Madhav Sarda - Managing Director Golden Tips Tea
The Art of Tea
Tasting
The love for the
elixir made the British to do some industrial reconnaissance and bring the
seeds of Camellia Sinensis to the foothills of the mighty Himalayas –
Darjeeling. With an altitude between 1200- 6,000 ft above sea level, steep
slopes, ample humidity, rainfall, shade, mist and acidic soils – Darjeeling is
blessed with a unique terrain which infuses ‘magic’ into its teas. These teas
are one of the most loved beverages in the globe, but there is a lot that goes
on before the final product reaches your cup.
The job of a tea
taster has gained mythical proportions over the years. In fact, tea tasting is
an art which requires years of focused training to understand the goodness of
tea and eventually differentiate between suitable requirements for the appropriate
blend consistently.
Tea tasting is a
process by which a trained taster assesses the quality of a particular tea and
in some ways it is similar to wine tasting as it uses four basic steps i.e.,
visual, smell, taste and touch. Identification of the difference in aroma and
flavour between various teas is a prerequisite of a tea taster. Thereafter, the
taster gives expert advice on the various ways in which tea can be brewed in
order to achieve a particular taste. Tea tasters also help to brand the tea
varieties according to their quality. A master tea taster describes the tea and
values it after tasting. So, they need to have their taste buds alive to
understand and differentiate the contents of taste.
As tea is
manufactured across the world, a taster needs to consider topography, climatic
conditions, manufacturing process and evaluate the different clones of the
beverage. Be it Black Tea, White Tea, Oolong Tea or Green tea, the flavour and
taste of each tea is different. A trained taster needs to ascertain the quality
prior to sale or if they are considering blending it with other tea.
During peak tea
season, a taster deals with hundreds of samples a day. He evaluates the teas
based on his expertise and experience.
The Tea Tasting
Process
The 3 “T’s” play a
major role in brewing tea –Temperature, Time and Teapot
- Temperature:
The temperature plays a very important role while preparing a good tea. In
fact, each variety of tea, from green to black, needs to be prepared at a
different range of temperature. Because of its more delicate processing, green
tea often needs a cooler temperature to bring out the right flavour. Black tea
on the contrary, due to its full oxidation, needs hotter water to bring
out its characteristic sweetness and aroma.
- Time: Different kinds of tea
require different durations of time to brew. Generally, delicate teas such as
green tea need to be brewed for shorter times, while energetic black teas
benefit from longer brewing (2-3 mins for Green and 3-5 mins for Black).
-Teapot material: The material of the teapot
also impacts the quality of the brew. When considering a teapot, it is
important to consider the kind of tea and the temperature at which it is
prepared. Materials like iron are excellent at retaining heat, while glass or
porcelain dissipate heat quickly. Therefore, iron and similarly heavy materials
are better for teas that need to be prepared at high temperatures, such as
black tea. Green and white teas, on the other hand, need a pot that stays cool
like glass and porcelain.
A tea taster needs
to have great control over his sensory organs. For example:
Sight – Whatever be your choice of
tea, the leaf has to be dry, free of moisture content and the tea should not
stick onto each other. During screening of the teas, a taster would place part
of dry tea on a clean white screening paper and observe the leaf colour, size
and consistency in shape and style
Smell – The first sense that is
evoked in tasting is the smell as it is the nose that tells us whether we like
what we are about to taste. A tea taster uses deep inhalations to determine the
aroma of tea.
Taste – A deep breath before the
taster slurps the brewed tea into the mouth. While doing so, the taster is
allowing tea as well as ample oxygen to pass over all the taste receptors on
the tongue as this will give an even profile of the tea. The initial
impression that you have is the headnote – what you first felt while tasting.
The secondary or the body note is the lasting impression. Finally, you get an
aftertaste that will linger for sometime. All the three notes help you in
determining the quality of tea.
What does it
Entail to be a Tea Taster
• Tea tasters need
their Olfactory nerves alive so that they identify the kind of fragrances that
are released by the tea samples in question.
• Knowledge of
cultivation and manufacturing processes in a tea plantation such as tea kinds,
varieties, and grades and again the characters of the resulting liquors.
• They should also
be away from certain habits like smoking, alcohol, and tasting strong spicy
foods.
• Tea tasters
should be knowledgeable about the tea market and keep abreast about changing
market forces, and should be willing to undertake strenuous work.
Drinking tea alone
can be a meditative experience, but to get the most out of tea, try to drink it
with others. It is like reading your syllabus alone or in a classroom where
discussions lead to more learning and better results.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR:
Well known Tea Taster and Managing Director of Golden Tips
Teas, Madhav Sarda was born and brought up in Darjeeling. With over 4 decades of tea
tasting experience majorly with Darjeeling & Assam orthodox Teas, he
personally tastes and selects each tea, assisted by his colleagues, which
eventually bears the Golden Tips stamp, to ensure that customers get the
perfect cup every time. His passion to make Darjeeling Teas available to
connoisseurs in India and worldwide - not only pure and fresh, but also at
reasonable prices, and in attractive packaging directly from the source -
continues unabated. An avid whistler, he is truly a music lover. His album ‘Mesmerising
Melodies’ is about his passion for those evergreen Hindi Film songs of
the yore that we all love to hum.
‘Mesmerising
Melodies”: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRuexhSzFkM
Golden
Tips Tea: https://www.goldentipstea.in/