How to Describe Tea Like a Sommelier: Notes, Texture, and Aftertaste

The steam rises in delicate wisps, carrying an orchestra of aromas that dance between floral high notes and earthy bass tones. I close my eyes and inhale deeply, letting the fragrance of this oolong tell its story before the first sip even touches my lips. As someone who’s explored countless varieties of gourmet tea, I’ve discovered that each cup offers a symphony of sensations waiting to be decoded—from the visual poetry of unfurling leaves to the lingering sweetness that remains minutes after swallowing.

Ever noticed how a tea that smells heavenly in the tin transforms completely when brewed? Or how the same luxury tea yields entirely different experiences depending on who’s tasting it? It’s not magic—it’s science, and understanding it transforms how you experience every cup. The dance between your palate and the tea creates a unique experience—one that’s worth capturing in words.

Like fine wine, premium tea deserves thoughtful consideration. The language of tea tasting might seem intimidating at first—notes of lychee and wood smoke, textures ranging from velvety to brisk, aftertastes that evolve from sweet to mineral. But learning this language opens a world where each sip becomes an adventure, each cup a landscape to explore. I’m excited to guide you through the sensory journey that transforms casual tea drinking into mindful appreciation.

Professional tea sommeliers don’t simply drink tea—they engage in a methodical evaluation process that reveals the full character of each cup. This systematic approach allows them to identify subtle nuances that casual drinkers might miss. Learning tea sommelier techniques will transform how you experience and describe your favorite teas.

The world of gourmet tea encompasses a vast array of varieties, each with unique characteristics that tell a story of origin, processing, and craftsmanship. By adopting professional evaluation methods, you’ll develop a deeper connection to these stories and enhance your ability to select teas that perfectly match your preferences.

Tea sommelier certification represents a rigorous journey requiring comprehensive knowledge and practical skills. Programs like the one offered by the World Tea Academy require completion of 13 courses covering everything from plant science to advanced sensory evaluation. While formal certification isn’t necessary to enjoy tea, understanding the framework professionals use provides valuable structure for your own tasting adventures.

Professional tea tasters use specific criteria to evaluate high quality tea across different varieties. These criteria include:

1. Leaf Quality - Uniformity, intactness, and appropriate size for the tea type

2. Visual Appearance - Color, luster, and consistency

3. Aroma Complexity - Depth, balance, and appropriate characteristics for the tea type

4. Taste Profile - Flavor clarity, balance, and complexity

5. Body and Texture - Appropriate mouthfeel and structural elements

6. Finish - Length, pleasantness, and complexity of aftertaste

High quality tea reveals its excellence through multiple infusions, with flavors evolving with each steep. This ability to withstand repeated infusions while continuing to deliver pleasant flavors is a hallmark of exceptional tea.

The journey of professional tea evaluation begins before the water even touches the leaves. Gourmet loose leaf tea allows you to observe the full leaf structure and quality of the tea, providing valuable insights that tea bags simply cannot offer.

When examining dry leaves, consider these elements:

• Uniformity: Are the leaves consistent in size and appearance? High-grade teas typically show remarkable consistency.

• Color: Is the color appropriate for the tea type? For example, high-quality green teas often display a vibrant, fresh green hue.

• Texture: Do the leaves appear whole and intact, or broken and dusty? Premium teas generally feature whole leaves.

• Presence of Tips: Many fine teas, especially black teas, include golden or silver tips—the youngest, most tender part of the tea plant.

Gourmet loose leaf tea should have room to fully expand when brewing. This expansion reveals the craftsmanship behind the tea—whether it’s the tightly rolled balls of a Taiwanese oolong unfurling into complete leaves with intact stems, or the delicate silver needles of a white tea maintaining their downy appearance.

After brewing, examine the tea liquor (the brewed tea) in a white cup against a neutral background. Professional evaluators note:

• Color: Is it bright, dull, dark, or light? Each tea type has characteristic colors—from the pale yellow of white teas to the amber of oolongs to the deep copper of black teas.

• Clarity: Is the liquor clear or cloudy? Most high-quality teas produce a clear liquor, though some, like matcha, are naturally opaque.

• Brightness: Does the tea appear vibrant or flat? Brightness often indicates freshness.

The appearance of the wet leaves after brewing also tells a story. Unfurled leaves should appear whole and intact in premium teas, with colors that reflect proper processing—vibrant green for green teas, coppery for oxidized oolongs, and deep brown for black teas.

Aroma evaluation forms a crucial component of professional tea assessment. Many luxury tea brands invest in single-estate teas with distinctive terroir characteristics that create unique aromatic signatures. These aromas don’t happen by accident—they result from careful cultivation, precise processing, and expert blending.

When assessing tea aroma, professional tasters follow a structured approach:

1. Dry Leaf Aroma: Smell the dry leaves before brewing to capture their initial aromatic profile.

2. Wet Leaf Aroma: After adding water, smell the wet leaves to detect new aromatic compounds released by hot water.

3. Empty Cup Aroma: After finishing the tea, smell the empty cup to catch lingering volatile compounds.

Tea sommelier techniques include careful evaluation of the aroma at different temperatures, as aromatic compounds release differently as the tea cools. This dynamic evolution provides a more complete picture of the tea’s character.

Describing tea aromas requires a rich vocabulary. Professional tasters often categorize aromas into families:

• Floral: Jasmine, rose, orchid, lilac

• Fruity: Citrus, stone fruit, tropical, berries

• Vegetal: Fresh grass, steamed greens, seaweed

• Nutty: Roasted nuts, toasted grains

• Spicy: Cinnamon, clove, pepper, ginger

• Sweet: Honey, caramel, chocolate, vanilla

• Earthy: Forest floor, wet earth, mushroom

• Woody: Oak, cedar, pine, sandalwood

Luxury tea brands often provide detailed tasting notes to guide consumers through the sensory experience. These notes help bridge the gap between expert and novice, providing a framework for understanding the complex aromatic profiles of fine teas.

The flavor profile of gourmet tea encompasses both taste sensations and textural elements. Professional tasters assess these components systematically:

1. Basic Tastes: Sweet, sour, salty, bitter, umami

2. Flavor Notes: Specific flavor characteristics (fruity, floral, etc.)

3. Intensity: Strength of flavor from subtle to powerful

4. Complexity: Range and layers of flavor

5. Balance: Harmony between different taste elements

Learning to evaluate gourmet tea like a professional sommelier enhances your appreciation of fine teas. The key is to slow down and pay attention to how flavors develop from the moment the tea touches your lips through the entire tasting experience.

Modern tea evaluation combines traditional sensory analysis with scientific understanding. Research shows that tea’s flavor profile comes from hundreds of chemical compounds, with volatile aromatics comprising just 0.01% of dry tea weight. These compounds interact with our taste receptors and olfactory system to create the complete flavor experience.

High quality tea displays several distinctive flavor characteristics:

• Clarity: Clean, defined flavors without muddiness

• Depth: Multiple layers of flavor that reveal themselves over time

• Persistence: Flavors that maintain their character throughout the tasting

• Harmony: Well-integrated flavors without jarring elements

• Complexity: Multiple flavor notes that create interest

When comparing luxury tea brands, pay attention to their sourcing practices and processing methods, as these significantly impact flavor development. Single-origin teas often display more distinctive terroir characteristics, while expertly crafted blends offer balanced complexity.

Tea texture and mouthfeel range from light and delicate to rich and full-bodied. This dimension of tea evaluation is often overlooked by casual drinkers but forms a crucial component of professional assessment.

Key textural elements include:

• Body: The weight and fullness of the tea in your mouth

• Astringency: The drying, sometimes puckering sensation caused by tannins

• Smoothness: How the tea glides across the palate

• Viscosity: The thickness or thinness of the liquid

• Creaminess: A rich, smooth quality often found in certain oolongs

The tea texture and mouthfeel are influenced by factors like tannin content and processing methods. For example, heavily oxidized teas like black teas typically have more robust body, while white teas often present a delicate, silky texture.

Pay attention to tea texture and mouthfeel as they provide important clues about quality and character. A well-crafted tea displays appropriate textural elements for its type—neither too harsh nor too flat, with a satisfying presence in the mouth.

In professional tea evaluation, the finish or aftertaste receives as much attention as the initial flavor. This lingering impression—what remains after you’ve swallowed the tea—often reveals the true quality of gourmet tea.

Professional tasters assess several aspects of aftertaste:

1. Duration: How long the flavor sensations persist

2. Evolution: How the flavors change over time

3. Quality: Whether the lingering flavors are pleasant or unpleasant

4. Complexity: The range of sensations that remain

The finest teas offer what professionals call a “returning flavor” (hui gan in Chinese)—a pleasant sweetness that emerges in the throat and mouth after swallowing. This quality, particularly prized in oolongs and pu-erh teas, represents one of the most sought-after characteristics in premium teas.

The science behind tea’s aftertaste involves both taste receptors and aromatic compounds. While some sensations come from compounds interacting directly with taste buds, others result from aromatic molecules traveling from the back of the throat to the nasal cavity—a phenomenon called retronasal olfaction.

Different tea types create distinctive aftertaste experiences:

• Green teas: Often leave a fresh, sometimes sweet vegetal finish

• Oolongs: Can produce a lingering floral or fruity sweetness

• Black teas: Frequently offer a malty, sometimes cocoa-like finish

• Pu-erh teas: Often create a complex, earthy sweetness that evolves over time

The memorable aftertaste of fine tea makes gourmet tea gifts particularly special. Unlike many consumable gifts, a truly exceptional tea creates an experience that continues well after the last sip—a quality that makes it perfect for meaningful gifting.

When selecting gourmet tea gifts, consider teas with distinctive aftertaste profiles that will create lasting impressions. Teas with pronounced hui gan or complex finish often become favorites precisely because of this lingering quality.

Luxury tea brands employ expert tasters to develop the detailed tasting notes that guide consumers. These notes follow a structured format that you can adopt for your own tea journal:

1. Tea Information: Name, type, origin, harvest date

2. Brewing Parameters: Water temperature, leaf quantity, steeping time

3. Appearance: Dry leaf, wet leaf, and liquor descriptions

4. Aroma: Notes from dry leaf, wet leaf, and brewed tea

5. Taste: Flavor profile, intensity, and evolution

6. Texture: Body, astringency, and mouthfeel

7. Aftertaste: Duration, quality, and evolution

8. Overall Impression: Summary evaluation and quality assessment

When creating your own tasting notes, be specific and descriptive. Instead of simply writing “fruity,” specify “reminiscent of ripe peaches with a hint of apricot.” This precision helps you build a personal reference library of tea experiences.

Professional tea evaluation uses specific terminology to describe tea characteristics:

While gourmet loose leaf tea provides the most complete sensory experience, high-quality gourmet tea bags can still offer remarkable complexity. Modern pyramid-shaped tea bags or hand sewn cotton teabags allow more room for leaf expansion, providing a better experience than traditional flat bags.

When evaluating gourmet tea bags, apply the same professional criteria—just recognize that the visual evaluation of the dry leaf will be limited. Focus instead on the liquor appearance, aroma, taste, texture, and aftertaste to assess quality.

Developing your ability to evaluate high quality tea requires regular practice. Here’s a structured approach to improve your skills:

1. Start with Contrasts: Compare teas with distinctly different profiles (e.g., a delicate white tea versus a robust black tea) to train your palate to recognize major differences.

2. Move to Subtleties: Progress to comparing teas within the same category (e.g., Darjeeling first flush versus second flush) to detect more subtle variations.

3. Control Variables: Use consistent brewing parameters (water quality, temperature, steeping time) to ensure differences you detect come from the tea itself.

4. Practice Blind Tasting: Have someone prepare teas without telling you what they are, then attempt to identify them based on your sensory evaluation.

5. Keep a Tea Journal: Document your experiences using the structured format described earlier, building a personal reference library.

6. Taste with Others: Share tasting sessions with friends or join tea tasting groups to compare perceptions and expand your descriptive vocabulary.

The appearance of the dry leaf is your first clue to identifying high quality tea. With practice, you’ll develop the ability to predict a tea’s character simply by examining the dry leaves—a skill that professional tea buyers rely on when making purchasing decisions.

Understanding regional characteristics helps place your tasting notes in context. Different tea-growing regions produce distinctive flavor profiles:

• Chinese Oolongs: Often floral and complex with remarkable hui gan

• Japanese Green Teas: Typically vegetal with umami notes and oceanic qualities

• Darjeeling Teas: Known for muscatel grape notes and bright character

• Assam Teas: Recognized for malty, robust profiles with honey notes

• Taiwanese High Mountain Oolongs: Celebrated for creamy texture and floral complexity

When brewing gourmet loose leaf tea, the leaves should have room to fully expand. This allows you to observe how different processing methods affect the leaf structure—from the tightly rolled balls of Taiwanese oolongs to the twisted strips of Chinese blacks to the flat, needle-like Japanese sencha.

Describing tea like a sommelier isn’t about pretension—it’s about deepening your connection to one of the world’s most beloved beverages. The language of professional tea evaluation gives you tools to articulate what you experience, helping you discover new favorites and share your passion with others.

Learning to evaluate gourmet tea like a professional sommelier enhances your appreciation of fine teas. Each cup becomes an opportunity for discovery, and each tasting builds your expertise. The journey of tea appreciation has no endpoint—there’s always another variety to explore, another nuance to detect, another story to uncover.

So the next time you prepare your favorite gourmet tea, slow down. Observe the leaves, inhale the aroma, note the texture, and pay attention to the lingering finish. In that mindful moment, you’ll find not just a beverage, but an experience worth savoring—and describing—in all its complex glory.

1. Gascoyne, K., Marchand, F., Desharnais, J., & Américi, H. (2016). Tea: History, Terroirs, Varieties. Firefly Books.

2. Heiss, M. L., & Heiss, R. J. (2011). The Tea Enthusiast’s Handbook: A Guide to the World’s Best Teas. Ten Speed Press.

3. International Tea Committee. (2022). Annual Bulletin of Statistics. ITC.

4. Pratt, J. N. (2018). Tea Sommelier: A Step-by-Step Guide. Abbeville Press.

5. World Tea Academy. (2023). Tea Sommelier Certification Program Curriculum. Retrieved from https://worldteaacademy.com/

6. Harbowy, M. E., & Balentine, D. A. (1997). Tea Chemistry. Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences, 16(5), 415-480.

7. Lee, J., & Chambers, D. H. (2007). A lexicon for flavor descriptive analysis of green tea. Journal of Sensory Studies, 22(3), 256-272.

8. Japan Tea Central Public Interest Incorporated Association. (2022). Japanese Tea Grading Standards. JTCPIA.

9. Tea Research Association. (2021). Tea Quality Evaluation Methods. TRA Publications.

10. Specialty Tea Institute. (2023). Professional Tea Cupping Protocols. Tea Association of the USA.