Looking at the hue and shape to tell good leaves

Can you tell good tea and bad tea just by their appearance?  The other day, I attended another tea workshop and practiced three different tea tastings for sencha.  

 

Konnichiwa, it’s meヽ(^。^)ノ     Today, I will introduce one of them.  It is telling the quality by their appearance.  The five different dry-leaf samples are placed on black square trays.  You can have a look at them, grab for the weight, feel its texture and smell them.  So you use all senses except the taste and tell rate their quality.

Do you know any index to tell good leaves?  Which do you think is better, heavy or light?  How about the shape?  Do you have any idea if thin or thick leaves are good?  Please look at the photo below.  They are placed in order from 1 to 5, 1 is good and 5 is bad.

Probably, the photo may not be so clear, but now, can you tell some differences?   I’ll give you the answer and these answers are as follows:

	GOOD	BAD
Hue	Profound brilliant green	Reddish, blackish or whitish green
Shape	Thin	Thick
Pieces	Even Less broken pieces and twigs	Coarse and uneven Many broken pieces and twigs
Surface	shiny and Smooth	rough and chalky surface
Weight	Heavy	Light
Smell	Green and sweet aroma	weak

Why are thin leaves good?  Young and soft leaves are better for Japanese tea.  They are easily and tightly curled than old stiff leaves.  So, good leaves are usually thinner.

I think the easiest indexes for you will be the “hue” and “shape”.  Bad leaves are reddish or blackish.  They are coarse and thick and include many broken pieces and twigs.  On the other hand, good leaves have profound color.  The pieces are thin and even.  Now look at the photo again.  Can you tell the differences?

When you have a chance to compare dry leaves, please look at their “hue” and “shape”.  They will be a guide to tell its quality.  Jah!