How to Select Tea
How to Select Tea
Selecting tea primarily involves assessing its color, aroma, taste, and appearance to determine authenticity, freshness, and quality. Different tea varieties have distinct standards for these four aspects. General consumers should judge tea through sight, smell, and taste.
1. Sight: This is a crucial method for selecting tea. It involves visually assessing the tea’s shape and color. Specifically, examine the tightness, uniformity, cleanliness, maturity, and hue of the tea leaves. Generally, green tea is best when finely shaped and compact; pearl tea is best when round and tightly formed; flat teas like Longjing are best when smooth, flat, even, and neat. Regarding color, green tea is superior when emerald or lustrous green, dull yellow being inferior. Black tea (gongfu style) is best when tightly bound, red broken tea when fine, uniform, and clean. Color-wise, dark lustrous is best, dull red inferior. Flower tea is best when curled tightly; color-wise, deep green without gloss is best, gray-green with shine being inferior. Overall, regardless of tea type, tightly bound, heavy, round, uniformly sized leaves are preferred; loose, light, fragmented ones are inferior.
2. Smell: This involves using the sense of smell to assess tea quality. There are two methods: smelling dry tea and smelling brewed tea. Directly smelling dry tea determines whether it has natural fragrance or off-odors. Fragrant tea is good; lack of fragrance or presence of odd smells indicates poor quality. For detailed evaluation, brew the tea and smell the aroma released by the infusion. Good tea releases diverse fragrances—orchid, chestnut, rose, fresh, strong, or brisk scents. Generally, green tea is best with a fresh, clear aroma, stale or grassy notes being inferior; black tea is best with strong, pure, sweet fragrance, sour or fermented odors being inferior; oolong tea is best with rich, deep fragrance; flower tea should combine green tea’s freshness with floral fragrance. Pure floral scent without fragrance indicates insufficient flowers; floral scent with weak tea flavor suggests excess flowers overpowering tea. Only when floral fragrance complements tea aroma is it considered top-grade flower tea. Regardless of tea type, always check for off-odors first—smoky or pesticide-like smells indicate contamination and should be avoided, as they are harmful if consumed.
3. Taste: This involves tasting the tea directly via the sense of taste. Brewed tea varies in flavor—bitter, astringent, sour, bland, fresh, strong, sweet, or mellow—these help distinguish tea quality. Generally, green tea is best when fresh and mellow, astringent or harsh being inferior; black tea is best when sweet and rich; oolong tea is best when crisp and refreshing; flower tea is best when fresh and palatable. Any tea lacking flavor or having coarse, astringent, or strange tastes is of poor quality.
Combining sight, smell, and taste enables comprehensive analysis and accurate identification of genuine high-quality tea.