Beginner’s Tea Tasting Guide

[@ericka8958]

I’ve been a coffee addict all my life, but a couple months ago, my friend gifted me Assam tea for my birthday and I was surprised at the taste!!! I wanna be converted to a tea person, but there’s just so much in the market- this totally helps me to narrow it down. Thanks for the great vid 🙏

[@nannuoshan]

Glad this video was of help for you! Please let us know if you have any specific questions to get your tea journey started!

[@ant4179]

Hello Gabriele, I just wanted to say thank you very much for this video. As an eager beginner, your guidance on this matter is very welcome, makes perfect sense, and now I see a clear path ahead. Thanks again, and greetings from Denmark. Anthony

[@nannuoshan]

Hi Anthony, thank you very much for the feedback; glad to hear that the tasting guide is useful!

[@mdl12321]

I am 45 and I am drinking good tea from age of 17. In Czech republic there was great tea culture and very uniquely even tea rooms in small or big cities, so I was very fortunate. Today there are so many teas available, if you have the money for it, which is not allways the case for czech people, but fortunatelly it is a case for me. Some tea lovers drink it by volume and buy lower or medium priced teas, but I drink it daily (one tea per day, 1 to 3 pourings) at my computer and I pick the best variates available. Few years ago I went to dicover scotch single malt whiskies with my 3 coworkers, and today we are ast the end of theat journey. I helped them to choose similar approach to what you say here. We choosed regions, went through taste profiles, shared the bottles, found similarities and picked favourites. We avoided the most expensive ones, but we went pretty high in price (up to 200 euros per bottle). With the favourite breweries we went further and tasted more varietes. Now I have 5 to 10 favourites that I can choose from if I want. I do not even drink too much, like once or twice a week in very small amount. Why am I sharing this? Because after that 3 or 5 year episode with scotch whiskies (and simultaneous tea drinking in work) I am still surprised, that tea is actually better and more subtle. It is the top flavourful hobby I know. Of course it is great to cook at home (I cook vegetarian foods) and get into italian and indian cousine a little bit more. And appretiate the spices and taste of vegetables. But tea remains my highest taste and nose pleasure still. I avoided french and american cousine a lot, as I do not look for strange flavours and meat based foods, but I can enjoy some if it occasionaly too. I wend through sdome coffee and beer tasting weeks and months also, but I remain with good mostly vegetarian cousine, tea appretiation and occasional scotch single malt sip and I am happy that way. From teas I like good white tea, I do not buy green tea that often, and I mostly focus on good red and even more oolong teas. I think oolong teas are my favourite go to tea category. I do not drink it gong fu style (although I did in the past), I adapted to the computer drinking while working process by using a single high quality ceramic white cup with green bamboo decoration (not zhong, but taller one and wider in the middle and narrower on top) with a beatifully decorated lid and inside with a ceramic strainer. It is such a fine and easy way of preparation any tea I want. I usually pick up the strained and put it back in the water few times. I also use small bamboo tea tray. I am sad though, because one day I broke the lid. Well, it was a result of too intense work. So i drink it today without the lid from the same cup while smalling the tea in the process of brewing. Such a pleasure. I may buy replacement cup some day soon, and I will probably go in the same style of cup. I am not yet decided. I will probably choose ceramic super finely decorated again. I also have beautifull ceramic chinesse small pot at home which I do not use, so I may try that instead. From oolongs I prefer more balsamic and floral taste and smell, not a fruity and sweet. I do not mind sweet, but balsamic and floral. Pitty is I do not write dosn always what variety I buy and enjoy so after all those years I still do not know what I actually prefered by name lol. I only know it was usually wilder trees, or one tree, or more mineral one. I need to start writing it down, because last time I bought two oolongs (one phoenix) and one other one, and I was a little sad one of them was fruity and one of them was quite good. I usually look at the leaves at the picture and I tend to choose darker and needle shape ones. Or darker pearls. But mostly needles. Next year I am willing to buy everything what is available from needle shape oolongs from various suppliers in Czech republic from top of price range (15-25 eur per 50g) and different regions, but first I will watch yourt videos to get an idea of what it might be that I actually like :). Any direction you can give to me? Names, regions, varietes that have that mineral of floral or balsamic (not fruity) wild tree flavour. China and Formosa only please. Side note: last time I tasted a tea that tasted like mushrooms on a pan without eggs. Formosa Nantou Ming Qian HONG YU (RED JADE) BAI CHA Superior White Tea. It was a suprise indeed.

[@mdl12321]

I have books that were available 25 or 30 years ago about teas. Some from japanese culture (path of tea, mind of tea) and zen, some general books from that time by pioneers of czech discovery of tea in china. I had not opened them lately but they are still sitting there to be rediscovered by me .). My spiritual journey went through oneness with tea to HWL Poonja and than to small yoga community where I discovered vegetarian cousine and some folks that can actually cook it and value simplicity and friendship. Today I am spending lots of time alone, in a dark and I am open minded as I was years ago. Tea is a pleasure. Chinese way of enjoying it is good too. I can enjoy good assam too, and recently I discovered black teas from south india. I use suchteas (not very often) with a milk and some sweetener (brown sugar or honey). Some folks from taht yoga group like to drink powder based indian mixture with milk (it is based around kurkuma, ginger and galgan), but mostly they do herbal teas from locally grown herbs. No sweetener needed, just the herbs. And clear water. Simple water from a well as a new years aperitive is their way of celebration. Who would know, that it can be a way to celebrate a New year. Definitely not a common thing to do. And that is how some uncommon lives go around here.

[@felixhuber7029]

That is such a helpful video! I've been on a tea journey for years now and I still have not acquired good tasting capabilities. maybe it is because I've been drinking all of the categories of tea at the same time...

[@nannuoshan]

So glad it was helpful for you and thank you for sharing your impression. This kind of feedbacks are those that motivate us to continue!

[@Anthony-fb9eh]

Exactly what I was looking for, well done with doing the video in English as well.

[@reirizqi184]

Novice tea drinker here! Discovered specialty tea earlier this year, got into it not too long ago, and I'm in love. Early on my journey I've discovered your channel and this is the first video I feel relevant enough to comment. Already have an idea how to plan my journey and pick tea more or less, but the insights here are so cool! I really wish I could buy your tea, I'm too far away for that sadly. Keep on going, Gabriele! Side note: the 50g advice really rocks, never really bought my teas in any other size, so far.

[@nannuoshan]

Hello! Thank you for your comment and so glad, that I have made a video that suits you, too! Actually we don't have a clear idea of how many of your are "tea experts" and how many tea beginners; so I try to offer a content for both categories... but maybe I should do more basic videos. Where are you from?

[@reirizqi184]

@@nannuoshan So far I've been enjoying all kinds of content, from the basics of Gongfu-style brewing to in-depth videos about heicha, dancong, and yancha, even though I'm not quite at that stage yet. I personally would love to see more about tea exploration as a tea drinker and culture/science enthusiast. I'm from Indonesia, by the way. :)

[@nannuoshan]

@@reirizqi184 , with tea exploration, do you mean sourcing video while meeting the farmers and being on the tea fields? Or rather exploring different types of tea tasting them? If you could make some examples that would help.

[@reirizqi184]

@@nannuoshan I was leaning towards the latter, where you would taste teas or introduce a subcategory of tea and contrast the different kinds (e.g. Taiwanese vs Fujianese TGY), and some kind of Tea Dos and Don'ts that's kind of all encompassing. Though, I'd be more than happy to learn about tea farming and cultivation too. I'll pretty much enjoy anything you make, as you're a great speaker and teacher, at least I think so. :)

[@nannuoshan]

@@reirizqi184 Understood, we will try to do more comparative video. We have done already a few, the first one that pop to my mind is this one: kzbin.info/www/bejne/mXO3dKOCh5KbiMk. But also this one, for example, in which I compared Shu Pu'er and Liubao: kzbin.info/www/bejne/eZPNe2ilhtmJeZY.

[@prcr]

I wish I had found this video a couple of years ago, it would have been very useful! By now, I have already tasted almost all the teas you mention, but not in a systematic way like you advise people to do. And I agree with your suggestions. 👍

[@henrywynne9780]

Very insightful bro

[@yoshiwiseful]

thanks for making these video's! very cool

[@mery_vc]

I just started diving in the tea world, im a bit overwhelmed but your videos are really helpful! Thank you😍

[@nannuoshan]

Glad they help! One way of limiting feeling overwhelmed is to focus more on taste and less on content 😊

[@zzandmorezs8008]

Thank you so much!