Comparative Tasting, Blind Tasting, and Tasting Notes
Progress in tea mostly doesn't come from drinking more expensive tea, but from "comparison." Drink a tea on its own and it all seems fine; set it beside another and the differences in aroma intensity, body, and speed of huigan become clear at once. Comparative tasting, blind tasting, and tasting notes are three simple but effective practices.
How to Compare Several Teas at Once
There's only one basic principle: apart from the tea, keep every condition the same.
- Same teaware: Two identical gaiwans or evaluation cups, and identical white porcelain cups.
- Same leaf amount: Use a scale accurate to 0.1 g, for example 3 g or 5 g each.
- Same water: The same kettle of boiling water, poured at the same time.
- Same time: Time them together and pour off together.
- Same order: First look at the liquor color, then smell, then taste, and finally look at the spent leaves.
The most convenient approach is to borrow the evaluation method: 3 g of tea, 150 ml of boiling water, 2 minutes for the first infusion and 5 minutes for the second; see The Standard Evaluation Procedure. If you want to see how well a tea holds up over infusions, you can also compare 6–8 infusions in a row using everyday gaiwan brewing.
Things to Watch When Comparing
- Keep temperatures even: The cup poured first cools first, so alternate as you drink.
- Rotate the order: The first tea you drink tends to be over- or underestimated, so switch the order in the second round.
- Cleanse your palate: Take a sip of warm water or a small bite of a plain soda cracker between teas.
- Keep the environment clean: No perfume, and not next to cooking fumes.
- Don't rush to conclusions: Drink at least three infusions before judging; some teas are plain early on and only shine later.
- Spit or swallow: When comparing many teas at once, take small sips and spit them out to avoid drinking too much.
Can You Compare Raw and Ripe Together?
You can drink them at the same table, but we don't recommend scoring them against each other. Raw and ripe tea follow two different paths with different standards for aroma, liquor color, and taste: raw tea is judged on freshness, aroma, and whether bitterness and astringency dissolve; ripe tea on mellowness, smooth sweetness, and the absence of pile aroma. Judging ripe tea by raw tea's standards, or vice versa, isn't fair.
When comparing, it's best to compare like with like: young raw against young raw, ripe against ripe, aged raw against aged raw. If you must drink raw and ripe in the same session, go raw before ripe, light before strong, young before old, so the mellowness of ripe tea doesn't drown out the details of raw tea. The differences between raw and ripe are in Raw Pu'er and Ripe Pu'er.
How Many Teas at Once?
- Beginners: 2 teas. The differences are clearest, and it's the least tiring.
- A bit more experienced: 3–4 teas, for example different villages within the same region, or different years of the same tea.
- Professional evaluation: A dozen or more at once, but that takes training and spitting.
For practice at home, 3 teas is usually the limit. Taste and smell fatigue; by the fifth or sixth tea, your impressions of the first ones blur.
What to Write in Tasting Notes
A simple set of notes needs just these:
| Field | Example |
|---|---|
| Basic info | Tea name, raw or ripe, year, region, where purchased |
| Brewing conditions | Leaf amount, water volume, water temperature, teaware, time per infusion |
| Dry leaf | Tight, firm leaves; dark olive with yellow |
| Liquor color | First infusion pale gold, bright |
| Aroma | Honey when hot, still sweet when cold |
| Taste | Light bitterness, clear sweetness, medium body |
| Mouthfeel and finish | Quick huigan, shengjin at the cheeks |
| Spent leaves | Yellow-green, soft and springy |
| One line | "Sweet and clean, good for the afternoon" |
There's no need to write it like an evaluation report; your own words are fine. What matters is recording the conditions clearly so you can compare next time. You can take photos of the liquor color and spent leaves with your phone and attach them to your notes.
How to Do a Blind Tasting
Blind tasting means judging by your senses alone, without seeing names or packaging; it's the best way to avoid preconceptions.
- Ask a family member or friend to weigh out 2–3 teas, label the bottoms of the cups with numbers, and not tell you which is which.
- Brew and compare under identical conditions.
- Write down a description of each, and guess which tea, which region, and which year it is.
- Finally, reveal the answers and compare with your notes.
Blind tasting is often surprising: the tea you assumed was expensive may not stand out, and an affordable tea may taste great. That's exactly the value of blind tasting.
How to Practice Identifying Mountains
Identifying the mountain a tea comes from is a goal for many tea lovers, and also the hardest thing to do; even veteran tea people often get it wrong. A more practical way to practice:
- Establish a baseline first: Find one or two representative teas from a region with a clear provenance, drink them repeatedly, and memorize their aroma and taste characteristics.
- Compare in pairs: For example, drink Menghai and Yiwu, or Bingdao and Xigui, side by side and pick out the most obvious differences.
- Control variables: Compare teas from the same year and season as much as possible, so you don't mistake differences of age for differences of region.
- Verify with blind tasting: Once you're familiar, test yourself blind.
Remember that season, tree age, processing, and storage all affect flavor; being able to say a tea is "in the style of a certain region" is already no small feat, and there's no need to demand accuracy down to the village. Each region's style is in Regional Flavor Styles.
FAQ
How do I compare several teas at once? Use the same teaware, leaf amount, water, time, and order, for example 3 g of tea each with 150 ml of boiling water, poured and poured off at the same time.
How many teas should I taste at once? For beginners, 2 is clearest; with more experience, 3–4; beyond 5, your palate tires easily.
Can I compare raw and ripe together? You can drink them at the same table, but the standards differ, so we don't recommend scoring them against each other; at the same table, go raw before ripe, light before strong.
What should I write in tasting notes? The tea's basic info and brewing conditions, a line or two each on dry leaf, liquor color, aroma, taste, finish, and spent leaves, then a one-line summary.
How do I do a blind tasting? Have someone number the teas for you, compare them by your senses alone without seeing the packaging, write down your judgments, then reveal and compare.