Song Zhong vs Bai Ye
Dan Cong is organised around individual named old trees, and these are the two stocks a buyer meets most. Song Zhong carries a large premium and a traditional claim of Song-dynasty descent; Bai Ye is the most planted lineage and therefore the most available.
cultivar
What is being compared
Point by point
| Aspect | Song Zhong | Bai Ye |
|---|---|---|
| What it refers to | Old-bush stock on Phoenix Mountain from which most Dan Cong aroma types descend. | The stock behind Ya Shi Xiang, named for its pale leaf rather than any white-tea connection. |
| Age claim | ‘Song’ refers to claimed descent from Song-dynasty plantings; what is verifiable is that the surviving trees are old, individually named and propagated from. | No comparable claim attached. |
| Availability | Limited, and widely imitated. | The most planted Dan Cong lineage outside the old bushes, which is why Ya Shi Xiang is the most available aroma type. |
| Price | A large premium. | Modest. |
| What separates them in quality terms | Scarcity and lineage. | Availability rather than quality — a distinction worth making to anyone told Ya Shi Xiang is the lesser tea. |
| What a buyer can verify | Very little. Age claims about individual bushes are not verifiable by a buyer. | More, because the tea is common enough to compare against itself. |
The short answer
Ya Shi Xiang is cheap because there is a lot of it, not because it is the lesser tea. Song Zhong is expensive because there is very little and the claims attached cannot be checked, which is a poor basis for a first purchase.
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