How to Taste Tea

01 September 2012

We love to hear what you think of your Twinings cuppa, particularly when we have new teas coming out. So have a read, put the kettle on and tell us what you think.

Become a tea taster

'Tasting tea? I've been doing all my life - why do I need you telling me how to taste my tea?' - we hear you say.

But, like a good wine, chocolate or coffee, tea is the product of it's environment, how the tea is grown and then how it's processed, these variables give the tea body, character and aroma [and health properties] all of which are unique to each tea. Here at Twinings our professional tea tasters who blend and craft your favourite cuppa have had years of tasting to build their tasting vocabulary - so for us mere "tea drinkers" it will take a while for us to develop ours.

The following guide, is just that, it's designed to help you study your teas taste, flavour and aroma. We are hoping by using this guide that then you can tell us what you think of our new teas as you discover them, with you becoming our trusted, valued friends that we can then call on, in the future, during the development process of creating new tea blends before they are fully developed.

To the right there is a form you can use to give us your tea review, however you are welcome to contact us through our facebook as well should you prefer. We would love a picture of you, or your tea or you and your tea - there will be prizes for the best ones :-)

Currently we would love your tasting notes on our new range of Whole Leaf Silky Pyramid Teas, these are available at Waitrose or on the Twinings Online Teashop.

So let's put the kettle on, grab a Twinings, grab your camera and lets have a taste...

Appearance, aroma, flavour and mouth feel

When we're tasting tea we look for four key features: appearance, aroma, flavour and mouth feel. You will learn about all of these on this tea tasting journey… Interestingly, their roots lie in the Chinese tea ceremony. Understanding the full picture of what is happening around you is one of their key teachings.

1. first impressions count

As a tea taster, the first thing you do is inspect the dry tea. Surprisingly, a large proportion of our overall option is based on  its look:

Signs of a good loose tea:

- In Black, White and Greem tea: Gold or Bronze flecks - these are the young leaves called tippy

- It should crunch between your fingers - this means it hasn't absorbed any moisture (or flavour) from the air around it

- Buds

2. Making the perfect brew…

We've already started to talk about set standards - tea tasters talk about them a lot. They're necessary to make sure that every tasting is consistent.
So we'll always use the same

Standard Approach by Tea Tasters - this is somebody who tastes tea the same way. Weight of tea - between 2 and 3 grams in the UK (a heaped teaspoon). Water - Use what you would normally drink - whether that's from the tap or a bottle.

Crockery - Every tea taster in the world will use the same crockery - but you can just find the purest, whitest crockery you can get your hands on. This will help you to see the colours and depths.

 3. Now what does the infused tea look like?

 In the world of tea, we call the infusion 'liquor'. When we're inspecting the liquor, we look for:

Colour - does it leap out at you? We are looking for a bright, jewel-like colour. Physical Appearance - we are looking for shiny, slightly oily and bright? It's fine to have a little fragments floating around the bottom of the cup.

Clarity - Once we've brewed the tea, we look at the wet leaves. For Twinngs Whole Leaf Silky pyramids, why not carefully break open the tea bag and take a closer look? What do you see? What can you smell? We're looking for a great colour. And to see that the leaves have become plump and whole again.

By now you're probably dying to try your tea, so let's move  onto the taste…

4. how do we taste? here's the science bit…

When we think of taste, we think of our tongue. Some studies have suggested that up to 90% of flavour is perceived through smell. Our tongues detect five essential tastes and these give us our initial impression: 

When we think of taste, we think of our tongue. But in fact up to 90% of flavour is perceived through smell. Our tongues detect five essential tastes and these give us our initial impression: sweet, salty, acidic, bitter, umami (a word from Japanese, meaning 'pleasant savoury taste'). The initial perception of something can sometimes throw you off the taste, so that's why it's important to first take in the aroma. Our taste buds help  form part of an intricate system that allows our brain to decide on a taste. The taste buds along with gustatory receptors and the Olfactory gland allow our brain soon makes a fast decision on if as an individual we  recognise and like the flavour of what we are about to ingest.

The Olfactory Gland is situated several centimetres behind the back of our eyes and nose.  With its fine hairs on its surface it captures molecules of what we are smelling and in some case putting in our mouth ( that's why it's important to slurp our tea to mix with the air).  A combination of the neural messages from the tongue, olfactory gland and with some help from the gustatory receptors we are quickly able to build a profile of the tea we are drinking.

Now let's put our olfactory gland to the test…

5. Aroma - let's take a little sniff…

Because we mainly taste through our sense of smell, it's important to deeply consider the aroma. There are two techniques for sniffing, these are: Deep inhalations - this is when you hold the brew as close to your nose as possible and take a deep breath. Dog action - this is when you take rapid, shallow inhalations through the nose, rather like a panting dog. Use your taste wheel to help you consider some of the aromas.

At this point you will start to get the first persception of the flavour.

6. How to taste and slurp… 

Here's the fun bit. It's when we actually get to taste the tea. So throwing all table manners out of the window - here's what you do:

Pay special attention to any sensations created on the tongue for example sweetness or savoury. And remember that bitterness is present in the majority of teas because of varying degrees of tannins.

Now that you've mastered the art of slurping, let's move on to inspecting the taste. 

7. What's the flavour like?

When you're tasting not all aromas and flavours are detectable at the same time. There can be many complex layers of taste for us we will just look for three different notes: head, body and tail. You can use our flavour wheel for this part.

Head notes (First impressions) are the ones that give you the initial impression, and they come thick and fast.

Thinking about this first impression look at the inner ring of your taste wheel and describe what you feel you taste, different people may find different tastes, after a few years of tasting in this way you will find that you start to taste in a standard way, as we discussed before.

Then you feel the body notes (secondary ring). These give you the overall lasting impression and character.

And finally, the tail notes (after taste) are the ones that linger and stay with you after the liquid has passed from your mouth - look at the outer ring. This final stage often indicates the complexity and, in some cases, the quality.

Have a go at describing the flavour using your taste wheel. Here's an example of how it might sound: "A spicy head, a nutty body and a hazelnut tail"

8. What's the flavour like?

It's funny to talk about mouth feel, but it's important as it indicates strength. Again, we can use the taste wheel for this but it's often better to use what feels right. Mouth feel is all about the sensations you feel in your mouth when you taste tea. And of course, different teas trigger different sensations. Some are smooth and round, some are drying and bite into the jaw - but all of them help us to decide if the tea feels right. Often this is the connection between taste and smell - it's what makes us want to taste the tea again.

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