Darjeeling Tea tasting is a refined art which necessarily encompasses a large number of variables. A taster’s palate and olfactory senses are finely sensitive and highly discriminatory.

An experienced taster can identify the garden, ambient conditions of the plucking day and can even suggest adjustments in the manufacturing process. A taster uses his sharp sense of sight, smell, touch and taste while judging the quality of the tea.

A taster must also have an in-depth knowledge about the prevailing market conditions, consumer preferences and manufacturing techniques while evaluating the tea. These are endowments of birth - it would be true to say that tasters are born and not made. These natural talents, however, have to be trained and developed through long years of practice before the palate is proficient enough to register the minute differences. This is particularly true for Darjeeling Tea Tasters as the quality of tea differs from invoice to invoice and being an exclusive tea, it has no yardstick to standardise against.

It is only an excellent cup that truly cheers and taste is perceptible only by the human palate - No wonder that this craft is viewed with a tinge of awe and wonderment.




Tasting Procedure:
In the tasting procedure, pots and cups made of the finest china, kept spotlessly clean, are used; 2.5 gm of each tea is weighed into pots and water which has just come to the boil is poured over it. The pots are then covered with a lid and the tea is infused for either 5 or 6 minutes, depending on the individual taster’s preference. The liquor is poured out into a cup and the tea is ready for tasting.

The colour and evenness of the infusion, as also its nose, are an index to the intrinsic value of the brew. This examination takes place in a well lit room away from direct sunlight, shade and shadow. Light from the north, which is steady and uniform, is ideal.

The scrutiny of the leaf and infusion over, the taster turns his attention to the liquor and takes a sip from the cup, rolls it in his mouth and spits it out. In that split second, the palate registers the taste - Flavour, briskness, strength and any faults and flaws are recorded and the taster is ready with his judgement.