How to Do a Tea Tasting for Beginners: A Simple Step-by-Step Guide

28 Nov 2025 | Tea Tasting | by Tamsin Blackwood

Tea isn’t just hot water with leaves. It’s a world of flavor waiting to be unlocked - if you know how to look, smell, and taste it right. Most people sip tea without ever really experiencing it. They don’t notice the honey in their Darjeeling, the grassy punch in their sencha, or the smoky depth in their lapsang souchong. That’s not because the tea isn’t there. It’s because they’re not tasting it the right way.

Start with the right setup

You don’t need fancy gear, but you do need consistency. Tea tasting isn’t about guessing. It’s about noticing. And to notice, your environment has to be controlled.

Use distilled water with a pinch of minerals added back in. Tap water with chlorine or heavy metals will bury the tea’s natural flavors. If you don’t have a TDS meter, buy bottled mineral water with around 100-150 ppm total dissolved solids. That’s the sweet spot.

Measure your tea by weight, not scoops. Use a digital scale that reads to 0.1 gram. For every 150ml of water, use 2.2 grams of tea. That’s about a teaspoon for most loose leaves, but weight matters more than volume. A fluffy white tea takes up more space than a tightly rolled oolong - but they both need the same mass to taste fair.

Use a thermometer. Green tea at 90°C tastes different than green tea at 75°C. Black tea needs near-boiling water - 99°C. Oolong? 88°C. If you’re eyeballing it, you’re guessing. And guessing ruins the whole point.

Use a white porcelain cup or clear glass. Why? Because you need to see the color of the liquor. A pale gold means a delicate first flush Darjeeling. A bright amber means a rich Assam. A muddy brown? That’s a sign of over-steeping or poor quality. You can’t judge what you can’t see.

Follow the five steps - in order

Professional tea tasters don’t just drink. They observe, smell, taste, and reflect. Do it in this order every time.

1. Dry leaf inspection - Look at the dry leaves before water touches them. Are they whole? Broken? Uniform in color? A good black tea should have a mix of dark brown and golden tips. Green tea should be bright, even emerald. Yellowing or dull leaves? That’s oxidation gone wrong.
2. Wet leaf aroma - After steeping, pour out the water and smell the leaves in the cup. This is where you catch the tea’s soul. Is it floral? Like jasmine? Earthy? Like wet stones after rain? Toasty? Like toasted rice? Don’t just say “it smells nice.” Try to name one thing. Write it down.
3. Liquor color - Look again. Hold the cup up to the light. Is it clear? Cloudy? Pale? Deep? A high-quality white tea should be almost transparent. A pu-erh should be dark, like strong coffee. Color tells you about oxidation and processing.
4. Slurp to taste - This is the part most beginners skip. Don’t sip. Slurp. Take a small mouthful (about 5ml), open your lips slightly, and suck air in hard. It’s loud. It’s weird. But it sprays the tea across your whole tongue and palate. That’s how you taste the body, the sweetness, the bitterness, and the finish. Don’t swallow right away. Let it sit. Notice how it changes over 5 seconds.
5. Reflect and record - What did you feel? Was it light or heavy in your mouth? Did it leave a dry feeling (that’s astringency)? Did the flavor fade fast or linger for 20 seconds? Did you taste something you couldn’t name? Write it. Even if it’s just “smells like my grandma’s kitchen.” That’s your starting point.

Start with five teas - and taste them side by side

Don’t jump into 20 teas at once. That’s how you get overwhelmed. Pick five teas from the same category: say, black teas.

Try:

• Assam (malty, bold)
• Darjeeling first flush (floral, light)
• Ceylon (bright, citrusy)
• Keemun (smoky, wine-like)
• Earl Grey (citrus-infused)

Steep them all the same way: 2.2g per 150ml, 3 minutes, 99°C. Taste them one after the other, with a bite of plain bread in between to reset your palate. Don’t rush. Wait 10 minutes between each. Notice how one tastes like malted milk, another like dried apricots, another like wet bark. That’s the magic.

After a few weeks, switch to green teas. Then oolongs. Each category has its own language. Black teas talk about malt and fruit. Greens whisper grass and seaweed. Oolongs hum between the two - floral, buttery, sometimes like roasted nuts.

Common mistakes beginners make (and how to fix them)

Mistake 1: “Everything tastes bitter.” That’s normal at first. Bitterness isn’t always bad. It’s part of tea’s structure. But if it’s overwhelming, you’re steeping too long or using water too hot. Try 2.5 minutes instead of 4. Lower the temp by 5°C. You’ll be shocked at the difference.

Mistake 2: “I can’t smell anything.” Your nose is tired. Or you’re smelling too fast. After pouring the tea, let it cool for 30 seconds. Then bring the cup to your nose. Breathe in slowly through your nose, out through your mouth. Do it three times. Smell the dry leaves first. Then the wet. Then the liquor. Each has its own story.

Mistake 3: “I don’t know how to describe it.” You don’t need to sound like a sommelier. Start simple: “sweet,” “dry,” “floral,” “smoky.” Then add one detail: “sweet like honey,” “dry like unsweetened tea,” “floral like lilies,” “smoky like a campfire.” That’s progress. Keep a journal. Write down what you tasted each time. After 10 sessions, you’ll look back and see patterns you never noticed.

What you’ll notice after a few weeks

After 5-10 tastings, you’ll start to recognize the same flavors across different teas. That grassy note in your Japanese sencha? You’ll find it again in a Chinese Longjing. That honey sweetness in your Darjeeling? You’ll taste it in a high-altitude Taiwanese oolong. That’s not coincidence. It’s terroir - the soil, the altitude, the weather. Tea tells you where it’s from.

After 20 sessions, you’ll stop drinking tea just to warm up. You’ll drink it to experience. You’ll notice how a tea changes with each steep. The first cup is bright. The second is rounder. The third is deeper. That’s why gongfu brewing exists - to let the tea unfold.

After 30 sessions, you’ll start choosing tea based on mood. Not just “I want black tea.” But “I want something bright and citrusy today,” or “I need something warm and comforting.” You’ll understand why a £10 bag of tea from a supermarket tastes flat - and why a £25 loose-leaf tea from a small farm sings.

It’s not about perfection. It’s about curiosity.

There’s no test. No pass/fail. No right answer. Even master tasters disagree on what a tea “should” taste like. The point isn’t to sound smart. It’s to feel more alive when you drink.

Tea tasting isn’t about collecting knowledge. It’s about collecting moments. The quiet morning when you finally tasted the peach in your white tea. The rainy afternoon when you realized your Lapsang Souchong smelled like the fireplace at your grandparents’ house. Those are the moments that stick.

Start small. Taste one tea a day. Write one sentence. Keep going. In six months, you won’t just be drinking tea. You’ll be listening to it.