Until the invention of Black Tea in the mid 17th century (Late Ming/Early Qing Dynasty), the majority of tea consumed in China for 2,500 years had been green un-oxidized and later, semi-oxidized teas. The story is that a passing army entered Fujian Province from Jianxi and camped at a tea factory in the Wuyi Mountain area. This held up tea production at the factory and after the army left, the leaves produced a tea with an unusual red colour. To recoup the losses from this delay, a farmer looked for a way to accelerate the drying time and save his order. Since the army used all the charcoal in the area which was usually used for drying green tea, he placed the leaves over a smoking fire of pine wood which caused a chemical reaction in the leaves and imparted a distinct smoky and fruity (Long An) flavor to the tea. Lapsang Souchong was born and led the way for the development of a whole family of teas which became very popular in China and a staple in the West - and helped to shape modern history in the process.
There are hundreds of different teas in the Black Tea family and each one is the result of a unique process of exposing picked leaves to air, heat and moisture to facilitate oxidization of the leaves. Like Lapsang Souchong, some are exposed to smoking which imparts an additional complexity of flavor to the tea.
As with any organic material, exposure to these elements stimulates a natural enzymatic breakdown of the leaf cell structure. This chemical breakdown creates new elements such as theaflavins and other elements which were not in the original tea leaves. These oxidization processes which were carefully guarded secrets were perfected over centuries and each process gives a tea its unique aroma and flavor.
