Tea tasting

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The United States Food and Drug Administration tested tea until 1996.

Tea tasting is the process in which a trained taster determines the quality of a particular tea.[1] Due to climatic conditions, topography, manufacturing process, and different cultivars of the Camellia sinensis plant (tea), the final product may have vastly differing flavours and appearance. These differences can be tasted by a trained taster in order to ascertain the quality prior to sale or possibly blending tea.[1]

Objectives[]

The taster's objectives depend on the intended purpose of a tea. The qualities desired for a tea for blending with other teas can be quite different from the qualities desired for a tea ready for drinking.[2]

Techniques[]

The ISO 3103 standard describes a standardised method for brewing teas in order to make meaningful sensory comparisons between them. It is not a particularly useful standard for many teas, however, requiring a six-minute brewing time and boiling water, neither of which are recommended for green teas (usually brewed at < 90 °C and for under 3 minutes). Tea tasters would instead usually taste teas which have been brewed according to the recommendations of the producer.

A tea taster uses a large spoon and noisily slurps the liquid into his/her mouth - this ensures that both the tea and plenty of oxygen is passed over all the taste receptors on the tongue to give an even taste profile of the tea. The liquid is then usually spat back out into a spittoon before moving onto the next sample to taste. The flavour characteristics and indeed leaf colour, size and shape are graded using a specific language created by the tea industry to explain the overall quality. Generally speaking, once the quality has been tasted/graded, each tea company places a value on it based on market trends, availability and demand.

Professional tea-taster George F. Mitchell in 1927

See also[]

References[]

  1. ^ a b Yvonne Wrightman (January 1994), All the Tea in China - Fascinating Traditions and Incredible Edibles, Centax Distribution, pp. 14–, ISBN 978-1-895292-35-0, retrieved March 4, 2013
  2. ^ Schapira, Joel (1996). The book of coffee & tea : a guide to the appreciation of fine coffees, teas, and herbal beverages. David Schapira, Karl Schapira (2nd ed.). New York: St. Martin's Griffin. p. 198. ISBN 0-312-14099-1. OCLC 33404177.

Further reading[]

  • Gautier, Lydia; Mallet, Jean-Francois (2006). Tea. Chronicle Books. pp. 124–153. ISBN 0811856828. Retrieved 3 March 2013.
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