My partner and I stepped into the inner sanctum of Temple Coffee & Tea in Sacramento where a quiet ritual was about to take place: a Tea Processing and Tasting class. Several tall tables with cups of labeled tea leaves, water, cup placement mats and note paper stood at the ready. The din from the outer café faded as the ten initiates waited to hear the word from our tea guide Leslie Fraser. “It’s time. Let’s start.”
As Leslie asked us about our favorite teas, our wide disparity in knowledge became immediately evident. One man in the class talked about his specialty Sencha green tea air-shipped from Japan directly to him in vacuum-sealed bags. Others were hard-pressed to identify what type of tea they liked best (white, green, oolong or black). I refrained from mentioning that I most often drank store-bought teabags, because it might label me as hopelessly uncool. It’s not that I don’t drink the finer loose leaf teas on occasion, but I don’t know a lot about what’s available or what I like. Plus, I’m often in a rush and teabags are so much easier.
Leslie talked a bit about the background and processing of tea (I’ll share similar information in future blogs) and then we moved into the experiential component of the class. Leslie prepared the teas using filtered water heated to around 200 degrees and then cooled to the right temperature for each tea. She poured each of us a white tea and a green tea to compare and then an oolong and a black. She noted that having two different teas to compare side-by-side makes it easier to sense the differences.
We touched and sniffed the dry leaves and buds, admired the color and aroma of the poured “liquor” in our cups and tasted the brews. I could see, smell and taste the differences, but had trouble finding words to describe them. Was it chocolaty? Plastic-tasting? Like something dripping from the drain pipe or the sweetest nectar of the gods? Classmates described, as best they could, the body, flavor, astringency and finish of each sample. “Subtle, strong, woody, apricot-like, smooth” for the Silver Needle white and “Seaweed, grassy, pale green, subtle, astringent in the finish” for the Jade Cloud green.
The reactions to the teas were as varied as the tasters themselves. The Wuyi oolong was described as “unsmoked tobacco” but also contrastingly as “floral, dry, raisin-like sweetness on the tip of the tongue”. The Darjeeling 2nd Flush black tea was “dark amber, smooth and caramel-like” but also “perfume-y, complex and bright”.
I gave up on finding the right words and instead focused on whether I enjoyed it or not. I loved the white tea for its gentleness and the black for its sweet boldness. The Jade Cloud green tea didn’t make me a convert to green teas.
Our tasting ended with a tisane, in this case a tangerine-ginger herbal blend. This brew made me recoil with its unnaturally bright blood-orange color and overpowering aroma and flavor. It was a quality blend, but it felt so artificial and strong compared to the lovely real teas. Fortunately, the tea barista offered to bring out another white tea, so I was able to leave the class with a pleasant taste in my mouth.
