Tea Tasting - How do you do it?

[auhckw]

Not sure this was discussed before, but how do you do your tea tasting? Slurp, Sip, Swallow, Gurgle, Bite?

Or perhaps like this lipton expert?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CezYHsqzW0w

[debunix]

Sniff, sip, slurp, sip....that about covers it.

[Mr. Usaji]

Here's an article about professional tea tasters—the people who make British-style tea blends. The author doesn't seem to know much about tea, though.

pu-erh, an aged green tea...that looks like a squashed cow pat and tastes a bit like one, too. But no one cares about that, because apparently it helps reduce fat and cholesterol and is good for weight loss.

I'm kind of surprised she would uncritically believe that stuff...of course, all Chinese tea seems to be marketed that way, but you'd expect journalists to check those claims before reporting them as fact.

Anyway, it's an interesting article about what tea tasters' jobs are like.

[auhckw]

Yesterday I was taught on how to taste tea in this manner. In general, the method can be used to taste other liquids such as water, juice, wine, etc.

Basically, your upper lips should not touch the cup. Your lower lips to be intact with the cup. Suck the tea directly into the end of your tongue and let it flow gracefully down the throat. The taste at your throat defines the 'After taste'. The longer the 'After taste' the better the quality is.

While sucking the tea. There should be this sucking sound. You should not tilt your head up. The cup should remain horizontal. The tea should bypass your teeth and front portion of your tongue directly to the back of your tongue. The tea should not be spread out throughout your mouth. Once the tea is at the back of your tongue, let it flow into your throat. Don't swallow it.

Tea Tasting is much easier when tea is hot but not burning hot. Temperature around 60-80 degrees should be fine. You should not burn your tongue if you sucked it to the back of your tongue correctly. Also when doing tea tasting, you should stay focus and do not talk.

Not an easy task... Burnt my tongue and choked cause sucked too hard. Need a lot of practice

[JRS22]

I'm an amateur so all I do is sniff and sip. I was inspired by the first round of OTTIs to purchase 2 tasting sets from Adagio. Now it's easier to brew small amounts of different teas for comparison.

[debunix]

Basically, your upper lips should not touch the cup. Your lower lips to be intact the the cup. Suck the tea directly into the end of your tongue and let it flow gracefully down the throat. The taste at your throat defines the 'After taste'. The longer the 'After taste' the better the quality is.

While sucking the tea. There should be this sucking sound. The tea should bypass your teeth and front portion of your tongue directly to the back of your tongue. The tea should not be spread out throughout your mouth. Once the tea is at the back of your tongue, let it flow into your throat. Don't swallow it.

I think I am basically doing this already, especially with some of the young puerh that can be a bit bitter: I suck the tea past the front of the tongue, where a lot of the receptors are concentrated, so am able to bypass the worst of the bitter and concentrate on enjoying the part of the flavor that I enjoy most.

[Geekgirl]

Basically like I do wine tasting, except modified a bit for HOT.

[nickE]

Sniff, sip, enjoy!

Also, don't be distracted.