Tea Tasting Terminlogy

Taken from “The Book of TEA” – Antony Bugess

#	Terms Describing Liquors
Bakey	Over-fired liquor Tea in which too much moisture has been driven off
Body	Liquor having both fullness and strength, as opposed to being thin
Bright	Denotes a lively fresh tea with good keeping quality.
Brisk	the most “live” characteristic. Results from good manufacture
Burnt	Extreme over-firing
Character	An attractive taste, specific to origin, describing teas grown at high altitudes
Coarse	Describes harsh, undesirable liquor
Coloury	Indicates useful depth of colour and strength
Cream	A precipitate obtained after cooling
Dry	Indicates slight over-firing.
Dull	Not clear, and lacking any brightness or briskness
Earthy	Normally caused by damp storage but also describes a taste that is sometimes “climatically inherent” in teas from certain regions.
Flat	Not fresh (usually due to age)
Flavour	Most desirable extension of “character,” caused by slow growth at high elevations. Relatively rare
Fruity	Can be due to over-fermentation and/or bacterial infection before firing. An overripe taste
Full	good combination of strength and colour.
Gone off	A flat or old tea, Often denotes high moisture content
Green	An immature, “raw” character. Often due to under fermentation (Sometimes under withering)
Harsh	A taste generally due to under withered leaf, Very rough
High-Fried	Over-fired but not bakey or burnt
Lacking	Describes neutral liquor, No body or pronounced characteristics
Light	Lacking strength and depth of colour
Malty	A full, bright tea with a taste of malt
Mature	not bitter or flat
Metallic	A sharp Metallic taste
Musty	Suspicion of mold
Plain	A liquor that is “clean” but lacking in desirable characteristics.
Pungent	Astringent with a good combination of briskness, brightness and strength
Quality	Refers to “cup quality” and denotes a combination of the most desirable liquoring qualities.
Raw	A bitter, unpleasant flavor
Soft	The opposite of briskness, Lacking any “live” characteristic, Caused by inefficient fermentation and/or firing
Strength	Substance in cup
Taint	Characteristic or taste that is foreign to tea, such as oil, garlic, etc. Often due to being stored next to other commodities with strong characteristics of their own.
Thick	Liquor with good colour and strength
Thin	Insipid light liquor that lacks desirable characteristics

#	Terms Describing Infused Leaf
Bright	A lively bright appearance, usually indicates bright liquors
Coppery	Bright leaf that indicates a well-manufactured tea
Dull	Lacks brightness and usually denotes poor tea. Can be due to faulty manufacture and firing, or high moisture content

#	Terms Describing Dry Leaf
Black	A black appearance is desirable.
Blackish	A satisfactory appearance for CTC
Bloom	A sign of good manufacture and sorting is that the leaves have a bloom or sheen, which has not been removed by over handling or sorting.
Bold	Particles of leaf, which are too large for the particular grade
Brown	A brown appearance in teas that normally indicates overly harsh treatment of the leaf
Clean	Leaf that is free from fiber, dust and all extraneous matter
Even	True to the grade, consisting of pieces of leaf of fairly even size
Flaky	Flat, open and often light in texture
Gray	Caused by too much abrasion during sorting
Grainy	describes primary grades of well-made CTC teas such as Pekoe Dust
Leafy	a tea in which leaves tend to be on the large or long side.
Light	A tea light in weight, of poor density. Sometimes flaky
Make	Well-made tea (or not), true to its grade
Musty	a tea affected by mildew
Neat	A grade having good “make” and size
Nose	The smell of the dry leaf. Different teas have different smell according to the type of soil in which they are grown and the altitude and climatic conditions of the region, which they are grown
Powdery	Fine light dust.
Stalk & Fibre	should be minimal in superior grades, but is generally unavoidable in lower-grade teas
Uneven	“Uneven” pieces of leaf (mixed) usually indicative of poor sorting and not true to the particular grade

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Tea Tasting Terminlogy

Tea Tasting Terminlogy