Which Chinese tea is dried over pine fires to give a smoky flavor?

The Chinese tea dried over pine fires to create a smoky flavor is lapsang souchong.

Lapsang souchong is a smoked black tea from China’s Wuyi Mountains in Fujian Province. Its leaves are dried or finished over pinewood fires, allowing smoke compounds to permeate the tea and produce aromas often compared with wood smoke, pine resin, bacon, or peat. The intensity varies according to the smoking time and the leaves’ distance from the fire.

The tea is also known by the Chinese name Zhengshan xiaozhong, meaning “Proper Mountain Small Varietal.” Traditional production involves withering, rolling, oxidation, and extended drying in a smokehouse. Larger, coarser leaves are often used because they absorb smoke readily, although high-quality unsmoked versions also exist.

One popular origin story places its creation during the Qing dynasty, when hurried tea processing during military disruption led producers to dry leaves over pine fires. Whether or not every detail of that story is historical, the tea became important in European trade. It is sometimes confused with jasmine tea, which is scented with flowers, or oolong, which has a different oxidation profile.