Separate the four things you are sensing
AROMA, which is most of what people call flavour and is best caught from the empty warm cup as much as from the liquid. TASTE, which is only sweet, bitter, sour, salty and umami. MOUTHFEEL, which is texture — thin or thick, silky or drying. And AFTERTASTE, which is what remains after swallowing and is where good tea most obviously separates from ordinary tea. Keeping them apart is the whole technique.
Astringency is not bitterness
This is the distinction worth learning first, because it makes troubleshooting possible. Bitterness is a taste, caused by over-extraction and heat, and it is fixed with cooler water or a shorter steep. Astringency is a drying, puckering sensation, caused by polyphenols binding proteins in saliva, and it comes from leaf grade and agitation as much as from time. A tea can be strongly astringent and not bitter at all.
Taste across infusions, not just once
One cup gives an average. Brewing the same leaf three or four times, shorter, shows the arc — which is where the actual information is. Most teas peak somewhere in the middle rather than in the first infusion, and a tea that is identical across four steeps is telling you something too.
Compare, do not describe
Two teas side by side teach more in ten minutes than one tea alone teaches in a month. Hold one variable and change another: the same cultivar at two roast levels, the same category from two countries, the same tea brewed at two temperatures. TeaHQ’s comparisons are built on this principle for the same reason.
Write short notes
Three words per tea is enough, and more than most people manage. The point is not the note but the act of deciding — being forced to choose between 'malty' and 'toasty' is what makes the difference legible next time. Vocabulary comes from tasting, not from reading a flavour wheel.