Tea Guides

Tasting tea properly means paying attention to everything about it: aroma, flavour, texture, and aftertaste. It's quite different from just drinking it. This guide walks you through how to taste tea so you can notice and understand each part of your cup.

Get your equipment ready

• Tasting cups: white ceramic cups let you see the colour and clarity accurately
• Brewing vessel: a gaiwan or a teapot made for loose leaf
• Scale: weighing the leaf keeps things consistent, though a measuring spoon is fine for casual tasting
• Timer: steeping for the right time avoids over- or under-extracting
• Tasting spoon: a large spoon for slurping and aerating the tea
• Filtered or spring water: water makes a big difference, and hard Canadian tap water can dull delicate aromas, so a simple filter helps

Choose your tea

Start with good teas that show off their particular character. Single-origin teas are best for beginners because each one has a clear sense of place. Our teas from Ilam and Taplejung make a good structured introduction: Floral Green Tea for green, Floral White Tea for white, Floral Oolong for oolong, and Muscatel Black Tea for black. All are loose leaf and traceable to specific farms at 5,000 to 7,000 ft.

Look at the dry leaves

Tasting starts before you brew. Look at the dry leaves:

• Uniformity: good teas have leaves of a consistent size and shape
• Colour: fresh, lively colour shows good processing, bright green for green tea and rich and dark for black
• Appearance: whole leaves with little dust or broken pieces. Whole leaf teas are the highest grade

Smell the dry leaves

Breathe in the aroma of the dry leaves. This breathing technique gives you a fuller impression:

1. Hold the leaves near your nose and take a long, deep breath
2. Breathe out slowly and notice the aroma that lingers
3. Repeat 2 to 3 times to pick up subtler notes

The dry leaves hint at what the cup will taste like. Black teas often smell of malt or fruit, and green teas may smell grassy or floral. Our Floral Green Tea smells close to jasmine even as dry leaf.

Brew at the right temperature

Steeping properly is essential to get the most from your tea. Each type needs its own temperature and time:

• Black tea: 90 to 95°C (194 to 203°F) for 3 to 4 minutes
• Green tea: 75 to 85°C (167 to 185°F) for 2 to 3 minutes
• Floral Oolong: 85°C (185°F) for 3 to 4 minutes; Dark Oolong: 90 to 95°C for 3 to 4 minutes
• White tea: 75 to 80°C (167 to 176°F) for 2 to 3 minutes, the most temperature-sensitive tea of all

Steeping too long or too hot makes tea bitter, so use a timer.

Look at the tea

Once it's brewed, look at the tea before you taste it:

• Colour: a lively, rich colour points to well-made tea
• Clarity: clean, clear tea is a sign of quality, while cloudiness can mean impurities or over-extraction

Smell the brewed tea

Aroma matters a lot. Swirl the tea gently, then:

1. Hold the cup close to your nose
2. Breathe in deeply and let the aroma fill your senses
3. Notice the layers: is it floral, fruity, earthy, or toasty?
4. Do it again, focusing on the subtler notes underneath

Comparing the smell of the dry leaf with the brewed tea often shows how heat and water have changed it.

Taste your tea

How to do it

1. Take a small sip
2. Slurp it with some air, which spreads the flavour across your whole mouth
3. Let it sit on your tongue for a moment before swallowing
4. Wait 10 to 15 seconds after swallowing. Good high-altitude teas leave a sweet aftertaste that develops in that time.

Using the tea flavour wheel

Use the tea flavour wheel to put names to what you taste. It groups flavours into broad families (floral, fruity, earthy, malty) and then narrows down to specific notes like jasmine, apricot, chocolate, or pine.

Tea tasting words

• Astringency: a dry, puckering feeling, found in over-brewed or high-tannin teas
• Body: how heavy or thick the tea feels in your mouth
• Aftertaste: the flavours that linger after you swallow. A sweet finish is the most valued quality in high-altitude teas.
• Briskness: a lively, bright quality, often found in well-made black teas
• Umami: savoury depth, common in some green teas and teas rich in L-theanine
• Floral: notes that remind you of flowers, like jasmine, rose, orchid, or spring blossom

Get your palate ready

1. Drink water: rinse your palate with fresh water before each tea
2. Avoid strong flavours: skip spicy, garlicky, or very sweet food beforehand
3. Snack lightly: plain crackers or bread clear lingering tastes between teas
4. Stay unscented: avoid perfume and strongly scented products, which get in the way of smelling the tea

Frequently Asked Questions

How can I refine my tea-tasting skills?

Taste often, taste lots of different teas, and take notes each time. Tasting two teas side by side works especially well, because the differences between, say, a light green and a muscatel black stand out clearly. The Sampler Kit is made for exactly this kind of structured tasting.

What is a tea flavour wheel?

A circular chart that organises the tastes and aromas you can find in tea. The centre has broad categories (floral, fruity, earthy, malty), and each ring outward gets more specific. It gives you a shared vocabulary, so a vague impression becomes something you can describe.

Why is water quality important for tea tasting?

Chlorine, calcium (hardness), and other minerals in tap water react with tea's aromatic compounds and can hide or distort delicate flavours. In many Canadian cities, hard water dulls the clean floral notes that make high-altitude teas special. Filtered or lightly mineralised spring water gives a noticeably more aromatic cup that's truer to the leaf.

What's the best way to detect subtle notes in tea?

Take deep breaths of the aroma from the warm cup before you sip. Then slurp a little as you taste to spread the tea across your palate, and wait 10 to 15 seconds after swallowing to see if a sweet aftertaste develops. In good high-altitude teas like those from Nepal's Ilam and Taplejung, that sweet finish is one of the most consistent and valued traits.

Can I taste tea when I have a cold?

Not well. A blocked nose badly affects your sense of smell, and since up to 40% of what you think of as taste actually comes from smell, your judgement will be off. Wait until you're better before any serious comparison tasting.

Related Reading

• Your Ultimate Guide to the Wheel of Tea
• How to Brew Loose Leaf Tea: The Complete Guide
• Fixing Bitterness in Green Tea: How to Steep It Properly
• Why Does My Tea Have No Smell?
• Loose Leaf Tea vs Tea Bags
• Types of Tea from Nepal: A Complete Guide