TeaForum.org

Hello everyone,

although the majority of puer and Japanese green tea sold today is still made up of blends, for some years now tea sellers have been offering more single cultivar/farm/mountain/tree(!) teas to the extent that it's possible to identify this as a trend or new direction of development.

Somewhere online I saw someone express the opinion that blending was just a way of covering up material that wasn't good enough to stand on its own and that for someone who enjoys and values good tea there is no reason (other than perhaps financial) to seek out blends over single origin teas. There is something intuitive about this argument - if you have, for example, a piece of meat of absolute top quality you would probably want to just cook it lightly and not mix it with a bunch of other ingredients in order to fully enjoy what it has to offer. So when we mix ingredients it's to make the most out of stuff we find is not good enough to be enjoyed by itself. At the same time something seems wrong about this line of reasoning - surely the western symphony orchestra is not just a way of covering up instruments that are not good enough to be enjoyed on their own.

As far as I know, in sencha as well as in puer (I'm thinking of the numbered recipes) blending was often done for the sake of consistency. And sure, consistency might be a demand of the mass market rather than of the connaisseur who instead may want to expand his or her horizon with each cup. But there is no reason why blending as a technique couldn't also be employed to this end (as I'm sure it has).

Another question that interests me is why this development has come about. Is the tea business modeling itself on wine in order to elevate the status of its product? And if so, does this make sense if we consider tea quality rather than financial incentives?

I'd be interested in hearing your thoughts on this topic.

I enjoy blended teas, and single origin as well, and don’t consider one to be superior over the other. Same goes with wine and music. Like you referenced blending allows for consistency year after year, it also allows the tea maker to fine tune the craft and outcome, by aging certain portions and blending with newer harvests. While it is interesting to know a certain tea was plucked from a certain hectar, during a certain time of day, month, and year, from a certain cultivar, it is also interesting to admire the craft of blending and arriving at desired results by the tea master. Of course, blending can be taken to extreme levels of kitsch and potpourri where the tea itself becomes so adulterated with artificial synthetic ingredients that it becomes more like confectionary rather than tea.

This thread is relevant:
viewtopic.php?f=33&t=1579

i think that's a good explanation of the ins and outs of blending.

blending is not necessarily good or bad. it depends how it was done and why.

sometimes, i make my own blends.

last night, i tried a new hong yu (TRES 18) with strong cooling character but lacking a bit in complexity. i then tried blending it with other blacks i drank recently:

• 2g of the same hong yu
• 1g of an unknown chinese black with some good fruitiness and maltiness
• 1g of an aged dianhong for added complexity

the result approached my idea of a great hong yu.

This is quite similar to discussions people have regarding single malt whiskies vs blends. Single malts can be hit or miss based on a variety of factors but good ones can be extremely good. Some people look down on blends simply because they are blends and there is no chance to find that rare unicorn of a bottle. They also tend to lose the complexity of a fine single malt. The big advantage of blends is the consistency. When you buy a bottle of Johnny Walker, Chivas Regal or Monkey Shoulder you know exactly what it will taste like before the bottle is ever cracked open.

There is a lot of detail and skill required to be a master blender. As consumer awareness increases there are also more and more "boutique blenders" hitting the market which can be just as good as a single malt and sometimes more transparent in their processes. Compass Box is an excellent example of this. I would imagine the same holds with tea blends.

Dresden wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 13, 2020 2:05 am

This is quite similar to discussions people have regarding single malt whiskies vs blends. Single malts can be hit or miss based on a variety of factors but good ones can be extremely good. Some people look down on blends simply because they are blends and there is no chance to find that rare unicorn of a bottle. They also tend to lose the complexity of a fine single malt. The big advantage of blends is the consistency. When you buy a bottle of Johnny Walker, Chivas Regal or Monkey Shoulder you know exactly what it will taste like before the bottle is ever cracked open.

There is a lot of detail and skill required to be a master blender. As consumer awareness increases there are also more and more "boutique blenders" hitting the market which can be just as good as a single malt and sometimes more transparent in their processes. Compass Box is an excellent example of this. I would imagine the same holds with tea blends.

I'd say puer is a lot closer to that "boutique blender" idea. I also wonder how blended cakes that come from a single town/village/etc fit into this idea. A "Single origin blend" could quite capably describe several cakes I can think of.

karma wrote: ↑

Sun Dec 13, 2020 2:15 pm

I'd say puer is a lot closer to that "boutique blender" idea. I also wonder how blended cakes that come from a single town/village/etc fit into this idea. A "Single origin blend" could quite capably describe several cakes I can think of.

Yes, this is what commonly occurs in Japan with blended teas as well. A farmer and or tea master will store a portion of the Spring harvest to blend with their Fall, Winter or next Springs harvest. All from the same farm, and or extended local farming community.

Focus of the thread seems to be on blends of teas of good quality. That is much different than the majority of blends being sold to the vast majority of people (not us). Furthermore, if such a blend is more than a touch disappointing, I feel the vendor should be told that the blend was not something one looks to buy from a trusted source.

I discourage purchase of teas such as English Breakfast, Irish Br...., etc. Blends of the lower range of quality of each of the types of tea included in the blend. If one likes cheap Assam & cheap camelia sinensis of one or more origins, why not blend them himself? When we buy blends of lower quality we are encouraging producers & vendors to concentrate on marketing & sales which reduces their efforts to source & grow tea of high quality. More movement towards lower quality seems against our interests.

Buying a blend from a boutique vendor with whom one has a relationship that includes trust & respect, is something I don't disdain. However, doesn't one get overwhelmed? First there is movement from teabags etc. to loose teas of some quality. Then there is recognizing significance in the difference of types; e.g., oolong vs. black, black tea from Hunnan vs. black tea from darjeeling, then differences of individual teas, then of qualities of particular.... Now adding blends, where might it lead us?

Perhaps a headache that could lead back to buying blends from a website offering many combinations of lower quality leaves possibly mixed with a bunch of spices or bits of fruit or whatever that will magically come together to create something so much greater than its individual parts. ("Wow! I taste cardaman. Look, I see whole seeds of it!) Oy veh!

I can only add to that from puerh business point of view. Big tea factories mostly ( that's my personal observation ) blend tea from economical point of view. Companies like Dayi for their 1234 whatever recipes shu puerh, they would use some very cheap summer bush tea from Yunxian ( Lincang ) as a base material ...like flour for dough when u make a bread ....and then use some other better taste material from either they own ( Bada ) tea plantations or something else from Menghai / Xbanna area like Youle ..etc. , as a "spice" to give a tea some interesting flavor. Of course I do not have any proof of that, just I know some wholesale vendors selling that cheap tea to Dayi. When I try some DY shu , I do taste Lincang tea there a lot.
In my opinion , most of those recipes are just different from each other on amount of cheap LC tea was used .
I had some cake in their tea house ( not regular tea shop but the one where u pay and get some tea with friends, like a coffee shop ) and stuff was completely different from what it's sold in cakes though.
I think we paid like 160CNY for 8g portion , but of course , price is not for the tea only but for the table.

From what I observed is, that TF products have probably around 10-20% of actual costs ( like 100CNY cake cost them 10-20CNY ) . The rest 80 - 90% added on price covers all marketing, factory run ( expenses ) , staffs, expos they participate on and course wholesale concept ( means you have to buy it for at least 50% to double of the price / expensive than they can sell it to the shop / online retail department as wholesale for their re-sell ). Means there have to be a big difference between wholesale and retail price in order to keep their franchised shops alive. And of course , as the owner you don't run TF for fun so those guys are also not poor.

Let alone "investment" speculations ( as the price is going up few times per year no matter what, just to keep investors happy and buy more )

So if you consider all that and you look at some TF cake for 60-100CNY , yet knowing the prices from fresh tea leaves , you will automatically get in to the same conclusion.
Forget about the myth that factories buy big bulk so buy cheap....it is not that big difference these days between buying 1t or 10t in price per kg, as there is a minimum threshold price for human work / hour and CNY/m2 of tea plantation...as the minimum annual desired / needed income for processing factory and tea plantation / tea farm.
Not mentioning the Gushu stuff, where tea farmers do not negotiate lower price with you because they have limited stock ( garden capacity...like 500kg or 1t only ) so they need their $$$$$$ from annual batch no matter what you promise.

Good and smart TF will make a blend the way it's tasty so can be sold $$$ but cheap to make....coz...it is the business after all.

Small producers might be following the same concept but would probably go for higher spec.than just cheap Yunxian stuff with something. I mean using some old woods material to blend with smaller / younger arbors. The "very smart" ones would still selling it as gushu pure material. The honest ones I meet sometimes will tell me this is blend and that one is pure...and you can actually even taste it if drinking by comparing as A and B next to each other. The price is also different of course.

Some small vendors blend more puerh locations together also to achieve some unique taste and be different from others, yet not everybody drinks tea for actual taste. It is labor intensive / expensive so some concepts are just not suitable for large scale production ( like for big TF )
Of course the authentic taste of some location / region is rightfully praised for it's qualities and for labor around it ( as it has to be brought by somebody from the mountains and not mixed with other stuff in Menghai after...as it happens with many mao cha ...bwt. also for economy purposes )
But some people just "love" the idea of single origin or even single tree as it gives the brain boost of expensive , rare ..and what every human greed desires ...feeling. So the marketing goes this direction as well.

The simple liquid drunk as hot water during or after meal , being accessible to everybody for daily food price , had escalated and tuned up to the level of aristocracy fancy boutique wine or something.

There is so much culture hype around the tea now..specially puerh , that of course the prices had to go up even right from the source ( tea farms ) . In that case , the old concept of business ( big TF producing in mass and cheap ) no longer can be competitive on market and have go for either more economical or more brave moves ( like making some LBZ or BD ..where I'd be very skeptical for amount of the real stuff of claimed area in the cake it self ....for mentioned reasons above )

My apologies for chaotically written article and bad grammar, but I hope you got my point to this.

Really good points @aet! I agree.

Blending isn't intrinsically good or bad. In my opinion the problems mainly arise from two things:

• Financial motivations (that aet explained in detail)

• Lack of transparency

There really wouldn't be any problems if we were told what the blends contain, at least to some level of detail. The same applies also to whiskies etc. Unfortunately, this usually conflicts with the first bullet.

As regards transparency, the puer market in general is so overwhelmed by falsehoods that I don't really think this is a point against blends.

I agree with @Iizuki that blending isn't intrinsically good or bad. Lots of blending is done to hide poor quality leaves. Lots of poor quality teas are sold as "single origin" to capitalize on the fact that many are willing to spend more and/or overlook faults so long as they are allowed to "taste the [real or imagined] terroir" of the tea.

The whisky comparison that is often made breaks down when you consider the fact that the "single" in single malt only refers to the fact that it's been produced by a single distillery (and that the grain used is barley). Single malts can be a blend of whiskies of different years, some or all of the liquor that makes up the end product may have been aged in sherry/bourbon/etc casks to create the desired flavor profile. The barley used can come from all sorts of places - Scotland cannot produce enough to meet the demands of the market, so tons are imported from England, Germany, Denmark, Canada etc. (good look telling the difference in the end product - especially if the grain is peated ).

To end this post on the topic of alcoholic beverages (although I no longer consume them): Out of my four favorite baijus two of them are single grain (Kweichow Moutai, Luzhou Laojiao) and two of them consist of a blend of multiple grains (Wuliangye, Tuopai Shede). My favorite puers, whether "single origin" or blended, all consist of only one plant though

I agree with the points put forward here. I'm sure @aet can confirm that if one is to purchase a Single Origin Old Tree GuShu from a 500 yearold tree, you will be swept off your feet with the pricing of the maocha alone. That's even before you include compressing and packaging. I agree that the larger factories blend mainly for economical reasons, with a very selected quantity of higher grade single origin for a selected few VVIP customers.

Just like @pedant, I do make my own blends... you can search up my quirky blends that I make. It's a matter of exploring the taste that I prefer depending on my mood at that point of time. Nothing specific ... hahahaha...

Cheers!!

I like high end blends but also like high end single estate/cultivar Japanese teas. They are different enough to hold a place at my table.

To me blended teas are like Audrey Hepburn and single cultivar teas are like Sophia Loren. Both beautiful and sophisticated but one had more to hold onto than the other. ;)

Haha that is hilarious @Baisao

Victoria wrote: ↑

Tue Dec 15, 2020 12:39 am

Haha that is hilarious Baisao

+1