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If you’re like two billion other people around the world, chances are you’ve recently enjoyed a cup of tea. But when was the last time you looked at a tea leaf very closely? Although I considered myself a tea lover, I hadn’t really given the leaf much thought until I was asked to be a guest judge at the UK Tea Academy x Fortnum & Mason Leafies Tea Awardsalongside experts from Taiwan, China, Sri Lanka, India, Japan and the United Kingdom.
Judging tea is much more holistic than judging wine or whiskey, because you are evaluating the raw material as well as the end result. Each starter is delivered to the table and brewed with both dry and steeped leaves, so you can see, touch, taste and smell the tea in all three states.
“A good tea has leaves that are beautiful,” explains The Chinese Tea Society founder Juan Webster. “Very uniform, few broken leaves and not too many stems, which can give the tea a bitter taste. The color should be bright and even.
Some teas were made from a mass of threadlike needles, others were rolled as neatly as grains of rice. We admired glistening Indian Assams with golden “tips” and rust-red leaves. I watched Asako Steward, director of Japan Tea Academyspread emerald green matcha onto paper with a small spatula. “I’m looking for a pretty, bright color, not khaki,” she explains, “and a fine, silky powder.”
We assessed the aroma of the leaves and unfolded them to see how they had been picked. “It’s a beautiful example of picking,” said Chau-Jean Lin, an expert from a family of Taiwanese tea growers, holding up a sprig made of two leaves. and a bud, considered ideal. Fresh tea was brought to the judges’ bench in large white bowls to show its clarity and color. “If a black tea has a golden ring around the rim, that’s a sign of good balance,” Steward said.
We smelled and drank and savored, and texture, flavor and finish debated. The best teas had as much character and complexity as any wine or spirits.
Gyokuro Saemidori green tea, £175 for 100g, fortnumandmason.com
Lumbini Sinharaja Wirey Tips Ceylon Tea, £35 for 100g, fortnumandmason.com
The winners of the gold medals, some of which will be on sale at Fortnum & Masonincluded Tseng’s No 60 Black Beauty, a bright black tea with fragrant mango/peach notes and a fine, nutty tannin; and a white tea from Taiwan’s Bajia Tea Factory with floral notes and grapefruit zest and a finish like a thread of incense.
The “Best in Show” award went to the fabulously creamy Saemidori Matcha from My tea consumptiona century-old family producer in the mountains of Fukuoka in Japan. It’s extraordinary to think that all these teas come from Camellia sinensis factory.
“Vietnam is now producing excellent teas and Africa is really taking center stage,” says Jennifer Wood, director of the Academy. “This year we also tasted teas from Latvia, Denmark and Australia. And some from the UK: Dartmoor, Orkney, Wales. The UK Tea Academy now offers an introductory course called the Tea Essential Award. Get ready to taste your tea like you’ve never tasted it before. theleafies.co.uk
