Put That in Your Pot and Smoke It: The Mysterious Lapsang Souchong

Lapsang Souchong. The name evokes an atmosphere of Eastern mysticism. In truth, this image is not too far off the mark. Lapsang Souchong is a tea that, love it or hate it, makes for an experience you will never forget.

Lapsang Souchong is a black tea of Chinese origin. It is so called, in part, because of the lengthwise rolling of the leaves (in tea production terminology, "souchong" is a classification that refers not to any one particular variety, but to a grade of large leaves that are rolled lengthwise). Before infusion, the leaves have a shiny, dark black color. After infusion, the tea's defining characteristic is its smoked aroma. The bouquet of a typical Lapsang Souchong is reminiscent of a campfire, or creosote. Some people claim it smells like smoked meat. The flavor is along the same lines: dark, bottom-heavy, strong and earthy. If you like single-malt scotch or cigars, which are also acquired tastes, then chances are good you'll like this tea. Conversely, the astringency is hard to take without milk and/or sugar, so it is not for everyone.

The distinct aroma and flavor of Lapsang Souchong unsurprisingly derives from the fact that the leaves are actually smoked over a pinewood fire, imparting some of its fiery characteristics to the tea. As with many other teas, the true origin of Lapsang Souchong is not known for certain. Some say that soldiers, passing through the Wuyi hills where the tea was made, delayed the harvest, and to preserve the tea the farmers would smoke the leaves to speed the drying process. Other versions of the origin story claim that the teas were smoked to keep them from spoiling over the long journey to Russia, whose royal family consumed Chinese black tea quite heavily--which explains why Lapsang Souchong is the main ingredient in "Russian Caravan" tea, which is a blend of Keemun, oolong and the aforementioned.

If you're brave enough, this tea is definitely worth a try. It is a tea that has legions of devoted fans, some of whom will drink nothing else, but it is also one that gives rise to passionate dislike among many. Ultimately, if you call yourself a tea lover, you must try it at least once--if only to say you did.

A Simple Decaffeination Method

Here's an easy, simple and effective method of decaffeinating your tea that requires no special equipment or expertise.

It is estimated that 80-90% of the caffeine in tea is released within the first 30 seconds of infusion. This is particularly true of tea sold in bags, which releases caffeine much more quickly due to the broken leaves. For some people who find that tea keeps them up if they drink it late at night, or are sensitive to caffeine, this can be a problem. Commercial methods of decaffeination, which remove up to 95% of the caffeine in the beverage and are inarguably more effective than anything you can do at home, usually alter the flavor of the beverage substantially, and not in a good way.

So if you want to enjoy tea but without so much caffeine, what can you do? It's simple:

1. Steep the tea as you normally would, with whatever temperature of water is appropriate for the type of tea you're making.

2. Allow the tea to infuse for thirty seconds.

3. Remove the water from the pot or cup, but leave in the bag or leaves.

4. Pour more hot water into the pot or cup, and infuse for the regular amount of time, or to your own personal preference.

This method works. Why? Unless you're a real connoisseur (in which case no decaffeination method will be totally satisfactory), 30 seconds won't make or break the taste of the infusion. What it will do, however, is remove a substantial amount of caffeine from the infusion.

Using this method you can easily and effectively decaffeinate any tea at home.

Cheerio.

A Brief History of Teabags (Apologies to Stephen Hawking)

The vast majority of tea sold today is sold in bags. Indeed, the tea bag has become emblematic of the beverage. But for most of history, tea was not consumed this way. Consuming tea from a bag entails significant downsides which are not entirely obvious to the average consumer. The goal of this article is to explain why the teabag assumed dominance and point out why loose tea is, in most important ways, superior to bagged tea.

Teabags were commercially available as early as 1908, when tea merchant Thomas Sullivan rolled them out in New York. Initially they were used simply as a convenient way of packaging small quantities of loose tea, on the assumption that consumers would open the bags and infuse the loose tea in a pot in the traditional manner. The early teabags, including Sullivan's, were often made of hand-woven fabric, and contained full leaf tea. In America, where teabags became popular nearly right away, consumers found it convenient to infuse the bags directly in their cup rather than removing the loose tea. Later teabags took advantage of this by designing the bags more explicitly for direct infusion, which contributed to the rectangular or round mesh designs, usually made of paper, with which we are familiar today.

While teabags were popular right away in the United States, it took a while for them to catch on in the United Kingdom. There, it was arguably not until after World War II that teabags became the norm. During the Blitz, when Great Britain was under siege by the German air force, access to commodities was limited and tea was one of the staples that was the subject of rationing. After the war, around 1953, Tetley introduced their own teabag, a new design which touted itself as increasing water flow through the bag and resulting in a better quality cup. At a time when the culture of convenience, augmented by the rapid pace of technological growth, was taking hold worldwide, the convenience of the teabag was hard to argue with. According to the UK Tea Council, tea sold in bags accounted for less than 3 per cent of the British market in 1960, but by 2007 accounted for a staggering 96 per cent.

The teabag was once a quaint and novel idea, but today it dominates the tea world. However, this way of brewing tea has serious downsides both in terms of the quality of the resulting beverage and, potentially, your health. In recent years loose tea has been gaining ground, even with casual consumers.

First, a word regarding quality. Teabags usually contain "fannings," which are the tiny broken ends of the leaf that remain on the production floor after the larger pieces are collected for sale as loose tea. Given their origins as, essentially, waste, fannings are not representative of either the best leaves or the best portions of those leaves. Although teabag designs vary, for the most part they are perforated to allow water flow. This has the negative side effect of also admitting air into the bag, which causes the leaves to dry out and become stale much quicker than leaves that are vacuum-sealed or even just packed tightly in a container. As a result, teabags don't last as long as loose tea (although tea in general is best purchased in small quantities and consumed relatively quickly to ensure freshness). As well, if the bag breaks or is torn, the resulting mess is completely unsalvageable, whereas if you drop some loose tea you can just scoop it up and put it in a pot.

Second--and more important for some--is the health aspect. Tea leaves contain caffeine, which is released into the liquor upon infusion. Trauma to the leaf--such as when it is bruised or broken--causes it to release caffeine more quickly. Loose leaf tea or full leaf tea releases caffeine slowly and naturally, but a typical teabag, comprised solely of fannings, quickly releases a lot of caffeine into the cup. While some people prefer the jolt that this kind of infusion provides, this can be a serious issue for the caffeine-sensitive.

While teabags are certainly here to stay, more and more consumers are becoming aware of the difference in quality that loose tea provides. For more information on this topic, see Bill Waddington's article "Get Loose: The Benefits of Loose Tea."