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In 2019, Tea Review, part of Coffee Review, will introduce the first-ever 100-point, wine-style tea reviews to the specialty tea market.

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Tony Gebely

Tea Review Tasting Report: Sencha Teas

October 8, 2021 By Tony Gebely

In our most recent tea cupping, 9 cuppers evaluated 5 Japanese Sencha teas. The teas were sourced from multiple well-known vendors and varied in price from $0.08 to $0.36 per gram. This cupping was the fourth cupping by our expert Tasting Panel, with the goal of bringing us closer to validating and building consensus around ourTasting and Scoring Methodology.

If you’ve been following along, we have had 3 previous cupping events, the first covered 16 teas: 4 white, 4 green, 4 oolong, and 4 black, the second covered 6 black teas, the third cupping zoomed into the black tea category even further and covered 5 different Keemun Black Teas.

As our cupping activities are meant to get us closer to a consensus around our tasting and scoring methodology, we decided to zoom into the green tea category for this cupping and focus on a panel of 5 Japanese Senchas.

Sencha is arguably the most famous style of Japanese loose leaf green tea. It’s consumption is an everyday staple in Japan. In fact, Japan is well-known for the production of steamed green teas. Steaming the leaves during processing halts oxidation which results in dark green tea leaves packed with flavor. This differs when comparing processing methods to Chinese green teas which are primarily heated in a pan to arrest oxidation, resulting in a more nutty, subtle flavor. Sencha (煎茶), translates to steamed tea, and these teas pack an umami punch.

Variations in the steaming time are used to produce several variants of sencha. In order of length of steaming time, the variants are asamushi (light steam), chumushi (medium steam), futsumushi (normal steam) and fukamushi (deep steam). The steaming time often varies, so one tea maker’s fukamushi may resemble another’s chumushi. In general, the longer the steaming process, the less pristine the final leaves will be as the steaming process breaks down the leaf structure.

When choosing teas for this cupping, we did not take into account steam time, or harvest date. The teas were numbered 401-405 and sent to each person on the tasting panel to be tasted blind. Now let’s dive into the results and analysis:

  • The average score for all samples by all cuppers was 83.5 points.
  • The average high score by all cuppers for all tea samples was 90.2 points (i.e. “very good to outstanding,” according to our qualitative interpretations.
  • The average low score by all cuppers for all samples was 76.8 points (i.e. “poor to fair” according to our qualitative interpretations.

One of the ways we measure consensus is by looking at spread,  which refers to the difference between the highest and lowest scores  assigned to a tea sample by our cuppers. The average spread across all 5 teas was 17.2, roughly the same spread seen in our prior cupping. Spread ranged from a high of 23 (sample 401)  points to a low of 12 (samples 403 and 404).

When looking at the average score for each tea sample, they placed in the following order:

  1. 403 with an average score of 90.6
  2. 402 with an average score of 86.1
  3. 405 with an average score of 83
  4. 404 with an average score of 80.9
  5. 401 with an average score of 76.9

As in the last cupping, there is largely consensus on the order of the teas from worst to best. This in itself fulfills the Tea Review Mission:

“Our mission is to help consumers identify and purchase superior quality teas, thereby increasing demand and prices, and ultimately rewarding farmers and tea companies that invest their time, passion, and capital in producing high quality teas.”

Given the spread of 5 teas, we know, as an average, which ones were superior. That said, there is still variance around what constitutes a particular number score. For example, given the maximum spread of 23 seen above with sample 401, one cupper’s 89 was another’s 66.

It’s interesting to note that also as in the last tasting, scores tracked pretty closely with retail price per gram overall.

Taking a deeper look into the scores by each cupper we see clearly the spread for each tea, and where the variance in sample 401 came to play.

If in future cupping activities, we seek to tighten the spread, we need to acknowledge that each cupper brings to the table his or her own experiences which they are judging against.

This can be clearly seen in the scores across multiple rounds of cupping, where some cuppers score lower on average and some cuppers score higher on average.

We can accept this, and see if the scores become more normalized over time as the panel experiences the same teas, or we can strive to discuss the intrinsic quality markers of each tea in hopes to find agreement on the component parts of a final score.

Filed Under: Tasting Reports, Tea News

Tea Review Tasting Report: Keemun Teas

May 12, 2021 By Tony Gebely

Five Keemun samples in numbered bags as received by Tea Review tasting panel members. Photo courtesy of Ron Walters.

 

After a year-long hiatus due to COVID, we are excited to announce that we have completed another calibration cupping exercise! This cupping is the third cupping by our expert Tasting Panel, with the goal of bringing us closer to validating and building consensus around our Tasting and Scoring Methodology.

If you’ve been following along, we have had 2 previous cupping events, the first covered 16 teas: 4 white, 4 green, 4 oolong, and 4 black. The lowest scoring spread of the 4 categories was the black tea category, so cupping 2 covered 6 black teas. The aim of the third and most recent cupping exercise was to zoom into the black tea category even further and to focus on a single style, Keemun.

Keemun is a famous Chinese black tea produced in Qimen County in China’s Anhui province. This tea is often seen on a list known as Zhong Guo Shi Da Ming Cha (中国十大名茶), or, “The Ten Famous Teas of China.”  In fact, it is the only black tea to appear on the list.

Note that Qimen and Keemun are the same word, Qimen is the correct pinyin for Keemun, but the tea’s name is often spelled Keemun in the west.

One of the first teas labeled as English Breakfast Tea in the 1820s, Keemun is typically produced much like the orthodox teas of India. The leaves are rolled on a rolling table which breaks them down into small pieces which are then screened into uniform grades. There are also full-leaf variants of this tea on the market known as Keemun Mao Feng.  A classification system was developed in the 1970s as a communication aid and to ensure consistency of Keemun teas. The system is made up of a series of numerical grades followed by names for  the top two grades, Hao Ya B, and Hao Ya A. Classic Keemun teas are woodsy and winey, with notes of dried fruit and hints of rose.

Five Keemun samples sourced from various tea retailers. Photo courtesy of Ron Walters.

For this cupping, 5 Keemun teas were sourced from various US retailers, with prices ranging from $0.05/gram to $0.26/gram. The teas were numbered 301-305 and sent to each person on the tasting panel to be tasted blind. The intention was to source several “fair” to “very good” teas based largely on price and the reputation of the retailer. Now let’s get nerdy:

  • The average score for all samples by all cuppers was 83 points.
  • The average high score by all cuppers for all tea samples was 91.5 points (i.e. “very good to outstanding,” according to our qualitative interpretations.
  • The average low score by all cuppers for all samples was 71.6 points (i.e. “not recommended” according to our qualitative interpretations.
  • The average score for the cuppers ranged from a low of 74.8 points (not recommended) to a high of 90.6 points (very good to outstanding).

One of the ways we measure consensus is by looking at spread, which refers to the difference between the highest and lowest scores assigned to a tea sample by our cuppers. The average spread across all 5 teas was 17.5.  Spread ranged from a high of 21 (samples 301 and 302) points to a low of 14 (samples 304 and 305).

When looking at the average score for each tea sample, they placed in the following order:

  • 301 with an average score of 75.75
  • 302 with an average score of 77.25
  • 303 with an average score of 83.25
  • 305 with an average score of 90.00
  • 304 with an average score of 89.50

We can see a clear consensus that 301 and 302 were the bottom two teas, 304 and 305 were the top two teas, and 303 was somewhere in the middle.

This tracks quite nicely with price per gram (seen below), if only price were a reliable indicator of quality.

When we dig a bit deeper into the top two teas, 304 and 305, we see that of the 8 cuppers, 5 rated 305 as their top tea, 2 rated 304 as their top tea, and one had them tied. So while 304 topped 305 when we look at the average scores across all cuppers, it’s interesting to see that more cuppers chose 305 as their top tea than 304.

When we look at how each cupper scored each sample (seen below) a two things become clear:

  • We are able to see that there is consensus around the ranking of the teas from worst to best
  • There is less consensus around the scores assigned to the teas (noted by spread above)

Our next cupping will aim to further reinforce areas where we’re seeing consensus among the tasting panel and will be announced shortly.

Without further delay, we present, the first two tea reviews:

Keemun Sample 304

Overall score: 90

Aroma: 7.8

Flavor: 7.8

Body: 8.4

Astringency/Structure: 7.9

Aftertaste: 7.6

Blind Assessment: Uniform slender leaves with a small percentage of golden tips. A strong aroma of caramel and rose. Velvety, full body with a complex flavor made up of wood, honey, toffee and rose. Floral undertones give way to a lingering resonant fruit, mineral, floral aftertaste.

The Bottom Line: A very good tea exhibiting classic Keemun characteristics, if you are new to Keemuns, start here!

Keemun Sample 305

Overall score: 90

Aroma: 7.4

Flavor: 7.7

Body: 7.8

Astringency/Structure: 7.6

Aftertaste: 7.8

Blind Assessment: A nice showing of hairy golden tips among slender leaf particles of various sizes. Strong aroma of honey and smoke, notes of toffee, brown sugar and various fruit in the cup. Full, smooth, balanced body with a long sweet, floral and woody finish.

The Bottom Line: A very good tea, offering more diversity of flavor and complexity than a typical Keemun.

 

References:

  1. Tea in China: The History of China’s National Drink by John C. Evans, p131

 

Filed Under: Tasting Reports, Tea News

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