No. 014 — Tasting Tea

TSURU COLLECTION • GUIDE NO. 014

What does a tea taster really look for when evaluating a tea?

We usually drink tea with a very simple question in mind: do I like it?

A professional taster looks for something else.

They observe. They compare. They try to understand what the leaves reveal about their origin, processing, and condition, without immediately confusing personal preference with tea quality.

Tasting is therefore not a competition to identify twenty aromas with your eyes closed. It is first and foremost a method: placing the tea in sufficiently controlled conditions to be able to observe it with greater precision.

There is even an international standard dedicated to preparing a tea liquor for sensory testing: ISO 3103. Its purpose is precisely to make the preparation reproducible to facilitate comparison.

I. It All Starts with the Dry Leaf

Take a few leaves in your hand.

Even before heating the water, they already provide a great deal of information. The taster can observe their size, shape, color, degree of rolling, uniformity, overall condition, the possible presence of buds, stems, or fragments, as well as their dry aroma.

But beware of a tempting and often false idea: a large, perfectly intact leaf is not automatically better than a broken leaf.

The final shape depends notably on the type of tea and its processing. Some teas are deliberately rolled, twisted, compressed, or fragmented. In other cases, the integrity of the leaf is indeed an important indicator.

The taster is therefore not looking for a leaf that corresponds to a universal ideal. Instead, they ask: “Is this leaf consistent with the tea it claims to be?”

To delve deeper into this visual analysis, see Tsuru No. 012 on Tea Grades.

II. Why Control the Infusion?

When you prepare your tea at home, your goal is naturally to get the cup that you like best. You can adjust the temperature, shorten the steeping time, add more leaves, or change teapots.

Comparative tasting pursues a different goal.

To properly compare several samples, you must limit differences related to preparation as much as possible:

• the same amount of leaves;
• the same volume of water;
• the same duration;
• the same equipment;
• and comparable water.

This is precisely the logic of standardized methods designed for sensory testing: the preparation must be sufficiently reproducible so that the observed differences stem more from the teas themselves than from the way they were prepared.

The parameters of a professional tasting should therefore not be taken as universal recommendations for your daily tea. To adjust your own cup, see Tsuru No. 006 on Tea Temperature and Steeping Time.

III. The Liquor Takes Center Stage

Once the leaves are removed, the taster observes the liquor—the liquid obtained after steeping.

First with the eyes. The color can be pale yellow, golden, orange, amber, coppery, green, or take many other shades depending on the tea. Clarity, brightness, and intensity can also be observed.

But again, caution. A very dark liquor is not necessarily more powerful. A very light liquor is not necessarily more delicate. And no particular color alone constitutes proof of quality.

It must always be interpreted in relation to the type of tea being tasted.

IV. Before Tasting: Smell

Now bring the cup closer.

Smell plays a major role in what we commonly call taste. The taster is primarily looking to recognize families of aromas and their behavior.

A tea can evoke fresh plants, flowers, fruits, dried fruits, wood, spices, roasted or malty notes, mineral notes, or many other impressions.

But it is not about turning every cup into a guessing game. Saying “I perceive something floral” can be much more useful than trying to identify an image with spectacular precision.

A precise vocabulary becomes useful when it allows you to recall and compare a sensation, not when it is simply used to impress.

V. Then Comes the Palate

The first sip provides a great deal of information. But the taster tries not to immediately answer: “I like it” or “I don’t like it”.

The Attack

What is the first impression: sweet, lively, subtle, or intense?

Body and Texture

Does the liquor seem light, or does it have more substance on the palate? Is it supple, silky, dry, or dense?

Bitterness

It can be present or absent, light or dominant. Bitterness is not automatically a flaw: it is part of the gustatory sensations that can contribute to a tea's profile.

Astringency

It is often confused with bitterness. Yet, astringency is primarily a tactile sensation. It can give the impression that the mouth tightens or dries out slightly.

A tea can therefore be not very bitter while being highly astringent—or vice versa.

Balance and Length

Do the different sensations coexist harmoniously, or does one overpower all the others? What remains after the tea has been swallowed? Some aromatic or tactile sensations persist long after the sip: this is what is often called persistence or length on the palate.

VI. The Tea Still Has More to Say

A common mistake is to discard the leaves immediately after steeping. For the taster, they still have much more to show.

The wet leaves can be examined for their color, uniformity, suppleness, degree of opening, and overall condition.

Leaves that appeared almost black when dry can reveal unexpected nuances once rehydrated. A rolled leaf can regain an impressive size. A bud that was previously difficult to distinguish can become obvious.

It is often at this moment that you truly understand the substance hidden in a few grams of dry tea. This perspective is also at the heart of the work described in Tsuru No. 013 on the Art of Blending.

VII. Tasting Is Not Liking

This is probably the most important idea in this Tsuru.

You can recognize that a tea is technically remarkable and not want to drink a second cup. Conversely, your favorite tea may not be the rarest, most prestigious, or highest-rated by a panel.

There is no contradiction.

VIII. Do Tasters Have Exceptional Palates?

Not necessarily.

An experienced taster develops something much more accessible: a memory.

They taste. They compare. They repeat. Then they gradually associate sensations with words and previous experiences.

Their true skill is therefore not possessing senses unknown to ordinary people. It is having trained their attention.

Two cups side by side can also teach more than twenty teas tasted separately at several-week intervals, because our sensory memory is imperfect. Immediate comparison highlights the differences.

The Tsuru Experience

Take a single tea and prepare two cups.

In the first, use your usual parameters. In the second, change a single element: for example, add a few dozen seconds of steeping time.

Then compare methodically:

1. The dry leaf: look at it and smell it.
2. The liquor: compare the colors.
3. The nose: smell both cups before tasting.
4. The palate: look for differences in texture, bitterness, astringency, and aromatic intensity.
5. The steeped leaves: unfold them and observe them.

And above all, do not immediately try to determine which cup is “the best.” First ask yourself: “What has changed?”

You have just completed the first step of comparative tasting.

The Key Takeaways

Tasting a tea is not about reciting a list of extraordinary aromas. It is primarily about observing methodically:

the dry leaf → the infusion → the liquor → the aromas → the palate → the steeped leaf.

The more you repeat the exercise, the more your vocabulary and sensory memory will develop naturally.

And one day, without even realizing it, a cup that seemed simply “good” will begin to tell you much more.

In the Next Tsuru…

After learning to look at what is in the cup, a new question arises: why do some teas bear the name of a garden, a mountain, or a specific place?

That will be our next journey: Tsuru No. 015 — The Terroir of Tea.