. Strain before drinking. A little honey or lemon draws out the smokiness while adding some sweetness or tang, and dark chocolate or a well-chosen cheese makes for a pairing that plays well against the tea's weight.
