Plenty of mattress manufacturers are offering mattresses made with natural latex and that’s a good thing! Latex is an amazing performance material. However, in an effort to differentiate one type of latex from another, marketers come up with claims implying superior quality that appear to have been adapted from the wine industry and do NOT APPLY to latex.
Please read below to understand why with latex it is much more the “winery” than the “vineyard” which determines the final quality of a latex core, topper, or pillow in your bed.
Fresh Latex
“SINGLE ORIGIN”
There is always some variation in the latex milk as it comes from the tree. Variations based on clone, season, soil, different trees, age of trees, etc. As trees are only tapped every 3 days, daily batches from one plantation show variances too. Blending latex from many trees and different plantations is a good thing because it means that such variations are mostly evened out and the final product more consistent. After all, you want to receive the mattress feel you fell in love with in the shop and not something softer or firmer.
“OLD GROWTH”
It is widely agreed upon in the wine world that old vines make a better wine since they produce fewer grapes with a more concentrated flavor. However, when it comes to raw latex, it does not matter one way or another if the latex comes from young or old trees.
Far more important than the actual source of the latex is how the latex is handled once it leaves the tree. This is where good factory hygiene and state-of-the-art process control come in. Give a good processor a good quality raw material with good field preservation and they can make excellent latex for you. A bad processor can take the same raw material and turn it into very average quality with inconsistencies.
This is why we buy from Vita Talalay, expert manufacturers in The Netherlands who have been producing Talalay for nearly 60 years. They use state-of-the-art manufacturing and quality control equipment and have highly trained people with the knowledge and experience that comes from having made this wonderful comfort material for many decades.
