Brewing tea for the purpose of collecting is different from brewing for daily enjoyment. With daily drinking, one can brew and taste casually. But when the purpose is collecting, the objectivity of the brewing and tasting is a matter of business, allowing no room for error. Drawing on more than ten years of experience in tea procurement, I offer some observations on appraisal brewing. This is a major topic, and I hope my practical overview will serve as a starting point for broader discussion.
Over the years, I have tasted tea almost every day, constantly reflecting on and refining my brewing and appraisal methods. In summary, our procurement appraisal process is divided into three stages: initial screening, re-appraisal, and final appraisal.
Stage One: Initial Screening
At this stage, there are many samples to evaluate, sometimes arriving from multiple sources all at once, requiring an efficient, precise, and rapid brewing method. Over roughly a decade, we have acquired tens of tonnes of tea. Only a few dozen selections reached bulk scale (half a tonne or more), while countless teas were eliminated. One might say we chose one in a hundred. So how exactly do we screen? We use a method I call “batch brewing, progressive elimination.”
For example, if there are eight sample teas before us, we divide them into two groups of four for simultaneous brewing. This saves time while allowing comparison. Consistent teaware is essential: identical teapots or gaiwan, tasting cups, and fairness pitchers, to eliminate variability from the vessels. The tea-to-water ratio is also consistent: for every 100 cc, use 7 g for raw tea and 6 g for ripe tea. After adding water, we steep and pour out sequentially, as quickly and consistently as possible to minimize differences in steeping time. If using a Yixing teapot, pour through the fairness cup; with a gaiwan, pour from both sides simultaneously.
During initial screening, we employ three techniques: “aroma first impression, taste to assess inner quality, and leaf base to trace the cause.” Aroma, tea liquor, and spent leaves are closely related and can cross-verify each other, improving appraisal accuracy. We also apply a “one-strike veto” system: any abnormal aroma triggers immediate elimination, such as excessive greenness in new raw tea, scorched aroma in ripe Pu-erh, or off-odors in aged raw Pu-erh. A thin, muddled liquor also triggers elimination, as does a leaf base showing serious flaws, such as dull, lifeless leaves in raw tea or over-fermented, carbonized leaves in ripe tea.
During brewing, we typically do three quick infusions (steeping 5-10 seconds), one short steep (about 1 minute), and one deep steep (3 minutes). The first three infusions are for aroma and taste; the longer steeps test “steeping endurance” and “infusion durability.”
“Aroma first impression” involves several approaches: smelling the liquor in the fairness pitcher, the cup-lingering fragrance, and the spent leaf aroma, combining them to assess inner quality. The fairness pitcher should ideally be tall, with a generous capacity and a moderately wide opening, to facilitate sniffing. Rich, pure, and pleasant aromas generally indicate good quality; faint, muddled, or unpleasant aromas indicate mediocrity or poor quality. If a “one-strike veto” situation arises during sniffing, the tea is eliminated, though verification through tasting and leaf inspection is also possible.
“Taste to assess inner quality” involves two approaches: a light taste and a careful taste. Teas that performed poorly in the aroma stage merit only a light taste; if it confirms the initial impression, we stop there. For instance, if the aroma was faint and diffuse, we can preliminarily judge the liquor as thin and lacking aftertaste, often “vanishing upon swallowing.” A single light taste confirms the judgment, and the tea is eliminated. Teas that performed well in the aroma stage require careful tasting: savoring the flavors and mouthfeel in detail, cross-verifying with the aroma assessment, and making preliminary estimates about the leaf base (especially useful in blind tasting). It is important to note that tasting multiple teas in succession can dull the palate, so brief intervals between samples are advisable, and rinsing the mouth with plain water when necessary.
The “leaf base reveals the cause” stage is mainly for cross-verifying the aroma and taste judgments and identifying the material factors behind the observed qualities. Because substance is primary: aroma and liquor are external expressions that must have corresponding internal factors, which can be discerned through the spent leaves. We have a tea saying: “A person is judged by vitality; a tea is judged by its liveliness.” Whether raw or ripe, a fine tea will have spent leaves full of vitality. For example, an aged raw Pu-erh with plump, glossy, well-transformed leaves that emit a pure, rich fragrance when sniffed corresponds to the aromatic richness and depth of the liquor.
Stage Two: Re-appraisal
At the re-appraisal stage, we use single-tea detailed brewing, multi-method repeated brewing, and group tastings to evaluate thoroughly.
Single-tea detailed brewing means brewing only one tea and tasting it carefully, verifying the judgments from the initial screening. We typically use the standard daily brewing method: “brew and taste at leisure.” This is how a tea is primarily enjoyed once it reaches the tea drinker. Our daily brewing is roughly as follows: filtered home water, boiled in an electric kettle; teapot or gaiwan chosen according to the tea; raw tea at 100 cc to 7 g, ripe tea at 100 cc to 6 g; a straightforward, standard brewing approach. A good tea in the eyes of ordinary tea drinkers is not finicky; it tastes good brewed any way.
Another approach is multi-method repeated brewing. Once a tea passes the “brew and taste at leisure” test, we change vessels and methods to repeatedly brew it, with the aim of “knowing its strengths and discerning its weaknesses.” For example, using a large leaf-to-water ratio amplifies the tea’s characteristics and tests the strength of the tea’s energy; using extended steeping can reveal whether an aged raw Pu-erh develops the “cold clouding” phenomenon (often a sign of quality); using a thermos or boiling method extracts the maximum water-soluble substances, most easily exposing flaws, while also revealing whether pleasant surprises can be coaxed out. For raw Pu-erh, the spent leaves can be chewed to directly and comprehensively experience the flavor compounds. The spent leaves can also be rolled into tea balls; teas rich in inner substances will have abundant pectin in the leaves, allowing them to be formed into balls. Through multiple brewing methods, the re-appraisal conclusion can generally be reached.
Author: Old Tea Head · Lin Shen (LamSam)
Zen Tea Manor ZENTEA MANOR
Tianying Supply Chain Company
www.zentea-shop.com
