Tasting vocabulary and how to evaluate
How Chinese graders evaluate tea under GB/T 23776 and describe it in the words of GB/T 14487: the room and the cups, the order of judging, the factors and weights, the key terms, and how it differs from ISO cupping.
What 审评 is#
审评 (shěnpíng) is professional sensory evaluation: in the words of GB/T 23776-2018, trained assessors use sight, smell, taste and touch to analyse a tea's appearance, liquor colour, aroma, taste and infused leaf and combine them into one judgement. It is how grades are set against physical standard samples, how factories check lots and how competitions are judged. It is not how anyone drinks tea for pleasure; it is designed to expose faults.
Three national standards frame it. GB/T 23776-2018 sets the method; it was issued on 6 February 2018, took effect on 1 June 2018 and replaced the 2009 edition. GB/T 14487-2017 sets the vocabulary: 417 terms, in force from 1 May 2018, replacing the 1993 and 2008 editions, with a chapter of terms common to all teas, chapters for each category and for pressed tea, and new terms for Liubao, compressed oolong and compressed white tea. GB/T 18797-2012 sets the requirements for the evaluation room. Evaluation is traditionally split into dry and wet judging: the dry leaf first, then the infusion.
123456Key facts#
The room and the cups#
The kit is standardised so that results compare. The dry bench, for judging leaf, is 800–900 mm high with a matte black top; the wet bench, for cups and bowls, is 750–800 mm high and matte white. The evaluation cup for refined tea is a white cylinder 66 mm high and 67 mm across, holding 150 ml, with serrated notches opposite the handle so the liquor can be poured off with the lid on; its bowl holds 240 ml, and crude tea is judged in a larger 440 ml bowl. Oolong has its own bell-shaped lidded cup of 110 ml with a 160 ml bowl. All porcelain must be a neutral white, and every piece in a set must match.
Training material based on GB/T 18797 gives the room as at least 15 m², no louder than 50 dB, at 15–27 °C, with white or light-grey walls, north-facing windows and about 1,000 lux on the dry bench and at least 750 on the wet. The point of all of it is to remove variables: colour cast, temperature, smell and noise.
111286The procedure#
Judging always runs in the same order: dry appearance, then liquor colour, aroma, taste and finally the infused leaf. For appearance the grader spins the sample on a square tray (把盘) so that it settles into layers by size, then reads shape, colour, wholeness and cleanliness by eye and hand, top, middle and bottom. Then the sample is infused, kaitang 开汤: 3 g in 150 ml of boiling water, a ratio of 1:50, for 4 minutes for green tea, 5 for most others and 6 for rolled oolong. In the oolong method 5 g goes into the 110 ml bell cup, and the leaf is infused three times, for 2, 3 and 5 minutes, the lid sniffed during each; the second infusion counts most, and the third shows how well the leaf holds up.
Aroma is judged at three temperatures. Hot, with the cup at about 75 °C, shows whether the aroma is clean and what type it is; warm, at about 45 °C, shows type and quality; cold, near room temperature, shows how long it lasts. Each sniff takes two or three seconds. The liquor is tasted at about 50 °C, about 5 ml at a time. Last, the infused leaf (叶底) is spread out and judged for softness, colour, brightness and evenness.
1387912Factors, weights and scores#
The standard's factor table lists eight factors: shape, wholeness 整碎, cleanliness 净度 and colour for the dry leaf, and aroma, liquor colour, taste and infused leaf for the infusion. Tenderness 嫩度, often listed as a factor of its own in popular writing, is judged within shape. For scoring the eight collapse into five: appearance (shape, colour, wholeness, cleanliness), liquor colour (hue, depth, brightness, clarity), aroma (type, strength, purity, persistence), taste (strength, body, mellowness against astringency, purity, freshness) and infused leaf (softness, colour, brightness, evenness).
Each factor is scored out of 100 and multiplied by a weighting coefficient that differs by category, and the products are summed; ties are broken by taste, then appearance, aroma, liquor colour and infused leaf. Oolong puts 65% of the weight on aroma and taste, and scented tea 35% on aroma alone; the 2018 edition reweighted pressed tea (from 25/10/25/30/10 to 20/10/30/35/5) and merged "famous" and bulk green tea into one category. When a sample is checked against a standard or contract sample, each factor is instead scored on a seven-point scale from +3 to −3; any factor at −3, or a total of −3 or lower, fails. Regional standards adapt the scheme: Guangdong's 2026 dancong method weights appearance 15, liquor 5, aroma 35, taste 40 and infused leaf 5, and uses 4 g in the bell cup for 1, 2 and 3 minutes.
8212Appearance and colour words#
GB/T 14487 builds most terms from a small set of nouns and qualifiers, and knowing the qualifiers is half the battle. Its Appendix B defines a scale: 微 (slightly), 稍 or 略 (a little), 较 (rather), 尚 (approaching adequate), 欠 (falling short), 有 (has) and 显 (prominent). 欠匀整 therefore means "not quite even", and 尚嫩 "nearly tender". Appendix A defines the nouns for what should not be there: 梗 (stalk), 筋 (fibre), 碎 (broken bits), 夹片 (flaky leaf), 单张 (single leaves) and 片 (flakes).
For dry leaf the common words are 匀整 (even), and the colours 乌润 (black and lustrous, the colour of good black tea), 砂绿 (sandy green) and 青褐 (dark greenish brown) for oolong, with 蛤蟆背 ("toad back"), the blistered surface that roasting raises on yancha. For the liquor (汤色) they are 明亮 (bright), 橙黄 (orange-yellow), 金黄 (golden) and 混浊 (turbid; the standard writes 混浊, everyday Chinese 浑浊). The Liubao chapter adds 红褐 and 黑褐 for the leaf, 紫红 for the liquor and 仓味 for the storage note that is a fault in other teas and a character of this one.
1454Aroma and taste words#
Aroma words name either a quality or a type. Qualities include 馥郁 (rich and lasting), 清香 (clean, fresh) and 嫩香 (the fragrance of tender leaf); types include 栗香 (chestnut), 毫香 (downy, for bud teas), 花香 and 果香. 高火 is given in the standard as "high-fired aroma", slightly above a normal roast, rather than as burnt. The faults are as precise: 青气 (grassy, under-processed), 闷气 (stuffy, from leaf kept hot and closed), 陈气 (stale, against the welcome aged note 陈香) and 霉味 (mouldy, which disqualifies).
Taste words describe strength, body and balance: 鲜爽 (fresh and brisk), 醇厚 (mellow and full), 醇和 (mellow and gentle), 涩 (a thick-tongued, puckering feel) and 青涩 (astringent with a raw-green taste). 回甘 appears in the standard as "sweet after taste", felt at the root of the tongue and in the throat. Some words belong to one tea: 山韵 for the high-mountain character of dancong and 丛韵 for the character of old dancong bushes. Researchers have counted 137 basic morphemes in the vocabulary and criticised its overlapping definitions and its habit of filing retronasal aroma under taste; another study shows how most compound terms are built from four kinds of morpheme in eight patterns.
1451516The people who judge#
Tea evaluation is a recognized occupation in Mainland China, with occupational skill standards and skill-level assessment. This should not be described as a general licensing requirement: tea tasters left the national occupational-qualification catalogue in the reform that shifted level assessment to employers and social evaluation bodies. The national skill standard for the tea taster 评茶员, revised in March 2020, has five levels, from junior taster to senior technician. The 2022 occupational classification renamed the occupation 评茶师 and added a work type for tea blenders, 茶叶拼配师, whose job is to bring a blend's appearance, quality and cost to set targets. Provincial tea societies run the assessments; Shanghai's did so for three levels in 2025. Regional methods add their own rules: Guangdong's dancong standard requires good eyesight, no garlic, chilli or alcohol on the day, no cosmetics or smoking, and either a taster's certificate or years of experience.
In Taiwan the tea research station runs its own sensory certificate in five levels. Taiwanese glossaries call liquor colour 水色 rather than 汤色, describe oolong leaf as 砂綠 or eel-skin coloured (鱔皮色), and treat the cream-down that forms in cooled strong black tea as a sign of quality rather than a fault.
1718192012212223Chinese evaluation, ISO cupping and tasting at home#
The international method, ISO 3103 (first published in 1980, revised in 2019), prepares tea for sensory tests with 2 g per 100 ml of freshly boiled water in a white porcelain pot of 310 or 150 ml, infused 6 minutes for black tea, 5 for leafy green and 3 for green fannings, then poured into a white bowl; milk, if used, goes into the bowl first. Its strength is exactly the Chinese 1:50. The differences lie elsewhere: the Chinese method shortens most infusions to 4–5 minutes, smells the cup at three temperatures, judges dry leaf and infused leaf as formal factors, and treats oolong with repeated short infusions at about 1:22. Professional tasters in the Western trade slurp loudly from a large spoon to spread the liquor over the tongue, and spit.
At home the method is easy to borrow. Weigh 3 g into a 150 ml lidded cup or gaiwan, fill with boiling water and time 5 minutes (4 for tender green tea). Pour into a white bowl, look at the colour first, smell the cup hot, warm and cold, taste small sips, and finish by spreading the leaves on a white dish. Brewed this strong, two teas side by side show their differences, and their faults, at once; then go back to gongfu brewing to enjoy them.
242526Weighting coefficients by category (%)#
Scroll horizontally to see all columns.
| Category | Appearance | Liquor colour | Aroma | Taste | Infused leaf |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Green, famous (2009; merged with bulk green in 2018) | 25 | 10 | 25 | 30 | 10 |
| Green, bulk (2009) | 20 | 10 | 30 | 30 | 10 |
| Black, gongfu | 25 | 10 | 25 | 30 | 10 |
| Black, broken | 20 | 10 | 30 | 30 | 10 |
| Oolong | 20 | 5 | 30 | 35 | 10 |
| Dark, loose | 20 | 15 | 25 | 30 | 10 |
| Pressed tea (2018) | 20 | 10 | 30 | 35 | 5 |
| White | 25 | 10 | 25 | 30 | 10 |
| Yellow | 25 | 10 | 25 | 30 | 10 |
| Scented | 20 | 5 | 35 | 30 | 10 |
| Dancong (Guangdong DB44/T 2816.5—2026) | 15 | 5 | 35 | 40 | 5 |
Notice in the cup#
Use these editorial prompts to record what you actually notice. They support description rather than a score, a promised flavour or a test of origin.
Aroma
Where did you notice it: the liquor, the lid or the emptied cup? Compare the same place at a similar temperature.
Mouthfeel
Describe drying or puckering separately from bitterness. Does the sensation change as the infusion cools?
Finish
What remains after swallowing, and for how long? Write down a change you notice rather than a quality verdict.