COARSE: A liquor lacking aroma and often with undesirable taste qualities as well, due to irregular firings or poor leaf.
COLOR: Color varies with tea type and origin, but should be bright, limpid, or deep, as opposed to stewy and dull. A black tea with concentrated red liquor is sometimes described as colory.
COMMON: Untainted but nonetheless poor quality teas yielding plain, dull liquors.
CREAM: A milky film that forms as certain black teas (particularly Assam) cool. Usually indicates some briskness and strength though not necessarily flavor.
DELICATE: Subtle as opposed to assertive, intense, or penetrating aromas and flavors. A delicate tea may possess considerable complexity, however.
DULL: OPPOSITE OF BRIGHT. Muddy, brownish color and appearance in the liquor arising from poor manufacture or poor leaf. Not an encouraging sign.
EARTHY: A dank flavor taint due to damp storage conditions.
FINE: Term of praise; usually synonymous with flavory. See aroma and Flavor.
FLASHY: Often a very recently picked self-drinking tea that is exceptionally alive in the cup. See new. This character is ephemeral and sometimes develops in to a rounder, mellower quality with age.
FLAVOR: a) Used to describe fine quality indicated by the presence of a sweetish or honey like aroma-taste complex-a bouquet that can be tasted as well as sniffed. Such a tea is described as flavory.
b) Specifically, certain flavor nuances founding the taste of the liquor-almonds, toffee, and so forth.
FLOWERY: Characteristic of the fragrant aroma of many fine teas often used in describing high grown Ceylon’s and South Indians (Not to be confused with the perfume of scented teas -)
FRESH: Sometimes confused with green. Usually refers to recently manufactured teas and those teas that have not been on the shelf so long they have become stale.
FRUITY: A flavor taint due to bacterial infection; however a piquant fruity quality is characteristic of Oolong.
FULL: Used to describe liquors of black tea with strength but with little briskness. Full teas are not bitter, but ripe round and smooth.
GONE OFF: Tainted or moldy tea that has been spoiled by improper storage or packing. Also applied to out-of-condition teas that are merely too old, but this state is more precisely termed stale.
GREEN: As applied to black teas, a raw, bitter taste due to under fermentation. It is not related to actual age. Sometimes confused with fresh.
HARD: Used to describe a black tea liquor with great pungency and bitterness, a raw, sapping, or harsh quality, related to greenness.
HAY: A flavor characteristic found in certain teas at certain seasons, a woody, grassy, or stalky flavor. Undesirable in black teas, not always desirable in oolongs and greens.
HEAVY: Thick, strong, colory black-tea liquors with little briskness.
HIGH-GROWN: Most, but not all fine teas are from high elevations, but in districts where quality; is related to altitude, the aroma is more expansive and the flavor is more intense.
INTENSE: Usually applied to flavor and taste to indicate a concentrated, penetrating quality.
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