Tea Tasting

Last week was my tea tasting class at Summit Spice & Teas – I had a lot of fun with it.

They had the café set up with tables in a big U shape for the 20+ people who attended the class. Each person got two small cups, and each table had a big urn to dump leftovers into as well as a small bowl of saltine crackers to “cleanse the palate” after each tasting.

After introducing themselves, our instructors talked to us about the history of tea, how it’s grown & harvested and then how it’s processed into the teas we drink. Then they started pouring the teas to taste and talked to us about the particulars of each one.

In total, we tried eleven different black teas (one we tasted twice, a first brewing and then a second brewing):

6 from India

Darjeeling Soom TGFOP 1^st

Jun Chiyabari

Ceylon Courtlodge FBOP

Ceylon Lumbini FBOP EXS

Assam Rembang

Assam Sewpur TGFOP1

3 from China

Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha

Keemun Mao Feng GFBOP

Golden Needle 1^st

1 from Africa

Kenya Milima Estate

1 from Vietnam

Nam Lanh Estate FBOP

My favorites were the Assam Rembang from India and the Bi Luo Chun Hong Cha from China. We got a 15% off coupon for attending the class, so I’ll have to go back and buy them.