Found this stuff on another cool tea website, this one focuses on Oolong aka Wu Long tea only.
What Influences Tea Taste
Tea taste is influenced by many factors: The time of year it's picked, which leaves are picked, the processing, the actual growing region, and the knowledge of the vendor. These are all major influences in the final taste of whichever tea you enjoy whether Wu-long, green, Pu-erh etc...
The good news is there are such a wide variety of amazing tasting teas to be discovered that understanding what words are used to describe the taste is a big help in choosing a tea.
Let's talk about descriptive terms related to all types of teas
Remember, this is subjective and varies from person to person!
Here are some basic tea taste concepts:
- Aroma: The odor of the tea as it steams from your cup. The more complex the better, often called a "bouquet".
- Astringency: the polyphenols in tea (the healthy antioxidants) create a "puckery" sensation usually on the side of the tongue.
- Body: The sensation of weight experienced in the mouth. Usually, thin, medium, full.
- Full: Describes liquor possessing color, strength, substance and roundness, as opposed to empty.
- Thick: Describes liquor having substance, but not necessarily strength.
- Thin/weak: Describes tea liquor lacking thickness and strength.
- Toasty - describes the liquor of the brewed tea. Usually this term is used when the tea is "over fired" during the manufacturing process. (Can be bad but not always).
Terms Descriptive of Poor Taste - All Teas
Bakey: Usually occurs when a tea is subjected to higher than normal temperatures during the baking process. Typically unpleasant to the taste.
Cheesy: An undesirable character suggestive of slightly rancid butter, generally attributed to insufficiently seasoned or inferior chest battens.
Common: Inferior teas with little or no distingushing character. Plain. Grocery store teas fall into this catagory. Better worse than plain!
Earthy: Can also be described as moldy, musty, dank etc... Typically occurs when teas are stored under poor conditions.
Empty: When the tea liquor lacks body and substance, this term is appropriate.
Woody: Tea taster's term indicating an undesirable grassy characteristic.
Terms Descriptive of Good Taste - All Teas.
Biscuity: Tea taster's expression, often used with Assam teas that have been fired well but not overly so. A not unpleasant character reminiscent of biscuits.
Black Currant: An extremely desirable characteristic occasionally noticeable in the liquors and infusions of fine darjeelings, akin to the aroma emitted by black currant bushes.
Cream(y): Round, smooth the precipitate which is apparent when the liquor of a good strong tea cools. It is a combination of catechin with caffeine. This remains a solution in the hot tea infusions. On cooling, this is thrown out of solution and so remains suspended but after long standing settles at the bottom. A bright cream indicates a good tea, whereas a dull or muddy cream is indicative of an inferior tea.
Full: Strong tea without bitterness and possessing good color,
Fruity Flavor nuance found in quality teas such as oolongs and Keemuns. Also describes fruit flavored teas.
Remember the above are subjective taste characteristics that are "agreed on" in the tea drinking community at large.
So ultimately, it's a matter of degree of flavor elements, which mainly influences the taste of wu long or any tea for that matter. You be judge...and enjoy!
Hopefully I got the url correct here.
This is the site I got the above information from.
I love copy and paste... ^_^
Btw two things:
Firstly, I am finally getting my courage up and playing the Japanese version of Pokemon Ruby at last! It's not as difficult to understand as I had feared... YET!
And secondly, Steve Jobs died which SUX.
Amazingly creative guy.
We (the world) lost a special person today.
I feel kinda sad, even though I am not a Mac fan.
:(
At least he isn't suffering anymore, but it still sux big time that he's gone.
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