Lapsang Souchong Xiao Chi Gan 小赤甘

In the Chinese tea market, when you are asking for Lapsang Souchong, the sellers will most likely show you a black tea which is non-smoky, different from the orthodox Lapsang Souchong which is featured by the pine smoky flavor. This is the Xiao Chi Gan 小赤甘 Lapsang Souchong.

Lapsang Souchong was the world earliest black tea, originated in the Tong Mu Guan of Wuyi. It had been scented with pine smoke most of the while in history, and exported to the overseas countries like EU and America. In the past tens of years the Lapsang Souchong Black Tea had become famous also in China domestic. However in the domestic market, the smoke flavor of Lapsang Souchong is not quite well accepted by the Chinese tea drinkers.

To meet the domestic demand, the farmers had changed the processing of traditional Lapsang Souchong a bit. The scenting with pine smoke was removed and the full leaf of tea was kept, instead of being cut short for traditional export commodity.

The Xiao Chi Gan 小赤甘 Lapsang Souchong adopts the tea leaves just grown to one bud two leaves (not too open yet) plucked in end of April and May from the tea garden in Tong Mu Guan. And it is considered that the best quality Xiao Chi Gan should be made by the material from the tea trees grow in the rocks and the tea cultivar should be local mixed cultivars.

The processing of Xiao Chi Gan Black Tea follows the flow, Withering-Rolling-Fermentation-Frying-Baking drying.

The frying of the Xiao Chi Gan is conducted on the iron pan, like the green tea. This is the traditional processing from the history. The frying kills the enzymes in the tea and stops the fermentation of the black tea in the critical point.

The baking dry of Xiao Chi Gan is conducted in the oven. and the oven and can be heated either by electricity or charcoal. The good control of baking by charcoal heat produce better quality than the electricity heat.

This is the finished product of Xiao Chi Gan.

The Chinese name of the Xiao Chi Gan Black Tea has explained the quality of tea very well. Xiao Chi Gan means Small Red and Sweet in English. The leaf is small one bud two leaves from mixed cultivar which is small leaf tea growing in the rocky field, the color of the infused leaf is bright red, which is indication of good processing, and the taste is sweet mellow.