Why fill water to the rim?
Tea “Sommeliers” need better common sense
Ever since businesses around the world sensed a come back for tea and saw some individuals doing tea with a new level of professionalism, there has been a sudden bloom of tea “sommelier” schools. I have no idea where all these sommelier teachers or “tea masters” could have suddenly come from. I have encountered a few and really cannot say I am impressed.
Nevertheless, I have long decided to support whatever they have been doing because a united front would be important for the growth of traditional quality tea. However, when I come upon so frequently with concepts that they are spreading and that are anti-thesis of traditional tea, I really can explode on them.
The important thing is, you the tea reader should grow a healthy common sense for tea. Rather than confronting those sommelier businesses, I would use my limited time and energy to mind you of better concepts.
Here is a first detail I’d like you to be aware of:
When doing a proper tasting with a standardised infusion vessel, such as a taster’s mug, ALWAYS fill water to the rim
Better yet, let it over run a bit.
A few days ago, I saw a demonstration video by some big name European country tea sommelier school where the seemingly authoritative figure doing all the wrong things for traditional quality tea tasting. Here is one: he lets the water trickle into the mugs some 12 to 6 mm below the rim.
One important reason for using a standardised mug is such that the water to tea ratio for a tasting session is uniform for all the teas involved, such that the variables in the different qualities of the teas can be detected and compared.
Filling to rim maybe messy, but it ensures the volume of water in each mug is the same. In that case, 150 ml.
150 ml is one of the two universal tea tasting mug standards. The other one is 300 ml. They are round numbers for a good reason: accurate measurement for tealeaves.
Keeping your tea to water ratio simple
The universal standard for professional tea tasting is 2g to 100ml water. For 150ml mugs you measure 3 g of leaves to the mug, for the 300, 6. Making these basic parameters simple and easy to follow allows the taster to focus in the seemingly simple, yet in actuality complex process of tasting.
You do not want to measure 2.68g for that 134 ml, or maybe 2.82g for that 141 ml of water in that nearly filled mug. You do not want the standard 2 to 100 proportion to end up 2.07 to 100 in one mug, 2.13 in another. Especially when there are so many near quality varieties to taste.
Inaccurate tasting may cost a connoisseur a wrong purchase decision for half a kilo ( a pound ) of tea. For a tea buyer, it maybe a for half a ton, or even half a container.
A little common sense carries a long way
Always fill water to the rim when you are doing a proper tasting with whatever infusion vessel you have appointed for that session. This way you know for sure the exact volume of water in that vessel for a standardised amount of tealeaves through all selections in that session. Otherwise, you would know whether this tea really is so much tastier, or stronger, or more floral than the other.
A simple common sense for the science lab that anyone should have by junior high school is obviously lacking in that authoritative demonstrator for the big name European country tea sommelier school.
In the world of tea, a little common sense, plus the spirit of continual learning, can take you a long way.
I shall write a lot more about such simple techniques, which I had not thought necessary before. Hope this help my tea connoisseur readers as much as fellow tea specialists.
