| # |
Terms Describing Liquors |
| Bakey |
Over-fired liquor Tea in which too much moisture has been driven off |
| Body |
Liquor having both fullness and strength, as opposed to being thin |
| Bright |
Denotes a lively fresh tea with good keeping quality. |
| Brisk |
the most "live" characteristic. Results from good manufacture |
| Burnt |
Extreme over-firing |
| Character |
An attractive taste, specific to origin, describing teas grown at high altitudes |
| Coarse |
Describes harsh, undesirable liquor |
| Coloury |
Indicates useful depth of colour and strength |
| Cream |
A precipitate obtained after cooling |
| Dry |
Indicates slight over-firing. |
| Dull |
Not clear, and lacking any brightness or briskness |
| Earthy |
Normally caused by damp storage but also describes a taste that is sometimes "climatically inherent"
in teas from certain regions. |
| Flat |
Not fresh (usually due to age) |
| Flavour |
Most desirable extension of "character," caused by slow growth at high elevations. Relatively rare |
| Fruity |
Can be due to over-fermentation and/or bacterial infection before firing. An overripe taste |
| Full |
good combination of strength and colour. |
| Gone off |
A flat or old tea, Often denotes high moisture content |
| Green |
An immature, "raw" character. Often due to under fermentation (Sometimes under withering) |
| Harsh |
A taste generally due to under withered leaf, Very rough |
| High-Fried |
Over-fired but not bakey or burnt |
| Lacking |
Describes neutral liquor, No body or pronounced characteristics |
| Light |
Lacking strength and depth of colour |
| Malty |
A full, bright tea with a taste of malt |
| Mature |
not bitter or flat |
| Metallic |
A sharp Metallic taste |
| Musty |
Suspicion of mold |
| Plain |
A liquor that is "clean" but lacking in desirable characteristics. |
| Pungent |
Astringent with a good combination of briskness, brightness and strength |
| Quality |
Refers to "cup quality" and denotes a combination of the most desirable liquoring qualities. |
| Raw |
A bitter, unpleasant flavor |
| Soft |
The opposite of briskness, Lacking any "live" characteristic, Caused by inefficient fermentation and/or firing |
| Strength |
Substance in cup |
| Taint |
Characteristic or taste that is foreign to tea, such as oil, garlic, etc. Often due to being stored next to other commodities with strong characteristics of their own. |
| Thick |
Liquor with good colour and strength |
| Thin |
Insipid light liquor that lacks desirable characteristics |
| # |
Terms Describing Dry Leaf |
| Black |
A black appearance is desirable. |
| Blackish |
A satisfactory appearance for CTC |
| Bloom |
A sign of good manufacture and sorting is that the leaves have a bloom or sheen, which has not been removed by over handling or sorting. |
| Bold |
Particles of leaf, which are too large for the particular grade |
| Brown |
A brown appearance in teas that normally indicates overly harsh treatment of the leaf |
| Clean |
Leaf that is free from fiber, dust and all extraneous matter |
| Even |
True to the grade, consisting of pieces of leaf of fairly even size |
| Flaky |
Flat, open and often light in texture |
| Gray |
Caused by too much abrasion during sorting |
| Grainy |
describes primary grades of well-made CTC teas such as Pekoe Dust |
| Leafy |
a tea in which leaves tend to be on the large or long side. |
| Light |
A tea light in weight, of poor density. Sometimes flaky |
| Make |
Well-made tea (or not), true to its grade |
| Musty |
a tea affected by mildew |
| Neat |
A grade having good "make" and size |
| Nose |
The smell of the dry leaf. Different teas have different smell according to the type of soil in which they are grown and the altitude and climatic conditions of the region, which they are grown |
| Powdery |
Fine light dust. |
| Stalk & Fibre |
should be minimal in superior grades, but is generally unavoidable in lower-grade teas |
| Uneven |
“Uneven" pieces of leaf (mixed) usually indicative of poor sorting and not true to the particular grade |
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