How we taste our teas? By Tea Taster Dominic Marriott

Описание: There are a number of different things that we
look at when we are grading a tea and deciding
whether or not we would like to buy it. The first
thing we actually look at is the leaf itself. You need
to grade the leaf size and style, so this is a small,
low-grown Sri Lankan FBOPF1. This is very neat,
clean black leaf, and a tea like this would be
perfect to be used in our English Breakfast loose.
Whereas here we have a totally different type of
tea. This is a Ceylon OPA, which is much, much
leafier. So just because of the leaf size and style,
this couldn't be used in the same blend, so we'd
have to decide whether we could use it for a
different purpose or not.

The next thing we look at is the infusion, and by
that I actually mean the brewed leaf. And we can
tell a lot by looking at that. So generally speaking,
for most black teas we're looking for an even
colour, and a bright coppery colour. That's a very
good indication that the tea is actually going to
taste good. If the infusion was mixed and dull,
we'd probably be worried about tasting it. The
next thing we look at is the actual colour of the
liquor. We're looking at the depth of colour, and
also the brightness.

And the final stage, and the most important stage
because you're going to drink the tea as well, is to
taste it. So, we give the tea a very good slurp, and
that's so that it sprays all around your mouth and
hits the different taste buds, and also to go up into
your nose so you get the smell. So you can really
taste it, and we're tasting it double strength here
so we get the full flavour of the tea. So, again that
was very nice, strong, brisk, gutty Ceylon tea, that
would be perfect for our English Breakfast.