In China, they call it Pīnpẻi 拼配, in the West, we call it Blending. This is the art of combining teas from different trees, different regions, different years, or different seasons all together to create a gestalt that is more than the individual parts. In the past, this was often done to compensate for lower quality teas, hiding the weak or inferior leaf under something strong and pleasant; however, with the advent of single-origin and high-quality teas being produced in Yunnan for the past 20 years, we're seeing a new renaissance of blending top-shelf and famous teas in a very controlled and specific way to create some truly stand-out stuff.
We're still new to blending, having our first experience dabbling in blending puer tea in 2023, we simply mixed 50% Gushu with 50% Old Arbor tea from the same village, made by the same producer, and pressed it into our Motorbike tea cake. While this mix turned out very pleasant, with the strength of the Old Arbor to really surprise you at the start of the session, and the Longevity of the Gushu to keep the brews going toward the end of the session, we are left to wonder if we could have tweaked the blend a little to achieve an even better production: Would more Gushu mean more power? Would more Old Arbor mean more flavor?
Last year, we spent a lot more time trying out new blends in Lincang, blending up some excellent tea cakes like the Lux and the New Kicks from different years of teas, different seasons, and different age of trees.
This sampler is a slice of what happens in the Mixing Room, when we're trying to figure out the best ratios of tea to press. We have stripped it down to the same variables we were working with in 2023, and challenging you to blend up a better brew than what we achieved with our 50/50 blend in the Motorbike.
Here's what you'll have to work with:
- 15 grams Huazhu Liangzi Gushu (Ancient Tree 100+ years old)
- 15 grams Huazhu Liangzi Qiaomu (Old Arbor 50+ years old)
- 2 Motorbike Minis (2023 50% Gushu and 50% Qiaomu Blend)
All these teas come from Farmer Tan in the village of Baotang on the slopes of the Huazhu Liangzi mountain ridge, north of Mengsong in Xishuang Banna.
We suggest working with ratios, for example, using 6 grams of tea in a 100ml gaiwan would mean a 50/50 blend requires 3 grams Gushu and 3 grams Qiaomu, while an 80/20 split would require 4.8 grams of one and 1.2 grams of the other.
Can you blend up a banger? And if you do, will you tell us your secret recipe? We will give you credit when we press more of this tea in 2025!
