The dry leaf smells wonderful and the tea tastes of nothing

In short

Aroma and flavour come apart more in tea than in most drinks, and the gap has several quite different causes — some in the brewing, some in the leaf, and one that is simply a property of how aroma is perceived from a packet against a cup.

Likely causes, in order

Most likely first. Answer the question under each one before moving on — several of these look alike in the cup and are told apart only by what was done to the leaf.

1. 1. Under-extraction: not enough leaf, or not long enough

   Under-extraction

   Check: How much leaf, in how much water, for how long?

   Fix: Weigh the leaf rather than measuring by spoon and add twenty per cent. A packet aroma is concentrated in a small headspace; a cup has to earn its aroma from the water.

2. 2. Water too cool for an aromatic tea

   Temperature

   Check: Is the water below about 85 °C for an oolong or a black tea?

   Fix: Raise the temperature. Aromatic compounds need heat to volatilise, and cautious low-temperature brewing is the most common reason a fragrant oolong drinks flat.

3. 3. The aroma escaped before it reached you

   Technique

   Check: Is the vessel open and wide, and is the cup wide too?

   Fix: Cover the vessel while it steeps, and smell the lid and the empty cup as well as the tea. Much of what a gongfu session offers is aroma from the lid, which an open mug loses entirely.

4. 4. A tea whose aroma is genuinely front-loaded

   Leaf quality

   Check: Is it a scented tea, a strongly fragrant Dan Cong, or a highly aromatic cultivar?

   Fix: Some teas are more aromatic than they are flavourful and that is their design. Jasmine and Dan Cong in particular deliver much of their value through the nose, and expecting the flavour to match the smell misreads the tea.

5. 5. An older tea whose aroma survives in the packet and not in the cup

   StorageInferred by TeaHQ, not established

   Check: How old is it, and has it been opened and resealed many times?

   Fix: Aroma held in a sealed packet is misleading; the leaf can be stale and still smell right when the bag is first opened after standing. Judge by the wet leaf instead, which does not flatter.

Tea types this applies to

• Oolong
• Green tea

Brewing methods this applies to

• Western brewing (teapot or mug) — A small amount of leaf in a large volume of water, steeped once for a few minutes and then strained off. The approach most English-speaking drinkers already know, and the one most teas sold in the West are made for.
• Gongfu brewing (gaiwan) — A high-leaf, low-volume, many-infusions approach: a great deal of leaf in a small vessel, steeped for seconds at a time and poured off completely, repeatedly.

Related problems

Sharing a cause category, a tea type or a brewing method with this one.

• My Japanese green tea tastes of seaweed or fish — A sencha, gyokuro or matcha reads as marine — seaweed at best, distinctly fishy at worst — and it is not clear whether that is the tea or a fault.
• My second infusion is much worse than the first — The first steep is good and the second is bitter, flat or both.
• My tea goes cold before I finish it — The cup is lukewarm within a few minutes, and in a gongfu session the later infusions arrive noticeably cooler than the early ones.
• I cannot taste the difference between my expensive tea and my cheap one — Two teas at very different prices taste much the same in the cup, and the tasting notes on both packets describe things you cannot find.
• Leaves stick to the cup, the pot and my teeth — Fine leaf clings to the inside of the vessel, comes through into the cup, and ends up in the last mouthful.

Sources