The misunderstanding about “blending” in the rock tea industry is really deep, and the market and industry interpretations are completely different. Insiders believe that this is a top tier technical activity recognized in the rock tea industry, and only those who have a smooth understanding of all the joints involved in making tea dare to start making blends.
But consumers don’t think so. They think that “blending” is either due to the general backlog of tea ingredients in the warehouse, or due to inadequate aspects that need to be improved through the blending step to enhance its quality. The essential purpose of launching blended tea is to have a “clearance sale”.
Just like the furniture industry’s emphasis on raw materials, selling rosewood furniture for tens of thousands of yuan is understandable for consumers, but selling oak furniture for tens of thousands of yuan also makes me feel like you are engaging in fraud and passing off inferior products as good. Not to mention how high-end the design and exquisite craftsmanship are, why sell it at the same price as rosewood? No matter how much you say, it’s still an intelligence tax. Don’t try to deceive me.
So, today’s patchwork Dahongpao exists in an awkward situation, representing flashy skills internally but synonymous with intelligence tax externally. Even high-level blended teas are hesitant to admit that they come from a “blended” background, in order to avoid losing their value.
In such a dilemma, it inevitably raises doubts. What is the purpose behind the painstakingly created “misunderstood” combination of the Big Red Robe?
PART/1 What were the plans for those years of assembly?
Before the liberation, assembly had already existed. At that time, some tea merchants in Fujian, as well as overseas Chinese merchants from Hong Kong, Macao, and Southeast Asia, were already processing and assembling small packaged tea of different colors.
At least two types of tea are used in the blending process, and there may be more than ten types. The principle is to not affect or reduce the variety characteristics, and to maximize the economic value of tea. To achieve a harmonious aroma and facilitate storage, it will also be treated with different heat levels.
During the period of Dahongpao’s overseas trade, exporters stacked tea leaves of similar varieties, grades, and values together to reduce costs, solve difficulties such as unsold and out of stock, and expand circulation for export dumping.
During the period of the Rock Tea Factory, both the blending techniques and styles underwent further changes, shifting from the previous foreign trade era aimed at export sales to the refinement of a particular artwork, with the proportion of varieties becoming one of the most important factors to consider.
During the era of the main factory, it is said that there was an iron rule about blending, which was that the proportion of a single raw material in blending could not exceed 15%. If it exceeds 15%, the flavor of this variety will be particularly prominent, because the older generation believes that “Da Hong Pao must not be able to taste the prominent flavor of the variety, in order to be a qualified blended Da Hong Pao
Today, there has been a new change in the style of assembly. The popular product in the market, Dahongpao, is often a combination of “Golden Osmanthus” (Huangguanyin+Golden Peony+Cinnamon) for the purpose of fragrance, or a tea fighting Dahongpao used for competitions. Their taste is more or less influenced by cinnamon.
Nowadays, mainstream blending is mostly based on highlighting features, capturing the attention of tea lovers, completing competition and promotion, or catering to consumer tastes.
PART/2 What is the division of labor of the matching roles?
Starting from the most basic aspects, there are three roles in tea blending: role one is the main ingredient, which is the main part of blending Da Hong Pao. It may not necessarily have perfect quality, but it is the key to setting the tone for blending Da Hong Pao.
In the past, rare varieties, narcissus, and aged tea were often used as the main ingredients. The characteristic of aged tea is that the water is soft and thick. The genes of rare varieties of tea have similarities with the mother tree Dahongpao. Narcissus has a prominent orchid fragrance, a mellow taste, and high stability. It is not easy for the taste to change during blending. The use of these as the main ingredients is intended to seek water.
Nowadays, most blending combinations use cinnamon or narcissus as the base tea. Cinnamon is the top choice in blending selection, not only because of its superior aroma and high total amino acid content in the water extract, but also because of its high compatibility with other varieties. Finally, add flavor type varieties, which means that perfume is balanced, fragrant and tasty.
Cinnamon leaf Zhang
The second role is auxiliary material, which possesses characteristics that benchmark tea does not have. Its purpose is to make up for the shortcomings of benchmark tea and achieve the goal of blending tea quality.
The commonly used materials for selection are Mingcong and others. The charm of native varieties and traditional famous clusters is highly compatible with the terroir of Zhengyan, and the combination of the two can create a combination of rock charm. In order to add the special flavor of Mingcong in the finished tea, many Mingcong such as Iron Arhat, Beidou and Water Turtle will be used for adjustment.
Character three is a seasoning, which acts like a seasoning to enhance the aroma of the finished tea. Choose more fragrant teas, such as Rui Xiang, Qi Dan, Jin Guan Yin, Mei Zhan, etc.
Their respective existence cannot be considered perfect innate, making up for each other’s shortcomings has become a mission. If a variety with strong expressive power becomes the main material for splicing, the exciting and diverse group play can easily become a solo performance.
Old Tree Plum Blossom
Just like the recent hot topic of Spring Festival Gala stage Spring Mountain Learning, which was originally set up as a C-position on Spring Mountain, it eventually became someone’s eye-catching stand up stage. A good performance turned into an accident, and even had to rely on others to save the stage and maintain harmony.
PART/3 What is the purpose of blending tea together?
Unlike clustering, blending often starts with considerations of the mountain field, picking, appearance, variety, craftsmanship, and fusion, and then gradually increases the fire skill to complete the fusion between multiple varieties.
So the selection and combination of materials for blending is not a chance encounter, but actually a long-awaited encounter by the blending master. Fully grasp the quality characteristics of raw materials and carry out pre planned and planned assembly.
Under the coordination of the blending master, multiple parties worked together to conceal and blend the characteristics of each variety, resulting in a certain degree of improvement in rock charm, water sensation, and aroma.
In the early years of advanced blending, the concealment of single variety traits was the key point of blending. As mentioned earlier, the inability to taste the prominent variety flavor was the qualified blending of Da Hong Pao.
Nowadays, there is a trend of diversified development in the aesthetic taste of rock tea in the market. If we follow the style of tea blending, in the past, 70% of blending was in water and 30% was in fragrance.
On the contrary, 70% of the current combinations are fragrant and 30% are watery. Compared to the past when Rock Tea Factory was more willing to highlight the spelling of rhyme, now it is more inclined to highlight the characteristics and emphasize the smoothness of water. Even the matching Dahongpao that participated in the competition is more likely to be shortlisted if it looks like cinnamon.
This forces us to re-examine the aesthetic taste of “matching” Dahongpao, is it a prominent feature? Still unable to taste the variety and lack of “characteristics”?
At the beginning of last year, we launched the Hehe Meimei matching Dahongpao, which is co branded with Lingquan Drinking Stone. Following the iron law of the factory mentioned above, we realized the strong local flavor of rock tea by stacking top raw materials based on more than 10 kinds of Mount Wuyi’s original famous clusters, and the proportion of a single famous cluster does not exceed 15%.