Once processing is complete, tea from thousands of plantations must find a buyer. Tea production and quality in China are supervised by offices of a unified state enterprise responsible for exporting tea and other natural products. Based on highly precise criteria, quality standards have been established for specific teas, and each standard has its own number or code. A portion of the tea intended for export is carefully examined, sorted, and blended to obtain the required groups of uniform quality. Quality standards are determined with great expertise, so they do not fluctuate from year to year.
Only the highest-quality teas are sold directly to buyers at the plantations or production sites, and their names must state the plantation, harvest, and tea quality.
Tasters begin the evaluation process by assessing the tea’s appearance. The leaves must have the correct size, color, and shape; they must not be shriveled or crumble easily. Some higher-quality teas must have leaves covered with fine downy hairs and, of course, must be free of dust.
The aroma is assessed next and must correspond to the characteristic aroma of teas from that area. Particular care is taken to ensure that the tea has not absorbed any foreign odors.
Testing ends with an evaluation of the beverage. The assessed elements are color, aroma, and flavor. The evaluator must look at, smell, and taste tea prepared from the sample. Tea is evaluated in suitable rooms in daylight but away from direct sunlight to ensure a consistent perception of color. Tasters must be able to work without interruption.
Long tables stand in the center of the room, with the evaluation items arranged along them. Wooden boxes contain tea samples sent by processors.
In the front row are bowls containing a precisely weighed amount for preparing the beverage—2.2 grams of leaves. Closer to the tasters are lidded bowls for preparing the tea, and in the nearest row are cups into which the finished beverage is poured.
The taster decides how many minutes the tea will remain in the water, although the usual time is three to five minutes.
Tea is tasted by loudly slurping it from a spoon so that the beverage reaches the back of the tongue, allowing the taster to sense its strength, astringency, and pleasantness and evaluate the tea’s quality.
Like a sommelier, the taster does not swallow the liquid but spits it out after tasting.
Tradition requires tasting from right to left, moving from weaker to stronger samples. After the evaluation, the taster prepares a formula for blending the tasted varieties. Based on this formula, producers create blends of the appropriate standard and quality for the market.
