Lapsang Souchong

Introduction: While The Pot Is Coming To A Rolling Boil

Lapsang Souchong is
A black tea smoked over a pine fire
From the Fujian Province in China
Originating from the Qing era.

A rare tea and very expensive.

It is not for everyone
As it is an acquired taste.

Dense and sticky like Moroccan Tar
It expands in your lungs
With an ember-spicy
Resinous
Vapour.

If a black tea could get you high
This is it
Look no further.

This tea makes me purr...



Chapter One: The Pour

I pour it English.

The pot held unusually high
To a Westerner.

The boiling water
Pouring like Salto Angel Falls
Into the basin of a large teacup
Cascading into
Swirling whirlpools
Eddying to the porcelain rims.

The rich black leaves
React
And expand
Releasing over several deep breaths
A nectar the color of a fine brandy.



Chapter Two: The Cupping

The bowl of the teacup
Warms both hands
As the bouquet from the hearth
Of a fireplace
Several hundred years old

Saturated in ghosts and history

Steams up sultry
Thick and muggy
Like the air of an exotic brothel.

And to the ears
The gift of the eight sounds
Or tones...

Silk, bamboo, wood, stone, metal, clay, gourd and hide.



Chapter Three: The Drink

The warm liquid
Expands within
Running through my body
As wild horses.

The Qi 氣
Of the tea
Pleasantly
Circulating through veins
In a low rumble
A subtle hum.

Opiates tingling
The concubine’s touch
The mystic’s blessing.

The scope of nature
And the universe
Scattered like the stars
Resting in the bottom
Of emptied
Stained porcelain.