The Quality of Tea: What is Cupping?
How does one assess the quality of tea? There is a technique called tea cupping that is similar to wine tasting. With tea, it is important to assess not only in appearance, but also in taste. The taste is the greatest factor in determining the quality of tea. It is important as a seller of tea and as a tea connoisseur to have your taste buds constantly practicing the tasting of tea. The more you taste, the better you will become at telling the differences of the same type of tea, even though it might be grown in the same year.First, you take a look at the dry leaves and note the color and appearance of them. You judge the dry leaves by the color and appearance before adding water. Then smell the leaves by putting them under your nose. Note the scent of the leaves and if the scent is light or strong.
Heating up the water to the right temperature and pour water over the leaves in a cup. Then note the movement of the leaves. Spoon out the leaves before the steeping time is up, and scoop the leaves on a saucer. Look at the wet leaves and not the appearance, texture and scent in the "wet" appearance section of your notes.
The last section of the cupping process is judging the product itself. Write your observations down in the "liquor" section of your journal/notes. Look at the tea and note the color, how cloudy, if it is even, thick or thin in color. Smell the tea and record what it smells like. Finally, take a sip of the tea to taste it and note the flavor.
There are some similarities between wine tasting and tea cupping. Wine glasses and tea cups both let the liquid speak or itself, or at least it should. If you use wine to relax, then tea can also do the same thing. The greatest advantage of tea is that you can consume more of it than wine without causing harm to yourself and others.
~Claire L.
Frontier High School