Single Estate Teas & Blended Teas

/ / Published in Black Tea, Lessons on Tea, Production, Selection, Tea, Tea Growing Regions

Single Estate Teas are teas produced from a single plantation or even from a particular garden (sometimes referred to as a division) within a particular plantation.

These teas will vary in flavour depending on the time of the year in which the tea is harvested, the particular weather patterns prevailing at the time and also the processing method or technique employed.

Darjeeling teas from one of their reputed plantations can therefore be:

  • First Flush – teas harvested in spring, the new growth, just after the cold winter months
  • Second Flush – harvested usually in the summer months and finally, autumnal teas

Each of these teas will have distinctive flavours and characteristics, although the tea is produced from the same plantation.

The flavour of the teas can also vary from year to year as it is a truly agricultural product which is affected by that particular season’s terroir.

Connoisseurs of tea often seek out single estate teas and enjoy the natural variations of appearance and flavour.

Blended teas on the other hand are the product of many teas, usually but not always, from the same region or country. The teas are blended by expert tea blenders to give a consistency of appearance and flavour, so that teas harvested, blended and packed throughout the year can be as closely produced as possible.

Some blends can have as many as 30 teas in the blend recipe, which can be varied to suit the teas available at that particular time. Blending of teas is used by tea companies to produce consistency for tea drinkers who are not seeking natural flavour variations.

Almost 40 years ago I realised that the quality of teas being imported into Australia were of poor quality. The proliferation of teabags and a pricing regime enforced by the major supermarket chains had led to a noticeable drop in quality. Elmstock Tea Company was born out of this background in 1979. I had started my working life at 17 in the Tea Plantation/Accounts Department of a large company in Colombo. My family had connections to the tea trade and prior to that coffee and sugar plantations in Ceylon since the 1840s – an unbroken and direct link of over six generations. Many of the plantations started by or managed by my great grandparents still produce some of the teas we buy today! After migrating to Australia in 1972 I graduated from Curtin University and qualified as an accountant (CPA). I worked and managed large public companies involved in the wool trade for many years and was also involved with the listing of public companies on the ASX. Elmstock have been wholesaling premium quality teas and herbal infusions sourced from the best plantations for almost 40 years. We decided over twenty five years ago not to deal with the major supermarket chains as we did not want to compromise tea quality and revert to the ‘mediocrity of the pack’ which is entirely price driven.

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