Tea Terms

Aroma – The fragrance of tea liquor and the infused leaf.

Astringency – Creates a feeling of dryness in the mouth.

Balance – All flavor elements in harmony.

Body – The weight of tea liquor as felt on the tongue.

Botanicals – Caffeine free herbal ingredients that include leaves, roots, barks, berries, grasses, seeds and peels.

Bright – Teas with sparkling color and crisp fresh flavor.

Biscuity – A pleasant, almost fresh-baked aroma present in some black teas.

BOP1 – Broken Orange Pekoe, Grade #1. Typically medium sized particles of leaf (“brokens”), which fall through the first screen in the grading process. In Ceylon, however, denotes a leaf size similar to that of an Assam OP.

Brew – Not really a tea term, but often used to describe the steeping process when making teas, as in “fresh-brewed tea.”

Brisk – The clean, assertive “bite” in black teas — a flavor in many high grown teas.

Character – The aroma and flavor qualities that are characteristic of a tea from a specific region

Chewy – Tea with a dense, viscous liquor and complex flavor.

Colory – A tea that exhibits great cup color. Not necessarily an indicator of quality.

Common – Tea with plain, thin liquor that has no distinctive qualities.

Cowbell – The security system at Smith. Also a general measure of oomph.

CTC – A grade of tea. Cut, Tear and Curl (CTC) is an alternative manufacturing style to the orthodox leaf styles, and yields a thick liquor and full body. Leaf is granular, with more surface exposed. Often used in chai blends.