Tea Tasting - How to do a Tea Tasting

The work of professional tea tasters consists of appreciating the qualities of tea leaves, as well as their particularities, in order to choose the best qualities according to the market they are targeting.

This involves a very detailed process in which all the steps must be followed exactly. As with the tasting of other products such as wine or beer, the first step is to have a conditioned room and a tasting table.

- A technician prepares the battery of samples by placing the tea leaves in small dishes or bowls for observation.

- 2.8 g of the product is placed in a 150 ml. cup with a serrated lid and water previously heated with the kettle is added.

- It is left to infuse for the range of time appropriate to the type of tea, but slightly increased, to achieve a greater aromatic intensity.

- The infusion is placed in the cup for tasting and then the visual and olfactory evaluation of the dry tea, the leaves already used and the infusion itself is carried out.

- With a spoon, the tasters sip the liquid, moving it throughout the oral cavity to obtain as much information as possible.

- Once tasted, the tea is spat out and the next sample is taken.

The professional tasting is carried out without adding milk, lemon, sugar or other elements, in order to appreciate only the characteristics of the product. At a later stage, it can be decided to modify the grammage, the infusion time and the products that are added, in order to obtain an optimum result with the leaves that are being evaluated. For example, it is common in tastings aimed at the Anglo-Saxon market to add a certain amount of milk, since this is the preferred form of consumption in this cultural space.

This is the mechanics of the tasting, which, as you can see, is accessible to everyone. We only need a few basic utensils, a few samples and a lot of curiosity. We encourage you to practice and share your experiences.