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 the reason I set the raw material proportion at 90% in the article 'Good Tea Formula'; the raw material is mainly about ecology. With ecology guaranteed, tree age matters less; whether it's ancient trees 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 has a bitter base, 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 sweet and clear with no bitterness at all, also resembling Yiwu tea. Of course, compared to good raw materials, the taste may be slightly thinner; there is evidence for this, and interested parties can ask me for samples.
This is also why around 2017, I kept criticizing tea art. In a sense, tea art is a technique, 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 plus correct craftsmanship.
For those interested in tea making, we'll discuss it in another article. The main purpose of this article is how to appreciate high-end tea. I've touched on similar views in several articles, but not comprehensively. Here 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. Examples include Mannuo, which has a full-bodied soup and good aroma but lacks cool aftertaste; Laomane, which has a bitter base and thick, smooth soup; and most Laobanzhang, which is strong and intense but lacks lingering charm. Many teas are strong and intense but lack lingering charm, such as Xiniutang, Hekai, most Bulangshan teas, and even most Menghai teas.
Most Lincang teas have a decent mouthfeel but lack depth, leaving one feeling empty. 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 almost all been cut down.
Balanced taste 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 all major mountains, and it's also the reason Bulangshan tea has dropped the most in price this year.

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

2. Complete Sweetness

1. Sweetness that is complete. When tasting the tea, it should be sweet on entry, sweet while held in the mouth, and sweet after swallowing. All three stages should have sweetness for it to be complete.
2. Sweetness that is clear and refreshing (ganlie). If it's just clear and sweet but lacks the refreshing sensation, it's not high-end.

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

3. Complete Cool Aftertaste

There should be a cool aftertaste, both while drinking and lingering in the mouth.
The so-called 'teeth and mouth generate wind, tongue bottom springs' is how the ancients described the high-end feeling of drinking tea; this sensation is the ultimate cool aftertaste.

4. Balanced Body Sensation

I've always wanted to write an article about body sensation, but my state hasn't been right in recent years; I've been anxious, so any article I write about body sensation would not be balanced enough. So 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 cause obvious burden.

1. No dampness and coldness.

If the raw materials are not good and the craftsmanship is not up to par, even Mentang can have dampness and coldness, though better ecology means higher-quality raw materials and less dampness and coldness. Choosing good raw materials and processing the tea thoroughly is the key. This applies not only to raw (sheng) tea but also to ripe (shou) tea, black tea, and white tea; they all need to be processed 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 over ten liters, and still want to drink more without feeling tired, it's good tea. If a tea makes you feel like you need to use your body's strength to resist, then it has poor body sensation.

3. Balanced body sensation.

Tea that causes palpitations, headaches, head tightness, bloating, or anxiety is a sign of poor body sensation.

5. How to Make High-End Taste Tea?

There are two approaches. One is to continue selecting famous mountain raw materials. 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. Those with more money than sense 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 on this path.
Another path is blending. Look at the whole province. For example, Lanlan, which 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 taste, with cool aroma and cool aftertaste, not Mentang, but striving 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 taste. The sense of disharmony in blending does not exist. High-end blended tea tastes like drinking a pure ancient tree tea, without abruptness or taste fluctuations; it's balanced, pure, sweet to the point of being clear and refreshing, with a complete cool aftertaste 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's exclusive, ensuring customer loyalty.
4. Better cost-performance ratio.

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

6. My Choice

Great force creates miracles; blending creates good tea.
Before 2023, I was studying what good tea is and how to make it.
After 2023, I began researching how to make good tea and started experimenting with blending.
In 2025, selecting forest raw materials, processing thoroughly, and carefully blending finally yielded good tea.

Lan, the flower of deep forests and valleys. Its aroma is cool, and its aftertaste is cool; the aroma and aftertaste are both cool, which is the nature of the orchid. Houyue has a tea with cool aroma and cool aftertaste, hence named 'Lanlan'.

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