What is Tea Cupping?

Tea cupping is a process of tasting and evaluating the quality of loose leaf tea. Tea cupping is a process that includes a number steps and is a vitally important method because tea quality varies widely. Tea cupping is a combination of art and science that is used by tea lovers throughout the world to maintain tea quality and tea drinking satisfaction.

Even tea from the same shipment, tea garden and processing batch can differ in taste and tea cupping is an ideal way to ensure quality control. In addition, for many tea drinkers, the knowledge that a tea supplier properly cups its tea adds to the tea drinking experience.

The benefits of tea cupping enable the tea drinker to choose the best tea for their taste and wise tea drinkers buy tea from suppliers who cup each and every imported chest of tea.

Sample Steps of Tea Cupping- A Black Tea Example

The term cupping is used to describe the examination and tasting of different teas to determine quality, taste, aroma, briskness, body and color.

Cupping similar teas and comparing them against each other enables one to determine best value when making a purchase. Cupping a tea by itself will help you understand the characteristics of that particular tea.

Professional tasters use similar methods in cupping teas. Consistency is the most important part of cupping. If one begins to develop a certain way of cupping teas, it is important to maintain that method for all teas.

Before the tea is tasted however, a physical inspection of the leaves is performed and attention to the bouquet of the sample is also part of the process. In essence, proper cupping is based upon an understanding of the total presentation of the tea leaf.

Appearance and Smell of the Dried Leaf

First, examine the dried leaf. Black tea for example, should be dark (blackish-brown) and well twisted, which indicates good withering. An open, flat leaf infuses quickly; a closely twisted leaf takes longer to infuse and will give a better second cup. In general, the leaf should be small, hard, well rolled, and uniform in appearance.

The dry leaves can be squeezed to test the resilience of the leaf, which is an indication of young tea. This method of judging the quality of tea is only used for black teas. The appearance and smell of the dried leaf are not determining factors of quality in green and oolong teas.

Following the preliminary cupping steps, the tea is ready for the tasting part of the process. This involves steeping the tea.

Generally speaking, the same care involved with the examination of the unsteeped tea leaves must be maintained during the steeping process.

Pure Water is Required

Purified, oxygenated water is best when preparing your tea for tasting. Use water that has all minerals and other contaminants removed and oxygen added to ensure a fresh clean taste. Remove contaminants because even fresh, clean water contains minerals that affect the taste of tea.. Fill a tea kettle with water and bring to a boil.

Use the Proper Amount of Tea

Tea is measured per cup by weight not volume. Depending on the size of the tea and the extent the tea is processed teas of equal weight may vary in their volumes. To prepare your tea for cupping, pour two grams (approximately the same weight as a U.S. dime) into a six to eight ounce cup and pour the fresh boiling water directly onto the leaves.

Observe Steeping Time Limits — Don’t Over Steep

The steeping process which releases the flavor from the tea leaves has a certain time limit. After five minutes of steeping, the acids in the leaf begin to steep into the cup creating a bitter taste.

Next, examine a weak infusion of tea. If black or oolong tea has not been fermented long enough, the infusion will be conspicuously bright in color and the leaf will have a green tint. A dark green infusion indicates insufficient withering and over-fermentation.

An infused tea with a green-yellow tint indicates pungency and a rich golden leaf signifies quality; a reddish leaf indicates full rich liquor, while a dark leaf will produce a low-grade common tea.

Perfect black tea will be full, rich, and thick looking in the cup, rich in color with a bright, sparkling appearance immediately after pouring. Oolong teas will turn cloudy or “cream down” as the tea cools.

A green tea that has a clear green-yellow of green-golden color in a weak infusion is a young, early picked leaf. A dull, lifeless dark yellow color denotes old or low-grade tea. The lighter the liquor, the younger the leaf and the better the tea is. Smell the weak infusion to get some indication of the character of the tea and to detect possible burning during firing.

Please note that some teas require a longer steeping time (seven minutes for Oolongs) and some teas require a shorter steeping time (three to four minutes for green teas and Darjeelings). At the end of the prescribed time, pour off the tea from the leaves to halt the steeping.

Specific Requirements for Different Types of Tea

As with any rule, there are exceptions. The instructions listed above will be used for nearly every black tea you taste. However, some teas require a different process to bring out the true flavor of the leaf.

Green and White Teas: Green and white teas do not require you to fully boil the water. Pour the water from the kettle just before the water comes to a rolling boil (175