Recently during a conference, I was asked this question and it is not easy to answer. The first thing that comes to mind is: “the one you like the most” and although this statement has a lot of truth, it is not completely accurate.
The same thing happens with wines, in a country where we are not used to drinking it every day, our culture of this drink is very limited and as we try and educate our palate, our taste for wines changes to better made wines, our taste evolves and what once seemed very good to us, now not so much; we realize that there are better wines.
With tea we are even more disadvantaged as we drink much less of it. Suffice it to say that up until 15 years ago very few people had tried white tea or ulong, much less aged pu erh!
In fact, few Mexicans know that only these two drinks (wine and tea) educate our palate, so the more we try both (in a conscious and analytical way), the more we will develop our perception of aromas and flavors.
Now, returning to the initial question, being able to categorically state “the best tea is….” this or that, is practically impossible. But this does not mean that we cannot talk about qualities in it or which one(s) are more appreciated in different places and contexts.
The first thing we have to do is know the 5 categories of teas, which as you know come from the same plant (Camellia Sinensis) processed in different ways, and look for the tea I am rating to have the qualities and characteristics that are expected from this type of tea:
WHITE: Light, subtle, elegant, slightly astringent, floral and fruity.
GREEN: Herbaceous, vegetal, sometimes marine and with umami, refreshing, somewhat astringent and bitter.
ULONG: This tea family can be almost green (in which case its notes are similar to those of green tea) or almost black (with characteristics similar to those of this category of tea). However, in general we can expect greater complexity of aromas in them, ranging from herbaceous, floral to smoky toasted.
BLACK: Full-bodied, woody, smoky, citrusy. With a pleasant bitterness and astringency.
PU ERH: Full-bodied, powerful, little to no astringency, subtle sweetness, with hints of dampness, straw, earth, and sometimes fish.
It is also necessary to try at least the following pure teas in each category, to get a vague idea of all the flavours that we can find in them and what each one is like in general terms.
WHITE: Shou mei, Pai mu tan, Yin Zhen.
GREEN: In this category we have to divide them by origin since they are very different from each other:
China: Bi lo chun, Long jing, Gunpowder, Mao Feng
Japan: Sencha (at least 3 qualities), Bancha, Hojicha, Gyokuro, Matcha.
ULONG: Tie kuan yin, Huang jin Gui, Da hong Pao, Tung Ting, Milky Ulong
BLACK: Also divided by countries
India: Darjeeling (1st and 2nd harvest), Assam, Nilgiri
Sri Lanka: Nuwara Eliya
China: Yunnan, Golden monkey, Keemun
PU ERH: Black loose leaf and pressed (aged from different years), as well as white and green (pressed).
With this we have a fairly complete overview of what the world of tea is and we can make a more accurate judgment of “this is the best tea for me, here and now” although it is certainly not “the best tea in the world.”
On another occasion I will tell you about the different qualities of each category and how they are classified to have a better idea of their quality.
In the meantime, try lots of tea!
Olivia Medina de Jönsson
Tea Master, EURO TEA
