A glossary of tea-tasting terms used on the Silent Lion Tea Co. website:
Body: Good quality of tea liquor on the tongue
Bright: Clean, clear colour of brewed tea. Gives of a sense of freshness.
Brisk: Tea is full of life on the tongue.
Bloom: As in dry leaf that has a good appearance.
Complex: Culmination of many flavours, found in fine tea, revealing a final, almost illusive taste, sometimes a taste beyond description.
Even: As applied to the look of dry leaf.
Fruity: Distinctive quality of flavours that can resemble but not imitate fruit.
Malty: Applied to fine Assam Teas, can be applied to certain China Blacks but mostly used for the Assam.
Muscatel: Sign of an excellent Darjeeling. Muscatel hints of wine but this is not a wine term. Fine Darjeeling Teas offer a fruitiness reminiscent of autumn fruit and fine grapes. Muscatel is a term widely applied but not always present.
Peak: As applied to Black Teas, the point at which all the flavours of a fine tea peak and the refinement of the tea is fully revealed.
Sweet: Not really a tea term but useful in the description of some teas as being light and soft on the tongue.
Smoky: The quality of smokiness found in a Lapsang Souchong and in some Pu-Erh.
Smooth: All-round pleasant taste in fine tea.
Well Twisted: Well produced tea.
Wiry: Another sign of a fine tea. Applied to dry leaf.
Herbaceous: Grassy note.
Vegetative: Difficult: sometimes a good trait, sometimes bad. I use this most to describe an overly loose taste, one that is close to green leaf vegetables. Almost moist and flaccid on the tongue.
