Singletree, a concern for things to come.
A quick note to say that all opinions in this particular blog on my own and people are generally divided on the subjects in China, what do you think?
Of course the market has been moving much more toward single estate offerings over blends and this is absolutely fine, it’s a great thing actually. Being able to taste the nuances of specific areas is a fabulous thing to be able to do. Single estate is all good but I still believe there is place for a good solid blend, personally speaking. You see, the tighter the geographical area of a tea cakes material generally you will see less and less complexity. This isn’t always true but often this can be the case. Complexity isn’t the only marker of a great tea, no, some people are very happy for the tea to do a couple of things very very well indeed. This is where Singletree offerings really shine. Example being the Singletree offering may not have much or any complexity whatsoever but it will be exceeding in a powerful note of some kind and loads of it making a flavour that’s very obvious. Trouble is with Singletree is that if a said Singletree batch were not to exist, that trees material would go in to the rest of the tea gardens batch production meaning that the Singletree production has rendered the rest of the tea gardens batch to be less complex as a whole. Also the Singletree would have been a particularly old tree within the tea garden which means that the rest of that tea gardens Gu Shu material will be more lacking in ancient arbor material. This is a shame for the rest of us who either don’t have the means or are not inclined to explore Singletree. There are times when single tree is a very good excuse to keep the forms head above water. This was years there are times when single tree is a very good excuse to keep the farmers head above water. This year there were extremely heavy bouts of rain which saw freakishly low yields in Yunnan. This is unheard-of and the yield were so low that many farmers have resorted to single tree production in order to keep the farm afloat. Apparently the yields of this material might have been low but was particularly powerful in some areas. Generally speaking though I do find the move towards single tree quite scary and unwarranted. The fact that someone can walk into the jungle or onto a farmers plot, point the camera at a tree and say “these two cakes here are from this very tree” is a very easy and tempting way to sell a cake. The farmer is happy because he is selling his trees material at a vastly inflated rate compare to the rest of his garden. I mean what’s next single branch Dragon Balls? Let’s not try and give them too many ideas hey!
Well, the way things are going I certainly don’t think this is going to go away in fact I’m sure we will be seeing a lot more of this sort of thing the future. Happy coughing all thanks for getting to the end!
“single branch dragon balls” That gave me a good chuckle… Interesting insight into the current market conditions. Personally, I prefer a good blend!