How To Write Better Tasting Notes

You should never be afraid to share your personal experiences with how you taste and experience tea. Whether you are writing your tasting notes with the specific aim of sharing them online, or you are simply writing to help you keep a mental note of the teas you try. Lots of different tasting notes will be affected by your memory and the things you have personally experienced so you should never find yourself feeling silly for wanting to explain things in a certain way.

Trust your instinct and let that guard down because when you do, you’ll find that your tasting notes will paint much more of a detailed picture. Tea is incredibly subtle when compared to other drinks, so in order to taste it you have to open yourself up completely, be free and remember you have to seek the flavor, it will not come to you. You also need to be able to focus on it which you cannot do while your mind is worried about how you will be perceived when you talk truly and without hesitation about what you experience with a tea at all steps on a tasting.

Here are the main areas you should focus on when writing down your tasting notes:

Aroma

Pay attention to how this changes as you conduct your session, note down the aroma notes for the dry leaf, the wet leaf, the tea liquor and the empty cup or tasting cup. Aroma plays a huge part in the overall experience of a tea. Should you buy a tea based only on its dry aroma? Absolutely not, because sometimes they can be misleading and those notes might never appear in the taste. Our sense of smell and taste are very closely linked and most of what you taste is actually experienced through smell, so this step can be seen as just as important as tasting the tea itself.

For example if you were writing about our Jin Kong Que, here's what you would write down for it’s aroma notes at different stages of the session:

When it comes to the aroma of, the dry leaves give off notes of dark chocolate, toasted nuts like a mix of chestnuts hazelnuts and candied peanuts, sweet caramel that is just on the edge of burning but was taken off of the stove before it did, baked sweet potato, cocoa with an underlying roasted starchy quality. There's a honey sweetness to the aroma but it is quite subtle along with a mid strength malt note. It’s reminiscent of the way that a high quality chocolate shop smells.

After a quick rinse in a gaiwan the elements of the aroma change and the wet leaves have an aroma of super dark chocolate with that trade mark bitterness and sharp almost citrus bite. There are still nut aromas but more roasted chestnuts and hazelnuts as opposed to candied peanuts that were present when the leaves are dry. The wet leaves do not smell anywhere near as sweet and instead give off more of a wet mossy wood aroma with hints of wet autumn leaves.

Appearance

The first thing you want to note down when it comes to appearance is the appearance of the dry leaves, what size and shape are they? Are they full leaves or broken leaves? What color & texture are they? If you are drinking a tea that has been rolled, does it look hand rolled or machine rolled? What are the most notable changes in size and color between the dry leaf and the wet leaf at the end of the session? Most people are drawn to things that are visually appealing, so they will often make decisions based on their first impressions, though many other things should also be factored in. When purchasing online, sometimes a visual is all that you can go off. So being as detailed as possible will help not only you but other tea lovers, should you decide you want to share your notes with the world.

Example Notes (Jin Kong Que): The dry leaves of this tea are slightly twisted longish leaves, fuzzy golden buds with a rich golden color on some of the fuzzy buds. Both dark brown and light brown colors are present and are also slightly fuzzy, but not as fuzzy as the previously mentioned golden buds.

From the first steep right up to the last two, the liquor of this tea is a beautiful color reminiscent of mahogany mixed with cherry, reminiscent of the color roasted dark plums drizzled with honey and had a hint of burnt orange. The color of this liquor will transport you to a thick forest on a slightly rainy autumn late evening where the air is still warm but still and the moon is shining the trees and the leaves are crunching underneath your shoes and still cascading from the trees when the wind blows through them.

Taste

Focus on the way that your tea tastes when you breathe in different ways, does it change when you breathe through your mouth as opposed to when you breathe through only your nose? How does it taste when freshly steeped and at its hottest? Does that taste change when you leave it to cool in the cup? These are all questions you should ask yourself during your session to build the most comprehensive base of tasting notes.

After you swallow the tea and note down your main base of tasting notes, consider the aftertaste and how that changes when you change the way you breathe. Try and focus on the finish and how long the after taste sticks around for. Is it short and gone in a flash or long lasting and lingers on your palette? Do any of the notes within the aftertaste change after a period of time should the finish be long lasting? All of these details are incredibly important and require a clear mind that is free of distraction which is why for some, preparing tea traditionally can be an incredibly meditative practice.

Example Notes (Jin Kong Que): Throughout multiple steeps this tea tastes so much more savory than it smells, it has notes of wet mossy wood, roasted chestnuts & hazelnuts that were present in the aroma. There is also a slight caramel sweetness with a sprinkle of salt, freshly roasted sweet potatoes basted with butter and a dash of soy sauce sprinkled with a mix of white and black sesame seeds, crispy on the outside but fluffy in the middle. There is a nice acidity to it, but for the most part it has a clear and calm flavor with a lot of depth. There is also a note within the flavor profile that tastes the way that a field of wheat smells on a summer's day when it's being harvested.The dark chocolate note from the aroma of the wet leaves are present in taste but the bitterness didn’t translate too much into the overall taste profile of this tea. There are also new notes present especially in the aftertaste like a light tobacco note and a coffee cream flavored hard candies, both of which compliment the overall flavor profile of the first steeps very well.

Feel

As with all other areas we have suggested you focus on, when it comes to how the tea feels you want to note down a number of different things from all parts of your tea session, including how the dry leaves feel and what the overall mouthfeel of the tea is after you’ve sipped on the first few 1-3 steeps. You should also consider the finish of the tea and how it feels in the mouth, does it dry your mouth, is it incredibly smooth, is it coating your mouth, do you pick up specific notes in different parts of your mouth, is it light and thin or thick and viscous? Lastly, at the end of the session, you should alway try and make a note of how the tea made your body and mind feel. Of course because tea is so subjective it will make every single person who tries it feel a different way, but it’s incredibly helpful to have an insight into the overall effects of a tea before you purchase it, because you might not end up liking the way that it could make you feel.

Example Notes (Jin Kong Que): The overall mouthfeel is subdued, calm and smooth. There is a dryness to it but it is for the most part very smooth and only has a touch of astringency to it at the back of the tongue. It has quite a long finish, but it’s smooth and only mildly drying, with some lingering sweetness when you take a breath in only through your mouth which heightens that coffee cream hard candy aftertaste. The empty cups and fairness cup give off a mostly sweet aroma with notes of fresh white grapes, chewy caramels and milk chocolate.

When you love tea you will undoubtedly end up drinking many different ones throughout the course of your life. It’s impossible to expect yourself to remember everything about each of those teas which is why making notes is incredibly important. Even if you choose to keep them as a personal record, they will help you to remember which teas you enjoy the most and why, which will in turn help you to make the most informed purchasing decisions, helping you save money and avoiding being disappointed by any of the teas you buy.

It’s not essential that you share your notes with others and that decision is completely up to you, but should you decide to share your notes with other tea lovers, detail is key. If you can you should try and include as much detail as possible covering all areas discussed earlier in this post. In doing that you’ll be able to help so many people who may be considering a tea but want to know more about it first. You'll also find that it’s a great way to learn about the ways that we all experience tea differently because you’ll be able to compare your notes with theirs. Tea enthusiasts value opinions from other tea enthusiasts more than anything and by sharing your notes and experiences you'll help them learn everything they need to know about a tea, so they can purchase it without worrying that they won't enjoy it.

We hope this guide helped you to put together the most amazing tea notes going forward. If you do decide to share them with the world, be sure to tag us @adagioteas so we can learn everything there's to know about the teas that you love. Happy Steeping.