A Smoke That Needs a Year to Settle
By 2025, fourteen years into working with Jiang Yuanfang, Baoputang released this special-grade smoked Lapsang Souchong — 梅香, "plum fragrance" — made from old-bush 本山奇种, a self-pollinating, seed-propagated landrace specific to Tongmuguan, picked from gardens between 1,500 and 1,800 meters.
Smoked Lapsang Souchong only comes in small annual quantities, and even once it's smoked over Tongmuguan's own Masson pine, it isn't finished — the tea needs time to age before the pine smoke and the leaf's own character actually merge into something coherent, rather than just tasting like smoke sitting on top of tea. Done right, the result lands on a long, fine smokiness layered with a dark-plum note up front and a sweetness tea drinkers compare to dried longan underneath, the cup running a bright, clear amber.
Fourteen years in, this is what the partnership looks like at its most patient: a tea that asks for a full year of nothing happening before it's ready to be exactly what it's supposed to be.