Is smoked the authentic one?

Before introducing these two, there is another misconception that is easy to be misled.

Because smoked Xiaozhong is the traditional method, some merchants in the market will say: only smoked is the authentic Tongmuguan Xiaozhong.

This is actually incorrect. In fact, in Tongmuguan, some tea farmers mainly produce non-smoked Xiaozhong.

There are two main reasons. On the one hand, the taste of non-smoked Xiaozhong is more popular in the market, with greater demand; on the other hand, the smoking process has a certain impact on the local ecological environment in Tongmuguan. With the improvement of environmental awareness and tea-making techniques, more and more Lapsang Souchong has canceled the pine wood smoking during the production process.

Smoked Xiaozhong

The biggest feature of smoked Xiaozhong is its pine smoke aroma. "Pine smoke aroma, longan sweetness".

As a famous tea exported overseas, the "Lapsang Souchong", the origin of black tea, conquered the world with its "pine smoke aroma and longan sweetness", and many people are obsessed with its taste transformation and mellow aftertaste.

▲The place where Xiaozhong is made has an interesting name—"Green Building"

In the traditional process, the pine smoke aroma is added during the fermentation of the tea leaves.

First, the fresh leaves are withered, then the re-kneaded tea leaves are spread on a bamboo sieve and placed on the bottom shelf. The burning pine wood is delivered through the flue, and the tea leaves continuously absorb the pine aroma during the drying process, giving the Lapsang Souchong its unique pine resin aroma.

Non-smoked Xiaozhong

Non-smoked Xiaozhong refers to the Lapsang Souchong made without using pine wood smoking in the traditional smoked Xiaozhong production process.

In the early days, there was a difficulty in making non-smoked Xiaozhong, which was to grasp the degree of fermentation.

In the past, after fermentation, the tea was smoked and dried with pine wood, and the predecessors had already explored this set of fermentation and drying experience thoroughly. After canceling the pine wood smoking, the fermentation time naturally had to be changed accordingly.

Nowadays, with the improvement of tea farmers' production techniques, it is already possible to balance the sweet aroma, floral aroma, and mellow taste of Lapsang Souchong well in terms of fermentation degree.

Identifying pine smoke aroma

There are also some fake and inferior problems with smoked Xiaozhong on the market.

We all know that the traditional process uses pine wood smoking to produce the pine smoke aroma, and this aroma is natural. However, some unscrupulous merchants use substances such as flavors to smoke the tea in order to reduce costs.

Brewing is the "on-site test" for tea. It is very obvious after one brew—whether it is durable or not. The fake "pine smoke aroma" will reveal its true colors after 2 or 3 brews, when the smoke flavor is already gone.