Tea Tasting Techniques for Beginners

1. Morning Tasting: It is recommended to start tasting tea in the morning, after thoroughly cleaning and rinsing your mouth. This is the time when the tongue has not been exposed to many foods or drinks, and the sensitivity of the taste buds is optimal. Our tongue has approximately 8,000 taste buds, each containing 50 taste receptor cells. This means we have hundreds of thousands of taste receptor cells to perceive the flavors of tea, allowing us to detect sour, salty, sweet, bitter, and umami (savory) tastes.

2. Optimal Tea Temperature: Start tasting tea at a temperature below 71°C, with the ideal being around 65°C to avoid tongue burns and to reduce suspended tea particles. This is also the temperature at which water molecules carrying flavor components of tea move rapidly, enhancing the perception of flavors. You can try tasting tea at different temperature intervals from 70°C to 65°C to 55°C to 45°C, every 5-7 minutes, using porcelain or glass cups to experience the change in tea flavor. The beverage tends to have a more balanced taste at lower temperatures and might taste sweeter when consumed at higher temperatures.

Research by Lu et al. (2016) found that responses to sucrose, glucose, fructose, and maltose are maximal at temperatures between 35°C and 39°C and decrease at both colder and hotter temperatures.