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TASTING TEA
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Japan
Sencha |
Formosa
Oolong Finest |
South
India Black tea |
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| leaf appearance | green with no browning; Some are long and tightly rolled, some are broken pieces of tightly rolled leaves. | dried leaves are rolled more loosely and are more curly than the green or the black tea. | dry leaves are more tightly rolled than the oolong. |
| dry leaf taste | seaweed-like, remind me of nori. This is a good quality to me - I like nori and the smell of seaweed. | almost flowery with a sweetness (not sugary.) | crunchy with a tannic bite I associate typically with "Indian black tea." |
| tea color | light and greenish gold. No browning is evident. | reddish brown and the bottom of cup clearly visible. A good bit darker than the green | barely darker than the oolong, though its harder to see to the bottom of the cup. |
| Aroma | light, vegetal, seaweedy, perhaps a tad salty | flowery aroma reminiscent of peaches or orchids | lovely - a sweet, honey aroma with a hint of lemon |
| Flavor | Delicate seaweed taste; clean, bright (perky, NOT dull), vegetal flavor. Haylike? Seaweedy? Grainy? | distinctive flowery flavor reminiscent of peaches or orchids | begins with honeysuckle, a big hello! There is slight lemon in the finish (The finish is the last part of the taste as it passes through your mouth. The last thing you remember.) |
| Body or texture | Smooth aftertaste with a hint of sweetness. | good body, with a pleasant buttery quality (in the mouth feel, not in the flavor). Unforgettable! | good body and pleasant, distinctive flavor. The tannin (puckering quality in your mouth) is evident. |
| Wet Leaves | Wet leaves in the infuser basket are a lively green and mostly broken, large pieces of tea leaves | greenish brown large pieces |
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Japan Sencha Additional Notes: Japan is known for producing the world’s finest green teas. Known as the white wines of tea. Green tea is in the media all the time with its outstanding health-giving properties. It is an anti-cancer agent. For some people, green tea takes some getting used to because its taste is so different from what we expect. But if you have patience and give this tea some attention, you will be rewarded by a very special tea adventure. This tea is the lowest in caffeine of our teas. Formosa Oolong Finest (Oolong Tea): The best oolongs in the world come from Formosa (now called Taiwan, island off the coast of China. The tea industry has kept the old name of Formosa because of its long history and special recognition as one of the world’s special teas.) This is another tea that is quite different than most of us are used to. Our palates (I know mine were) are so used to dull, lifeless, and probably stale teas usually served in teabags. Life is short, make your palate say WOW! This is a great afternoon or evening tea. I bit more caffeine than the green but not as much as black tea. South India SFTGFOP (Grahamsland Estate) When we talk about great black teas, we usually think of India or Ceylon. That’s because most of us have been brought up on Indian black teas. (We’ll taste some fabulous China black teas in a later tasting.) The initials SFTGFOP stand for Super-Fine Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe. The Orange Pekoe (peck’ - o) refers to the leaf size - larger leaf particles and whole leaves. For the best quality teas, the top two leaves and the top bud are picked ("two leaves and a bud.") Early in the growing season, these young buds have a golden color. Teas from this picking have light colored bud pieces and are called Golden Flowery OP. When there’re bunches of tips, Tippy GFOP is used. Super-Fine means super-fine on top of all that other good stuff! Don’t worry about all the initials, they’re relatively relative. A South India TGFOP from one estate may not be as good as the South India FOP from another estate. But ya’ gotta admit all the initials do look cool. This is a simple yet memorable tea for all-day drinking. It will definitely make you smack your lips! |