How to Recognize High Quality of Tea

For tea lovers, high quality of tea is really important, because the higher quality of the tea is higher the satisfaction taste of the tea, and also best health benefits that we can get from it. However, nowadays, there are so many types of tea with various quality in the market, high and low quality. Do you know how to recognize it? If you do not want to be cheated when you buy tea, you should know how to recognize the tea with high quality.

Actually, there are four factors that determine the quality of the tea. They are appearance, color, fragrance and taste. And they are all related, a tea with a good fragrance should have a good taste. So, in this article, we will highlight some factors that determine the high quality of tea in recognizing the best tea.

4 Factors that determine high quality of tea

Below are the explanation of some factors that determine the high quality of tea:

1. Appearance of High Quality Tea

Appearance of Dry Tea Leaves

The first thing you should check when you buy tea is the appearance of dry tea leaves. Generally, by checking it we can recognize whether the tea is high quality or low quality. Check their shape, size, and tenderness (softness) by spreading out a handful of tea leaves on the table. Since there are different standards for all shapes and sizes, depending on the variety, but as well for different kinds of tea. All high quality teas should be of approximately the same shape and size. In general, the longer, thinner, denser, the better. Tenderness is also a very important factor. The more tender, the better. Excellent tenderness means that the tea leaf is tight and the color is well-balanced. The leaves should be whole/unbroken without stems and twigs.

Appearance of Wet Tea Leaves

The tea leaves will absorb the water and then recover its original shape after steeping. The original shape can provide a lot of information about the tea quality. You will see that the tea leaves look completely natural like they were just picked from the trees. The high quality tea leaves when wet will not rebound (return to its original shape) after pressing by hand.

2. Color of High Quality Tea

Color of Dry Tea Leaves

A brighter color and well-shaped is characteristics of high quality tea. Generally, Different types of tea bringing the different requirement of tea color. For example green tea, there are dark, light, jade, yellow and a greyish green. In general, the deeper the color is the higher the quality.

Color of Wet Tea Leaves

New teas have bright and fresh colors. Aged tea would be a grey yellow and dark black color. In some cases like the raw Puerh teas and white tea bricks the quality can also be told by its fermenting degree. For green tea, light, clear and yellowish green is the best; for black tea, brilliant red is best; for Tieguanyin tea (an Oolong tea or Wulong tea) a bright green leaf with red trim is the best.

The color of the infusion
High quality tea shows a clear, bright and fresh look. The low quality tea has dull colors and looks watered down. In general, a bright color means rich taste and a lighter color means light taste.

3. Fragrance of High Quality Tea

The fragrance of dry tea leaves
To recognize the high quality tea can be done by putting a handful of the dry tea leaves near your nose and absorb the fragrance. Fresh tea and complete fired tea is surely more fragrant than low quality tea and water-full tea, in which too much water remains in the leaf, the result of unskilled processing.

The fragrance of the infusion

The tea species, origin, season and picking and processing method can be affected to the fragrance. Each tea has its unique fragrance. Black tea should have a sweet fragrance. Good green tea is fresh and subtle en not harsh or grassy; oolong tea has fruit and flower aromas. Normally, the long-lasting, fresh fragrance is the best. The low quality tea will have smoky, burning, sour, harsh, acid, musty and stale flavor. Once you gain some experience, you will recognize whether you're drinking a low or high quality tea after the first sip.

However, you should be careful since some tea vendors add fragrances or additives to the tea in order to cover the low quality tea leaves used. You can always judge the quality by its appearance so when opening the package, try to checking the tea leaves first.

4. Taste of High Quality Tea

The taste of the infusion

Since tea is an exclusive beverage, its value is determined by the taste. As we know that different parts of the tongue are sensitive to different taste, the tip of your tongue senses sweet, the tongue root senses bitterness and the middle of the tongue is sensitive to a more harsh bitter taste. The less bitter the tea the better, best would be soothing. You can compare which is the high quality of tea or not. Commonly, the high quality tea may initially have a bitter taste and then it will become sweet. The low quality tea will have a bitter taste before and after.

So, these are the ways or factors that we can check in recognizing the high quality of tea. Hopefully, this article will be useful for you.

(summarized from many sources)