Taste
Flavour
Our master blenders’ taste buds are the most finely honed in the world and they have created coding wheels to describe the flavours of our teas.
They will use these categories to describe the different tastes and flavours: Vegetal, Fruity, Floral, Sweet, Spicy, Nutty and Smokey. Within these categories, they use a plethora of words to describe the sub-categories of different flavour notes, for example:
• Berries
• Citrus
• Earth: peat, wet wood, leather, wet earth, musty, moss, forest floor, compost
• Grass: freshly cut straw etc.
• Mineral: salt, wet rocks, metallic
• Marine: sea air, fish, seaweed
• Smoky, ash, tar
The list goes on and on. As you can tell – our blenders like to get as precise as possible.
Full Bodies
Refers to strong tea with good colour and no bitterness. Our Master Blenders say it’s recognisable due to its good drying sensation in the mouth. A 'full' tea would possess thickness and body like Twinings English Breakfast.
Bite
Of course you don’t eat tea, you slurp it! This is a term used to describe very brisk and "alive" tea liquor. If it has a good strong bite, it is a desirable tea, just like Twinings Lemon and Ginger tea.
Biscuity
This is not a term for when you’ve dipped your favourite chocolate digestive into your tea. It is in fact a desirable trait that our Master Blenders look out for and usually refers to a well-made Assam.
Croppy
Croppy describes a bright, strong and creamy liquor with a distinctive character; it’s basically the Rachel Riley of teas. Croppy liquor is usually found in some second flush Assams.
Hard
A desirable quality suggesting pungency, particularly applied to Assam teas.
Muscatel
One for wine lovers. A characteristic reminiscent of grapes in the liquor. Often found in the finest second flush Darjeeling.
Pungent
Most people think of pungent as referring to a bad smell, but in the tea world, if your tea is pungent, it’s a good quality tea. It’s a term for a tea liquor which although is brisk and astringent it’s something that Twinings Master Blenders look out for as it’s a very desirable cup characteristic.
Sappy
Tea fans might get a little sappy over our best blends, we know they taste great. But when describing tea liquor it actually means one which has a full juicy flavour.