Ask most tea lovers to name a Chinese black tea and they will answer “Keemun” or “Yunnan Gold.” Few realize that the very first b...

If every family tree has a patriarch, then the sprawling dynasty of black teas scattered across India, Sri Lanka and East Africa ...

Long before English breakfast blends and afternoon tea services, there was Lapsang Souchong—the original black tea that astonishe...

When European tea merchants first tasted a dark, honeyed leaf from the port of Xiamen in 1604, they labeled it “black tea,” givin...

Long before English breakfast blends and Assam malts filled porcelain cups, a single tea left the granite gorges of northern Fuji...

Long before Assam, Ceylon, or Earl Grey entered the global lexicon, the cliffs of northern Fujian echoed with the crackle of pine...

Long before Assam, Ceylon or Keemun ever appeared on a London tea table, there was Lapsang Souchong. International drinkers ofte...

When European tea lovers first spoke of “black tea” in the seventeenth century, the leaves they held were almost certainly Lapsan...

When European tea clippers first rounded the Cape of Good Hope in the late seventeenth century, the chests that fetched the highe...

Long before the English added milk and sugar to their “bohea,” before tea clippers raced across oceans, and before Assam or Ceylo...