A tea taster or blender tastes many hundreds of tea samples each week. This process determines the quality of the tea and the price that it will attract. Descriptive terms used by the tea trade exist for dry leaf, infused leaf and the beverage (called liquors).
The terms are too many to mention here but generally dry leaf has about thirty descriptive terms, infused leaf about twelve and liquors about fifty.
For example, a sample of good Ceylon Tea can be described by the blender as black, clean and even (dry leaf), good aroma, bright and coppery (infused leaf) and good body, bright, brisk, coloury and thick (liquors)!
So the next time you have a cup of good tea remember the effort that goes into making it a good one.
If you’d like to discover a more comprehensive list of tea tasting terms, have a look at the list of the Sri Lankan Tea Exporters Association.
