Slurp and Spit! ... My kind of Fun (Tea Tasting)

Dream job: Slurper and Spitter.  

Um, I mean tea taster.  What exactly is a tea taster and what do they do?  Here's a great video by the folks at Yorkshire Tea that explains it.

The best way to learn the different characteristics of each type of tea and to develop your palate is through practice or tasting.  Like learning the piano, practice makes perfect.  Examining the leaves, dry and wet, smelling them, and tasting the steeped tea (also known as the liquor). 

I don't go to tea classes every week any more (my sommelier courses at George Brown College are long over) so to help keep my palate sharp with fresh memories, my tea friends and I do tea tastings when we can.

Tasting of Hankook Tea's lovely Korean teas

Or when possible attend a master class for further educational development.  The photos below are from the "The Art of Tea" fundraising event that took place in Toronto's historic St. Lawrence Hall on June 18, 2011. 

Dilhan Fernando of Dilmah Tea is preparing their very fine teas for tasting.  Steeping the teas in cupping sets (white cup, lid and bowl).

Examining and smelling the leaves

Time to taste!

And finally, I will let international tea taster, tea author, and co-owner of Montreal's Camellia Sinensis Tea House, Kevin  Gascoyne, explains how to properly taste tea like a pro.  Kevin has over two decades of experience in the tea industry.  Now, that's a lot of slurping and spitting!

Spring Tea Tasting at Tao's (Part 1)... and prep for World Tea Expo 2012

Last Saturday, my friend, Raymonde and I went to Tao's Tea Leaf for Spring tea tasting.  Both Raymonde and Tao Wu, the owner of Tao Tea Leaf, are Certified Tea Sommeliers too.  Tao just came back from his trip to China with lots of goodies...Spring teas, of course!

 

So what happens when three Tea Sommeliers get together to taste this season's Spring Teas?  Hours of sipping fun! 

Tao Wu  preparing the Spring teas 

Fresh teas definitely taste quite amazing!  Here is a sampling of the Spring teas we tasted:

Jun Shan Yin Zhen (yellow tea)

Silver needle

Silver Needle (old bush)

Jin Ping Black

An Ji Bai Cha

Phoenix oolong

A fun and interesting way to taste teas, side by side comparison of similar tea, in this case the two Silver Needles:

Silver Needle (left) and Silver Needle -old bush (right)

We had multiple steepings of some of these beautiful teas, in one case as many as nine.  We had to stop since we were starting to experience some serious buzz and still wanted to be able to sleep... eventually that night...

Raymonde and me

Stay tuned for details of the Spring tea tasting in a future post!


Now I have to prepare for WORLD TEA EXPO 2012 (WTE) which will take place in Las Vegas on June 1 - 3.  I'll be flying in a few days!  I still have to narrow down my list of workshops and seminars to cover, tea people and companies to meet.

It's the World Tea Expo's 10th anniversary this year and they are promising no repeats, "all new content".  I went to WTE two years ago and it was a lot of fun, educational, and met some awesome tea people.

Seminars and workshops with titles such as "Will Tea Ever be as Big as Coffee?", "Understanding Puer", various tea and health seminars, focused tastings, tea business related talks, and much more... how can I not attend this year?!  Off to finish choosing what to cover now...you can click here and see what would you choose...