Dec 31, 2008

An inexpensive Lapsong Souchong (正山小種), smoked

It's almost exactly like my plum water, not the commercial kind, mine home made from dried plums! After having it, I miss my plum water. Plum water is a summer drink. But I really want to make some now! The tea is a smoked kind. I don't hate the smokey flavor in it, maybe even like it. But I would rather have one non-smoked - I almost feel I am smoking, although I never smoke :-p But maybe plum taste wouldn't be there if the tea were not smoked. And I don't think I can find an inexpensive lapsong souchong that is not smoked - I guess, smoking is the selling point here.

I love to have plum water with hot pot meal or barbecue meal. I can visualize this tea replacing plum water. This is even zero calorie, while plum water does need a lot of sugar :D To put it in a formula, it's:
This lapsong souchong = my plum water - sugar + smoke

Haha...

Here is a question:
Song means Mountain; souchong means small variety; Lap is Lap. So what is Mountain Lap? I couldn't find the answer. In Chinese, it's called Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong. Xiao Zhong = souchong. Shan = Mountain. Zheng means authentic. This tea is from Wuyi Mountain region. In Wuyi, they used to call the tea produced in their place "authentic mountain variety", and tea from other places "Wai Shan". Wai means outside, alien. Hehe... So, is Moutain Lap same as Wuyi Mountain? I couldn't find the answer. I saw quite several articles saying "Lapsang souchong is Zheng Shan Xiao Zhong", but none of them bother to further explain what Lapsang - Mountain Lap is.

Loose tea leaves:

First infusion:

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