A Pocket Glossary of Pu'er Tasting Terms
When you drink pu'er with fellow tea lovers, you'll often hear some special terms: "This one has a quick huigan," "great mouthwatering effect," "strong cha qi." These words are the shared language of tea drinkers. Once you understand them, you'll find it easier to put your own impressions into words.
Flavor
Huigan (the sweet aftertaste): The sweetness that slowly rises back up in your mouth and throat after you swallow. Good pu'er has a pronounced, lasting huigan. The feeling of "sweetness after bitterness" is exactly what huigan is.
Bitterness turning sweet: There's bitterness on entry, but it fades quickly and turns into sweetness. The faster the bitterness transforms, the better the tea usually is.
Astringency: A puckering, drying sensation in the mouth, like biting into an unripe persimmon. With good tea, astringency fades quickly instead of lingering in the mouth.
Texture (mouthfeel): How the brew feels in your mouth, including its thickness, smoothness, and viscosity.
Thick: The brew is full and has a sense of weight, like holding a mouthful of substantial soup. The opposite is "thin" or "watery."
Smooth: The brew goes down easily, gliding over the throat without any catch.
Mellow: Rich, harmonious flavor without harshness, often used to describe ripe (shou) pu'er or aged tea.
Sweet: The sweetness of the brew itself. Unlike huigan, it's the sweetness you taste right on entry.
Mouth and Throat Sensations
Mouthwatering (salivation): The feeling of saliva continuously welling up in your mouth after drinking, leaving it moist and comfortable. By location, it can be on the cheeks, on the surface of the tongue, or under the tongue; tea lovers often consider a spring-like welling under the tongue to be the finest.
Throat feel (houyun): How your throat feels after swallowing. Good throat feel is moistening and comfortable, sometimes with a cooling sensation.
Throat-locking: The opposite of good throat feel: the throat feels dry, tight, and uncomfortable, usually a sign of a problem with the tea's quality or processing.
Lingering coating: The flavor the brew leaves on the walls of the mouth and throat. The longer it lasts, the better.
Aroma
Lid aroma: The aroma left on the inside of the gaiwan lid.
Cup-bottom aroma: The aroma remaining in the empty cup after drinking. Good tea has a lasting cup-bottom aroma, with a cold aroma that remains even after the cup cools.
Cold aroma: The aroma after the brew or the cup has cooled. It reveals a tea's underlying depth better than the hot aroma.
Honey aroma: A sweet, honey-like fragrance, common in teas from regions like Bingdao and Yiwu.
Orchid aroma: A high, lifted floral note like orchids, most often used to describe Jingmai tea.
Aged aroma: The aroma that develops as pu'er ages, clean and settled.
Camphor aroma: A scent similar to camphor wood, common in aged raw (sheng) pu'er.
Jujube aroma: A sweet scent similar to red dates, common in ripe pu'er.
Sticky-rice aroma: A scent similar to glutinous rice, found in some ripe pu'er.
Piling odor: The smell left by wet piling (wodui) in ripe pu'er. It's more noticeable in new ripe tea and fades with storage.
Storage odor: A smell picked up from the storage environment. A mild one can be aired out.
Overall Impression
Cha qi: The warm, relaxed feeling you get after drinking tea; tea lovers also use it to describe the strength of the brew. Cha qi is subjective, and everyone experiences it differently.
Layers: A tea showing different aromas and flavors across infusions and over time. The richer the changes, the better its layers.
Staying power: Holding its flavor through many infusions.
Mountain character: A phrase tea lovers use for the distinctive style of each tea mountain, such as the boldness of Lao Banzhang, the softness of Yiwu, and the sweetness of Bingdao.
Backbone: A tea's sense of structure. Teas with backbone have full flavor and can stand up to long-term aging.
Spent Leaves
Liveliness: Spent leaves that are soft, springy, and fresh in color show that processing preserved the tea's vitality.
Reddened stems and leaves: Reddish stems or leaves among raw tea's spent leaves, usually caused by insufficient kill-green (shaqing).
Charring: Ripe tea spent leaves that are black, hard, and lack springiness, usually a sign of over-fermentation.
How to Use These Terms
You don't need to memorize them all at once. Start with four: "huigan," "mouthwatering," "texture," and "cup-bottom aroma." Pay deliberate attention to them as you drink, and gradually you'll find you can describe a tea's character and more easily find teas you love.
How to Practice These Terms
- Focus on one term at a time: Today, pay full attention to "huigan" when you brew; next time, focus on "mouthwatering."
- Drink with friends: Each person describes what they notice, and you compare descriptions.
- Compare two teas: Drink a gentle one and a bold one side by side, and the differences in "texture" and "cha qi" become obvious.
- Write it down: Note the terms you notice each time in a notebook, and over time you'll develop your own tasting vocabulary.
Evaluation Terms in the Standards
China's national standard Terms of Tea Sensory Tests (GB/T 14487-2017) added terms specific to pu'er in its revision, giving tea evaluators a shared language. A few terms common at the everyday tea table mean roughly this in formal evaluation:
- Aged aroma: The settled, clean aroma that forms after pu'er ages or goes through wet piling, a key feature of ripe tea and aged raw tea.
- Mellow and smooth: Flavor that is neither too strong nor too weak, neither bitter nor astringent; soft and harmonious.
- Mellow and thick: Fuller than "mellow and smooth," with body and weight.
- Deep red: Ripe tea liquor that is red and rich, clear and bright rather than cloudy.
- Huigan: The sweetness that comes back in the mouth after the brew is swallowed.
The full evaluation method is in Taste Pu'er Like a Professional Tea Evaluator: The Sensory Evaluation Method.
Terms Often Mixed Up
| Easily Confused | The Difference |
|---|---|
| Sweet vs. huigan | Sweetness is there on entry; huigan comes back up only after you swallow |
| Bitter vs. astringent | Bitterness is a taste on the tongue; astringency is a puckering, drying feeling in the mouth |
| Aged aroma vs. storage odor | Aged aroma is clean and settled; storage odor is damp and stuffy and can be aired out |
| Piling odor vs. musty odor | Piling odor is the straw-like, damp-earth smell of wet piling and fades; musty odor is sharp and sour, a sign of moisture damage |
| Thick vs. strong | Thickness is the texture and weight of the brew; strength is the intensity of the flavor |
Cream Down
A stronger brew sometimes turns hazy and cloudy as it cools; this is called "cream down." It happens when compounds in the tea bind together and come out of solution at low temperature. It's common in teas rich in soluble compounds, and the brew usually clears again once it warms back up.
FAQ
What's the difference between huigan and sweetness? Sweetness is the taste you notice right on entry; huigan is the sweetness that slowly rises back up from the throat and mouth after you swallow.
Does mouthwatering have to do with thirst? Mouthwatering refers to the feeling of moisture naturally welling up in your mouth after drinking tea, leaving it moist and comfortable. It's part of the appeal of pu'er: it quenches thirst.
What's the difference between aged aroma and storage odor? Aged aroma is clean and settled; storage odor is damp or stuffy, usually from the storage environment, and gradually fades if you leave the tea in a well-ventilated place for a while.