The blends we have grown up with are manufactured products from different origins blended to gather according to certain proportional formulas. This was created initially to leverage fluctuation of harvesting conditions that causes changes in taste. It is also most important for creating better taste by supplementing one ingredient tea with another.
Most packaged tea we see in supermarkets, and indeed many other mainstream teahouses, are CTC products that need to be blended even if it doesn’t say so on the label. There are single estate ones in some better shops.
The Chinese uses whole leaf tea from single origin. There are so many origins and varieties. These high quality stuffs would be wasted if blended.
