Join me on a tea tasting session. Just as with wine, a professional tea tasting session follows a specific set of steps. The goal is to be able to compare different teas and identify the good and bad points of each. Here’s what the process involves (adapted from the Australian tea lounge tea site):
The first step is to spread a sample of the dried tea leaf over a white sheet of paper or a small plate so that this can be examined. You can learn quite a lot from dried tea leaves. The taster will check for consistency, determining whether the shape and size of the leaves is the same throughout the sample. You also check the freshness and of course smell the bouquet.
Next for each tea sample the tasting cup is filled with 3 1/2 ounces of water. The water is carefully controlled so that it is the correct temperature for the tea being tested. The water is added to the tea and a lid is placed over the cup for the brew. The brewing time is normally longer than for normal so that all of the characteristics of the tea are drawn out.
Once the brew has completed, the tea is decanted into another bowl. The wet tea leaves are kept in the original cup so that they can later be examined.
Before the tea is tasted, the infusion is examined. The tester will check to see whether the liquid is clear or murky. Then, when tasting the tea, the taster will be looking for 5 different qualities: saltiness, sweetness, sourness, bitterness and umami. The last characteristic is the least familiar to the western palate. The easiest way to describe it is perhaps a savory quality. The second component of the flavor is determined via the aroma.
We often underestimate how powerful our sense of smell is. But consider this for a moment: We have around 100 million nerve cells in our olfactory system. That’s far more than the 1 million cells that produce our sight or the 100,000 that we use for hearing or the 10,000 that we use when we taste.
But when tasting the tea the taster will not only check for flavors and aromas but also try to determine the effect of the tea on the palate. For example does the tea have a creamy texture? Does it have a mouth filling quality?
Following these steps will allow a taster to control as many factors as possible in the infusion so that he or she can determine the quality of the teas being tasted.