How
do you know whether you're getting good tea? It's hard if you buy
it ready packaged. Then you'll have to learn by trial and error.
It's easier when you can see your tea and buy it loose, as it is
sold in some shops. The four criteria for good tea are appearance,
color, aroma, and flavor. Here are a few guidelines, but individual
teas provide many exceptions, as you will see in chapter twelve.
Appearance.Quality green tea should be clean and
taut with leaf and bud in one piece. Such leaf sets also indicate
that the leaves are young and tender therefore more flavorful.
Quality runs in a descending order from bud/ one leaf, bud/ two
leaves, and so on. Teas with incomplete leaves and bits are inferior
quality. Exceptions are blends, which are composed of more than one
kind of tea, broken black, and of course compressed teas.
Color.
Quality tea leaves are glossy rather than dull. A properly made
infusion should be clear, and with clear, bright color as a rule,
reddish for black tea, yellowish green for green tea, a lively
orange-brown to dark brown for oolong. Pu-erh is darker. Quality tea
never produces a dull or muddy liquid.
Aroma.
Oolong and black tea, because they are fermented, have more aroma
than ordinary green unscented tea. There are many variations and
exceptions.
Flavor.
Fine tea should have a
smooth, fresh taste. For green tea it should be fresh and light, and
for black, stronger. Any hint of sharpness indicates that there is
an imbalance of the tea's components. Bitterness is from excessive
caffeine, over-sweetness from rich amino acids, harshness from
tannins. Exceptions to the fresh taste rule are Pu-erh and other
compressed teas, and Liubao.
The
best tea comes from the early spring picking. The Chinese names
frequently let you know this. Names denoting picking times are:
spring tea: Chunfen, Qingming, and Guyu; summer tea: Lixia and
Mangzhong; autumn tea: Liqiu and Bailu. Green tea should be used
within a year after harvesting.
Teas directly from China are sold packaged under a number of brand
names, in addition to the name of the specific tea. Other teas sold
under major company labels may also be Chinese or a mixture of teas
from China and other countries. Several big packers, including
Twinings, Lipton, First Colony, and Grace, have their own lines of
Chinese teas.
It
is often wiser to buy a somewhat more expensive grade than the
cheapest grade, for with the latter you may have to use a lot of tea
and still may not get good flavor. Since a pound of tea makes at
least 200 cups, even the most expensive tea is a low-priced
beverage.
