How to choose good tea

03 November 2019

The main thing you should pay attention to – is the smell of a dry tea-leaf. As a rule if you like tea smell, then you enjoy its taste. However, this method of choosing white tea and raw (young) Shu Pu-erh is unsuitable, as their flavors are quite similar before brewing.

The smell of any tea must be light and unfold gradually. In case the smell hits you hard once you try catching the flavour, it means that this tea is 100% chemically aromatized. To value tea taste you should take it in a Cha He teapot, saucer, or right in the hand, put close to the face, take a deep breath, then breath out warming tea. During the second breath you will feel true tea flavour, which appears in the process of brewing.

When you warm up the tea slightly with the help of breathing, any kind of tea will emit a discernible smell. If it isn`t so and the smell is hardly notable or even absent at all, it is more likely that this tea has expired or was kept in inappropriate conditions. Such a situation is typical for green tea. In order not to make mistakes ourselves, it is a good idea to get acquainted with an article about how to store tea .

Tea smell can have roasting notes (rye-bread, open fire or fermented hints), but in this case such flavors should not throw into the shade other aromas. In case such roasting notes slacken aromas, it is clear that such a tea is overroasted and open fire hints will be the only ones to unfold during a teatime. There are some exceptions, for example Xiao Zhong . During preparation stage Xiao Zhong is dried (gets dry) with the help of pine twigs. Obviously it will have mainly pine-tree fragrance. In such cases one needs to be aware of how a chosen tea is made.

Smell can tell you the most important about tea. Other criteria ask for more profound knowledge about tea and you would probably not open this lesson if you didn`t know them. An experienced tea-lover also pays attention at the condition of a leaf, its size, colour, spiraling, proportionate (equal) frying and other characteristics. We have enumerated them all in the lesson about tea quality, but treat them cautiously. It happens so that even teas of good quality violate the norms, but about such teas you will hear from tea shop assistants. The only thing you need is to find an honest salesman, who will tell you about all tea nuances.

What tea is worth choosing for the first acquaintance?

To begin an acquaintance with the tea world, one should undoubtedly start from classics. That is why we do not advise you to begin with aged secret grandfather Lee`s oolong, from the Taiwan`s mountains, which is roasted on olive tree charcoals. You should better leave this search for later.

Tea newbies are divided into two categories: those, who loves light kinds of tea (green, white, low-roasted oolongs), and those, who prefers dark tea types (red, Pu-erhs). There are few people, who enjoy absolutely all tea types. The first task for you, our dear friend, is to define which group you belong to and only then select a suitable tea.