What is High-End Tea?

Since 2015, we have been emphasizing forest tea, and Houyue's slogan is 'Big tree tea from the forest'. I believe many crowdfunding tea partners know this.

What's good about forest tea? It's the ecology!

This is why in my article 'Good Tea Formula', I attribute 90% of the importance to raw materials; raw materials are mainly about ecology. With ecology guaranteed, tree age matters less; whether it's ancient tree tea is not that important. Of course, under the same ecology, ancient trees do taste better. The remaining 10% is craftsmanship. For example, Laobanzhang is generally bold and bitter, but if the selected land has good ecology, the tea can taste clear, sweet, and refreshing, similar to Yiwu style. Even with average raw materials from Laobanzhang, such as summer tea from a plot that farmers say is bitter, we can make it taste clear and sweet, without any bitterness, also like Yiwu tea. Of course, compared to good raw materials, the taste may be slightly thinner. This is evidence-based; if interested, you can ask me for samples.
This is also why around 2017, I kept criticizing tea art. In a sense, tea art is a skill, while the tea itself is the key. Being proficient in tea art is good, but if it's a good tea, tea art is not that important. Very good tea has no shortcomings; anyone can brew it well. Overemphasizing tea art is putting the cart before the horse. Let's focus on the tea itself.

The high-end taste of tea must come from good ecology and correct craftsmanship.
For those interested in tea making, we'll discuss it in another article. The main purpose of this article is how to taste high-end tea. I've touched on similar views in several articles, but not comprehensively. In this article, I'll expand on the discussion.

1. Balanced Taste (Pinghe)

Balanced taste is the main parameter I emphasize for the visual sense of drinking tea.
Tea with unbalanced taste is not high-end. For example, Mannuo has a full-bodied soup and good aroma but lacks cool rhyme; Laomane has a bitter base and thick, smooth soup; most Laobanzhang teas are strong and intense but lack lingering charm. There are many teas that are strong and intense but lack charm, such as Xiniutang, Hekai, most Bulangshan teas, and even most Menghai teas.
Most Lincang teas have a good mouthfeel but lack depth, leaving an empty feeling. Nitpickers should note the prefix 'most'. A few exceptions, like the five villages of Bingdao, have seen a significant decline in overall ecology. For example, Moli Xiazhai, which I used to particularly like, is no longer balanced because the trees have been almost all cut down.
Balance is the ultimate manifestation of ecology. When tea tastes balanced, the tea area becomes famous, farmers cut trees to increase production, and the taste is no longer balanced. This seems to be the fate of major mountains, and it's also the reason why Bulangshan tea has dropped the most in price this year.

Balance not only refers to taste but also to climate stability, balanced climate.
More than ten years ago, after finishing Yiwu tea, we could rest for a few days before making Menghai ancient tree tea.
In recent years, after Menghai ancient trees are done, Yiwu small trees just start to be picked.
Yiwu pre-Qingming tea is just a time point; most pre-Qingming teas are not high-end.
Why has it become like this? Because the ecology in Menghai has changed significantly, causing temperatures to rise. Coupled with insufficient shade, tea leaves sprout early. Unbalanced climate leads to unbalanced taste.
Are there places in Menghai with good ecology? Yes, there are. Nannuo Mountain, Zhanglang, Banpen, and Xinbanzhang still have clear, sweet, and cool rhymes overall.

2. Complete Sweetness

1. Sweetness that is complete. When tasting the tea soup, it should be sweet on entry, sweet while held in the mouth, and sweet after swallowing. All three aspects should be sweet for the sweetness to be complete.
2. Sweetness that is clear and refreshing. Clear sweetness without a refreshing coolness is not considered high-end.

Only when all three aspects are sweet to the point of being clear and refreshing is it the ultimate sweetness.

3. Complete Cool Rhyme

There should be a cool rhyme, present while drinking and lingering after swallowing.
The so-called 'teeth and mouth generate wind, tongue bottom springs' is how ancients described the high-end feeling of drinking tea. This feeling is the ultimate cool rhyme.

4. Balanced Body Sensation

I have always wanted to write an article about body sensation, but my state has not been right in recent years; I've been anxious, so any article I write about body sensation would not be balanced enough. That's why I haven't written it. Here, I'll briefly explain balanced body sensation.
It means that drinking tea should not burden the body, or at least not bring obvious burden.

1. No dampness and coldness.

If raw materials are not good or craftsmanship is not proper, even Mentang tea can have dampness and coldness, but places with good ecology have more advanced raw materials, so dampness and coldness are lower. Choosing good raw materials and making the tea thoroughly is the key. This refers not only to raw (sheng) tea but also to ripe (shou) tea, black tea, and white tea; all need to be made thoroughly.

2. Can drink a lot without fatigue.

This is easier to understand. If you can drink three to five infusions of a tea from morning to night, several liters or even more than ten liters, and you can still drink it, don't feel tired, and want to drink more, it's good tea. If a tea makes you feel like you need to use your body's strength to resist, it's a tea with poor body sensation.

3. Balanced body sensation.

If drinking tea causes palpitations, headaches, tightness in the head, bloating, or anxiety, it's a sign of poor body sensation.

5. How to Make High-End Taste Tea?

There are two approaches. One is to continue selecting raw materials from famous mountains. I think this path will become increasingly difficult. First, existing famous mountains are either extremely expensive, like Mentang, or expensive and not tasty, like Laobanzhang. If you have more money than sense, you can continue on this path. Those with a stable high-end customer base and brand advantages can also choose this path. But there's a huge risk: the tea farmers. Are tea farmers still tea merchants? For famous mountain tea, 90% of the profit goes to the farmers. Farmers are getting richer, and merchants are struggling; this is already a fact. If you can compete with farmers, you can continue to stick to this path.
Another path is blending. Look at the whole province. For example, the 'Lanlan' I officially made this year is a cross-regional blend mainly from Yiwu, supplemented by Jingmai Mountain and Nannuo Mountain. It aims to match the best Yiwu tea taste, with cool aroma and cool rhyme. It's not Mentang, but we strive to surpass Mentang in taste.

Several advantages of blending:

1. It avoids the risks of famous mountain market fluctuations and direct competition with farmers.
2. Starting from raw material selection, with unified craftsmanship, you can also produce balanced, pure high-end tea taste. The disharmony of blending does not exist. High-end blended tea tastes like a single-origin ancient tree tea, without abruptness or taste fluctuations. The taste is balanced, pure, sweet to the point of being clear and refreshing, with complete cool rhyme and balanced body sensation, just like the 'Lanlan' I made this year.
3. Stronger customer loyalty. Self-made blended tea has its own style, and there are almost no similar teas on the market. It has good exclusivity, ensuring customer loyalty.
4. Higher cost-effectiveness.

For example, Mentang Grade 1 costs tens of thousands per kilogram. Blending with teas from other mountain forests significantly reduces costs; you can achieve similar or even better taste at 10% of the cost.
For Mentang Grade 1, you can't even buy the real one. Let's put it this way: your chance of buying real Mentang Grade 1 is about the same as winning the lottery. The total production is only a few hundred kilograms, but the market sells tens of thousands of kilograms. Why would you be able to buy the real one? Blending moves away from the mountain concept, focusing on a specific brand (or person) and a specific tea, with no additional selection cost.
Blending makes it more cost-effective!

6. My Choice

Great effort creates miracles; blending creates good tea.
Before 2023, I was always studying what good tea is and how to make it.
After 2023, I began to study how to make good tea and started experimenting with blending.
In 2025, selecting forest raw materials, making the tea thoroughly, and carefully blending will finally yield good tea.

Orchid, the flower of deep valleys in dense forests. Its aroma is cool, and its rhyme is cool; the aroma and rhyme are both cool, which is the nature of the secluded orchid. Houyue has a tea with cool aroma and cool rhyme, hence the name 'Lanlan'.

This is the thirty-fifth article in my "Tea Talk on Paper" series. Click to view more "Tea Talk on Paper" articles.