1. What is Single-Origin Tea?
Strictly speaking, single-origin tea is a kind of tea made from the same grade of tea picked from the same batch on the same tea tree.
However, such raw materials are limited, so single-origin tea is a concept relative to blended tea. Single-origin tea mainly refers to tea products made from the same tree species, the same age range and the same level of tea picked in the same specific area in the same batch.
Currently, the Pu’er tea market further classifies single-origin tea into single-origin ancient tree tea and single-origin young tree tea. Among them, single-origin ancient tree tea is divided into the following three categories:
- 1、Ancient tea trees in the same tea garden are divided into tree ages and fresh leaf picking batches, while the age of ancient trees is generally divided into three categories: about 100 years, about 300 years and about 500 years.
- When picking fresh leaves, they are generally classified according to the age range of trees, and when making Pu’er tea, they are made in batches and classified according to the picking batches of fresh leaves.
- 2、Single-tree tea: that is, the tea picked from the same ancient tea tree, which is called “supreme of single-origin tea” by the industry. Such tea trees need to reach a high age requirement and are rare in the world.
- 3、Tea King Tree Tea: Tea King Tree is the relatively oldest tea tree selected in a certain area, which is basically protected by the state and is the most scarce in quantity.
2.What is Blended Tea?
The more standardized definition of blended tea is:
Through sensory, experience and blending technology, blending technicians mix two or more kinds of tea with different shapes and qualities and certain commonalities in a certain proportion to make tea products with relatively stable flavor and quality.
Tea blending, like wine blending technology, is a necessary technology to ensure stable quality. This technology is very important and is a relatively difficult tea processing technology, is the secret recipe of many large factories, outsiders will not know.
Mr. Zou Bingliang, a famous tea evaluation expert in Yunnan Province, pointed out that the purpose of blending can be summed up in 12 words: “foster strengths and circumvent weaknesses, highlight the advantages and conceal the disadvantages, and balance the high and low.”
Blended tea is not only a simple combination of a variety of tea leaves, but also blended according to a certain method. Pu’er Tea tea can be divided into:
grade blending, tea mountain blending, tree species blending, season blending, year blending and fermentation degree blending. Blending tea is to learn from each other, integrate the advantages of tea, and meet most of the needs. The real value of blending technology is to show the best aroma and taste of tea soup by blending!
3.Characteristic of Single-Origin Tea and Blended Tea
Single-origin tea is made of a single type of raw materials, which is more vulnerable to the impact of climate or technology, resulting in unstable quality and flavor, while blended tea can always fix the flavor in a certain range through the integration and complementarity of raw materials.
Because of the specific reasons of raw materials, the output of single-origin tea is less, so the price is higher. Blended tea can be mass-produced, so the price is stable and often lower than single-origin tea, and the cost performance is very good.
Different people have their own unique views on single-origin tea and blended tea.
Of course, whether it is single-origin tea or blended tea, to have excellent quality, can not be separated from the high quality of raw materials, skilled production technology, appropriate storage.