Smoked Tea

Smoked teas are black teas.

A Chinese story dates their appearance to around 1820 in the Fujian region. At that time, the Chinese army had commandeered a plantation. The plantation owner, having being ordered to vacate the drying room, found himself with a considerable quantity of wet leaves. Not wanting to lose them, he decided to try to dry them out quickly. He lit a fire with some roots of a spruce tree and placed the leaves on it.

The leaves dried in a few minutes and had a very distinctive smoked taste. A few days later, a foreign trader who happened to be visiting the planter discovered this discarded batch of tea. He was attracted by its aroma and took it with him to Europe where it met with great success.

Nowadays, the same process is used to produce smoked teas. After rolling, the leaves are lightly grilled on a hot iron sheet then arranged on bamboo racks above a spruce root fire. The length of this process depends on the desired degree of smoking. Smoked teas remain a specialty of the Fujian region and, like many teas from the area, they are also prepared in Taiwan.

See our selection of smoked teas

Oolong Tea Rooibos