If you want to taste tea, you need to put in a lot of effort. Generally, most people just drink some tea to pass the time or refresh themselves. Few people can truly taste tea properly. Below, I will introduce several scientific methods of tasting tea, hoping everyone can learn from them.

Several Scientific Methods of Tasting Tea

1) Appreciate the Shape

China's basic tea categories include six major types: green tea, black tea, oolong tea, yellow tea, white tea, and dark tea. Each type of tea has a distinctive shape. Green tea has the richest variety of shapes: West Lake Longjing tea is flat and smooth, shaped like a "bowl nail"; Biluochun tea is curly like a snail; Nanjing Yuhua tea is needle-shaped; Huangshan Maofeng tea is orchid-shaped; Huangshan Green Peony is chrysanthemum-shaped; Lu'an Guapian consists of individual pieces; oolong tea can be granular or strip-shaped; some describe Tieguanyin as "shaped like Guanyin, heavy as iron"; black tea can be strip-shaped or broken; yellow tea can be single-bud, flat, sparrow-tongue, or ring-shaped; white tea can be bud-shaped or orchid-shaped; Pu'er tea comes in cake form, and so on.

2) Observe the Liquor Color

Different teas should have different standard liquor colors. For example, green tea should be bright green and clear; black tea should be bright red and vivid; Tieguanyin should be bright orange-yellow. Common terms used in tea evaluation include "clear," indicating that the tea liquor is bright and lustrous. Tea liquor is considered best when clear and pure; if it contains tea dust or other particles, the liquor color will be murky and cloudy, indicating inferior quality.

3) Smell the Aroma

Aroma refers to the aromatic substances inherent in the tea leaves. Smelling the aroma can be divided into two types: smelling the aroma before brewing and after brewing. The aroma before brewing is carried out during the tea appreciation stage. While observing the dry tea's shape and color, you can first smell the dry tea's aroma; after the teapot has been warmed with hot water and the tea leaves have been added, you can cover the lid for a few seconds to let the heat in the teapot bring out the tea's aroma, then smell it again; the aroma will be more distinct. The aroma released after the tea leaves are brewed with hot water is the post-brewing aroma.

Warm tip: The methods above are only part of the process. Hopefully, they can help everyone develop a correct understanding of tea tasting. Of course, you can also taste tea by its flavor, and the effect will be different. The human sense of smell is very sensitive, allowing you to taste sour, sweet, bitter, and spicy notes.