Oolong Tea: the Originator of the Chinese Lapsang Souchong

Posted by Guest Author on December 17th, 2009 filed in Reader Articles

Of all the Chinese teas sold worldwide, one of the most unique is Lapsang Souchone black tea. The tea is noted for a subtle smoky flavor and believed to be the ‘grand daddy’ of all Chinese black tea.

However, as we all wonder, how was this strange tea discovered or created? Or rather, who is the ‘grand daddy’ of Lapsang Souchong?

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The answer: the oolong tea produced in the Wu Yi Mountain in southern China.

It all started with a series of mistakes.

A few hundred years ago, in the in the famous Wu Yi Mountain, a small village became the epic center for the rise of a brand new tea. There for years, villagers made their living by growing oolong tea. But, this year, there was one problem that was assailing the villagers. The low temperature at night was impeding the fermentation of tea leaves, which could spoil the flavor.

One day, an imperial army came. Due to the lack of shelter, many soldiers slept on the oolong tea leaves left on bamboo mat for fermentation. Days past, time were running out for the fermentation of tea leaves, yet the soldiers had no intention to leave.

Finally the army was gone, and same with the best time for tea fermentation. The tea leaves should have been semi-fermented, but now, warmed by the bodies of the soldiers, they were fully fermented. To save the oolong tea leaves and a year of income, the villagers who were now filled with anxiety burned pinewood to speed up the roasting process. However, the villagers quickly found this to be an even worse decision. When burnt, the pinewood produces smoke, which then was absorbed by the tea leaves.

Now the tea seemed to be a dead duck. They’d produced the worst batch of oolong tea in the entire oolong tea history, they thought.

So the village was shattered, with their tea sold at cut-throat prices. “Luck will come for us next year”, they thought. What they weren’t aware was that luck was already in their favor!

Months wore on! It was another season for oolong tea making. The village was filled with merchants who would like to pay three times the price of that in last year for the ‘smoked’ tea. The whole village was surprised, yet relived!

It turned out that the smoky-flavor tea tastes even mellow and uplifting, and customers embraced it with full arms. This year, every family purposely repeated the ‘mistakes’ for the new market favor.

Till this day, Lapsang Souchong remains highly popular in the market and is considered one of them best ten Chinese teas.

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