“That’s what pushes tea culture forward”

Experimental smoked puer + expressing creativity in the tea business.

Steeped in smoke

The tea: 2021 Smokeshou puer, sold by White2tea. $98 for 200g.

You may be familiar with lapsang souchong, a black tea from China that’s suffused with pine wood smoke until it verges toward barbecue richness. Lapsang souchong is arguably the first black tea ever made, developed in the 17th century by Fujianese farmers who likely—historical accounts differ—dried their tea leaves over smoky fires because that was all they could use one fateful day. Dutch and English tea buyers loved it, and suddenly a new tradition was born.

Today’s tea is an experimental cousin: a ripe puer from Yunnan smoked by seasoned lapsang producers, then pressed into a traditional puer cake. If you dig peated whisky, Texas brisket, or singeing marshmallows around a campfire, this tea is for you. Yet Smokeshou is surprisingly approachable for such a strong flavor. The base tea is thick and viscous in the mouth, elongated and enhanced by the smoke treatment. It reminds me of ink-black diner coffee, and it takes well to milk or an omelet eaten alongside. Single-serving samples are available if you don’t want to take the plunge on a full cake, though it’s all too easy to wake up with it every morning.

The source: White2tea is a company founded and run by Paul Murray, a Wisconsinite who moved to China in 2005, fell into tea because he needed caffeine while playing online poker, became a tea blogger, and eventually turned into one of the Western world’s biggest puer pushermen, mostly to fund his own tea habit. In 2016 he trucked me around Yunnan for a story I wrote about puer for Saveur Magazine, and we’ve been buddies ever since. Paul is a controversial figure in the tea world, revered by some for his irreverent marketing, derided by others for perceived gaijin-smashing through Chinese tea culture. I know him as a digital native romantic who references Titian and Dril in ruminations about tea and acts of creativity. If you’re interested in puer tea, you owe it to yourself to try some White2tea offerings.

To brew: Smokeshou has real endurance: both the tea itself and its smoke treatment. 7 grams of tea in an 80 milliliter gaiwan (1g/11ml) will yield many, many steeps. Start with a 5 second brew and add time as you go. Or toss a chunk of Smokeshou in a thermos, top with hot water, and drink it all day long. It’s difficult to overbrew a tea like this. A plush body and medicinal bitterness build with time, but they leave a cool, refreshing feeling on the tongue after I sip. I’ve spent a fair amount of time around barbecue pits and am impressed with how natural and clean the smoke in this tea comes across. You’ll taste it for hours after your last cup.

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You’re always creating alone

Back in 2016 when I was reporting on puer in Yunnan, Paul Murray handed me a cup of a new tea blend he was working on. He didn’t say what it was, he just asked me what I thought. “Tastes like hot brandy,” I told him. I couldn’t place the strange brew, but its bruised-fruit oxidized flavor reminded me of a mug of slivovitz. Slivovitz is plum brandy, an Eastern and Central European distillate that puts hair on your chest, as my father would say, but good versions are plummier than the plummiest plums and warm you from the inside out. It turns out I wasn’t far off.

Paul’s mystery blend featured leaves that are usually made into puer, but in this case processed as two other styles of tea: one white, one black. He combined the batches for a one-of-a-kind hybrid, and I was charmed to hear that my description resonated. Hot Brandy combines the rich, fruity flavors of a black tea with the autumn leaf musk of Yunnan style white tea. The two melodies play even better together, blended into a layered song that shows what a wide range of oxidation levels can do for a tea.

My favorite brews are ones that bring an involuntary smile to my face, and for years my stockpile of this easy drinking blend has continued to delight and surprise me. So when I saw that Paul was playing around with new hybrid tea styles, I paid attention.