How I Review a Tea

A couple days ago, someone asked me how I went about reviewing teas. I realized that an explanation might make for an interesting blog post. So here goes:

I chose a tea for review based on what I feel like drinking, what I have on hand and what I have lately been reviewing. I try to offer my readers a balance between flavored/unflavored, green/black/white/oolong, and bagged/looseleaf teas.

In fairness to the many tea companies that are kind enough to send me samples for review, I do try and also mix up brands. As I note on my disclosure page, receiving a sample doesn’t obligate me to actually review it, but I nonetheless feel it only fair to give due consideration to samples sent to me.

Upon first tasting a tea, I always prepare it according to package instructions: After all, people who buy the tea will be doing the same thing, and my review is going to be useless to them unless the tea is prepared to a similar standard.

After the first tasting, I will often experiment a bit. For example I might:

• Prepare the tea in a different sort of brewing vessel (i.e. a gaiwan)
• Use different leaf/water proportions
• Lower or raise water temperature
• Add sweetener or milk (rarely, and only with black teas)
• Prepare the tea as an iced tea
• Consume the tea with specific foods (chocolate is a favorite)

My teas are always prepared with filtered water, and I use a thermometer to gauge the water temperature. Tea leaf is measured either with a teaspoon or with a gram scale, depending on the size of the leaf (the gram scale is a better choice with large leaf teas).I make sure to carefully clean my teaware prior to preparation.

If I am reviewing a bagged tea, I always make sure that I am using the appropriate amount of water for the tea by measuring the capacity of my mug or cup.

For the review itself, I do the following:

• I examine the dry leaf carefully, and give it a good sniff, noting any interesting characteristics.
• After infusing and decanting the tea, I repeat the sniffing and noting.
• I drink the tea and record my observations.

As noted earlier, I have usually consumed a tea several times before writing up a review: This is especially true if I don’t like a tea or if I have had inconsistent results in various tastings.

One other thing: I think that there is a difference between offering an opinion on and writing a review of a tea.  If I truly love a tea, I will not hesitate to say so, but I also recognize that while I may not be crazy about a tea, it may well suit other people.

For that reason, I pay particular attention to the balance of flavor, to whether added flavorings are of good quality, if a tea turns bitter quickly (or is otherwise temperamental) or if the package instructions are really off. I try to describe teas, rather than simply “rate” them, so that my reviews are of use to people who have different tastes than my own.

So this is how I review tea. What do you think?

Tagged as: tea, tea reviews