Tea is most忌讳 of six flavors.

(一) Green Taste. The green taste is the natural flavor of plants. The main reasons for tea having a green taste are insufficient sun-withering, fermentation, and kill-green. Of course, there are other reasons: 1. During cultivation management, excessive nitrogen fertilizer makes the tea leaves dark green, lacking aroma and tasting weak, highlighting the green taste; 2. During the tea-making process, insufficient fermentation due to improper sun-withering or stirring leads to a green taste; 3. During indoor withering, if the room temperature is too low and humidity is too high, water removal in the tea leaves is poor, preventing normal fermentation.

(二) Bitter and Astringent Taste. The bitter and astringent taste in tea should be distinguished based on specific circumstances. Because tea itself has a bitter and astringent taste, the key is whether it quickly dissipates after entering the mouth? If it does not dissipate, it may be due to poor processing. The main causes of a bitter and astringent taste are tender fresh leaves, insufficient sun-withering, improper fermentation, or summer/heat-season tea.

(三) Stuffy Taste. The stuffy taste in tea has three variations: yellow-stuffy taste, water-stuffy taste, and red-stuffy taste. Yellow-stuffy taste refers to fresh leaves piling up and generating heat, steaming occurring during baking, or prolonged rolling and wrapping creating a vacuum layer. Water-stuffy taste refers to dew-moistened leaves, rain-moistened leaves, piled leaves not spread out, not cooled in time, or, before kill-green, piling to increase leaf temperature and promote fermentation, resulting in insufficient water removal during fermentation. Red-stuffy taste refers to the flavor generated when tea leaves are kept wrapped for too long during wrapping and rolling.

(四) Burnt Taste. The burnt taste in tea is likely caused by improper kill-green and baking. During the kill-green process, if temperature and time are not properly controlled, resulting in excessively high temperature or prolonged time, the finished product will have a burnt taste. If the temperature is too low and time is insufficient, the tea leaves become grayish-yellow without gloss, and the tea soup tastes weak or has a rotten wood flavor.

(五) Weak/Bland Taste. Tea being weak and tasteless is mainly due to coarse, old fresh leaves, excessive withering and water loss, or improper rolling. Summer/heat-season tea or winter-flush tea tends to be lighter, and early rains can also cause an overall weak taste.

(六) Moldy Taste. If tea is stored for too long or improperly, absorbing moisture from the air and breeding mold, it becomes damp and develops a moldy taste. The tea thus deteriorates and loses its unique aromatic characteristics.