Smelling the Aroma: Type, Intensity, and Persistence

Aroma is the most captivating part of pu'er, and the hardest to put into words. The same cake smells different dry, hot, and cold; the same aroma might be "like honey" to one person and "like ripe fruit" to another. In evaluation, tea evaluators look at three things: aroma type (what it's like), intensity (how strong and lifted it is), and persistence (how long it lasts).

What Aromas Does Pu'er Have?

They can be roughly grouped into three families based on the tea's state:

The terms in each family have their own nuances, covered in Aroma Terms for Young Tea, Terms for Aged Aromas, and Aroma Terms for Ripe Tea. When you're starting out, being able to distinguish five broad categories, "floral, fruity, honey, woody, aged," is already very good.

How to Smell

Tea evaluators smell at three temperatures:

1. Hot: Right after pouring, while the cup is still hot. The aroma is strongest, so this is for identifying the aroma type.
2. Warm: After it cools a little. With the steam gone, off notes are harder to hide, so this is for judging purity.
3. Cold: Once completely cool. This shows how much aroma remains, for judging persistence.

Bring your nose close to the rim and inhale gently two or three times, 2–3 seconds each; don't keep inhaling deeply, as your sense of smell tires quickly. After smelling one tea, step away for a few seconds, smell the back of your hand, or take a few deep breaths to reset your nose.

Lid Aroma, Liquor Aroma, and Cup-Bottom Aroma

Brewing with a gaiwan at home, you can also smell aroma at three temperatures:

• Lid aroma: After pouring, lift the gaiwan lid and smell its underside. Aroma concentrates on the lid, making it the strongest and most lifted, equivalent to smelling hot.
• Liquor aroma: Smell the tea itself before drinking. It's softer than the lid aroma, carrying the warmth of the water, and lets you tell whether aroma and taste are consistent.
• Cup-bottom aroma: After drinking, smell the empty tasting cup. The aroma clinging to the walls changes as the cup cools, equivalent to smelling warm through cold. Good tea has a lasting cup-bottom aroma, still carrying a clean, sweet fragrance when cool, known as "cold aroma."

The three complement one another: a high lid aroma that vanishes quickly from the cup bottom means the aroma sits on the surface; a modest lid aroma with a lasting cup-bottom aroma often signals a tea with solid substance.

Aroma Intensity and Persistence

• High: Strong and lifted; it rushes up the moment you lift the lid.
• Low: Faint; you have to lean in to smell it.
• Lasting: Present from hot to cold, even after several infusions.
• Short: There while hot, gone as soon as it cools.

High isn't necessarily good: a lifted aroma that's impure or carries off notes rates lower, while an aroma that isn't high but is clean and lasting is characteristic of many aged and ripe teas. The evaluation terms "pure" (純正) and "pure and mild" (純和) mean exactly that: clean, without off odors.

Is Aroma Related to Region?

Yes, and it's one of the important clues tea lovers use to identify a region. Common views in the tea world:

• Around Yiwu: Soft aroma leaning toward honey and floral notes, often described as "lifted fragrance, soft liquor."
• Jingmai Mountain: Pronounced orchid and floral notes.
• Around Bingdao: Honey and sweet notes, with a sweet cold aroma too.
• Around Bulang Mountain in Menghai: A deeper aroma leaning toward honey and wild mountain notes, with a powerful taste.

But aroma is also affected by season, tree age, processing, and storage: spring tea is more aromatic than autumn tea, different pan-firing temperatures produce different aromas, and after a few years of storage, floral notes turn to honey and then to aged notes. So aroma can point you in a direction, but you can't identify a mountain from aroma alone. Each region's style is covered in Regional Flavor Styles.

Where Does Aroma Come From?

Aroma comes from hundreds of volatile compounds in the leaves. The floral and fruity notes of young tea are related to alcohols, esters, and similar compounds; during aging and pile fermentation, these compounds keep transforming, producing woody, aged-smelling compounds such as methoxybenzenes, which form the aged aroma. Details on the compounds are in Aroma Compounds.

How to Practice Smelling

• Smell everyday things often: honey, red dates (jujubes), camphor wood, dried lotus leaves, roasted sweet potato. Remember what they smell like, and you'll have something to match when you drink tea.
• Focus on finding just one aroma at a time, for example only "honey" today.
• Smell two teas side by side; the differences will be much clearer than smelling one alone.
• Write down the aromas you notice, and compare the next time you drink the same tea.

FAQ

What aromas does pu'er have? Young raw tea commonly shows floral, honey, fruity, and fresh notes; aged raw tea shows aged, woody, camphor, and lotus notes; ripe tea shows aged, jujube, glutinous rice, and sweet notes.

How should I smell tea? In three stages, hot, warm, and cold: hot to identify the type, warm to judge purity, cold to judge persistence, inhaling gently for 2–3 seconds each time.

What's the difference between lid, liquor, and cup aroma? Lid aroma is the strongest and most lifted; liquor aroma is softer and shows whether aroma and taste match; cup-bottom aroma, on the empty cup, best shows persistence and cold aroma.

Is aroma related to region? Yes. Yiwu is often called soft, Jingmai has orchid notes, Bingdao leans honey-sweet; but season, processing, and storage also change aroma, so you can't identify a mountain by aroma alone.