Tasting is the most important stage in determining the quality of any food product. There are tasters for all types of food and drinks: wine, cheese, dairy and meat products. Of course, there are also tasters for teas. They are called titters in the English manner.
How do tea tastings work? There is a tradition, established over the years, to measure no more than 3 g of dry tea leaves from each variety, so that the tester can get the most complete picture of the taste and aroma of the drink. Each variety is weighed on a balance to ensure maximum sample accuracy. After that, the dried leaves are placed in ceramic or porcelain tea mugs reminiscent of Chinese gaiwani. The leaves are filled with water of the required temperature. The amount of water does not exceed 125 g. After 3-4 minutes, the infusion of green teas is poured into the bowls, which should not be infused for too long. After 5-7 minutes, black and red tea varieties are poured into bowls.
The finished infusion is not drunk immediately. First you need to open the teapot, in which there is a boiled tea leaf, shake it slightly and smell the tea mixture. The brew gives a special, incomparable aroma. It is always judged before drinking a tea infusion. Also, some titesters taste the leaves: good varieties are edible, and the finished brew does not have an unpleasant or bitter taste. Then the tea is tasted so that the infusion touches the palate. This is necessary for the best disclosure of the flavoring bouquet. The color of the infusion must be assessed: in good Chinese teas, the infusion has a transparent and light color, in which honey, yellowish and greenish shades prevail. If the infusion is cloudy, it means that the tea is of poor quality or has been stored for too long.
It may seem to some that all teas are approximately the same if they do not differ in type. This is not so: even a drink of the same variety can differ in subtle notes of taste and smell, since all this directly depends on the conditions in which those same top three leaves of the tea bush were grown and harvested. Moreover, if a tree blossoms near the plantation, tea can absorb the smell of flowering plants and acquire a completely unique aroma.
Of course, ordinary lovers of a high-quality drink will not carry out the difficult procedure of tasting a new variety every time, but you can easily buy tea that you have not tried before, and knowing some of the rules will help to objectively assess its taste merits as much as possible.
