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Taste and aroma

The Taiwan tea flavour wheel

The flavour wheel is an assessment tool from the government tea station: it breaks "good" into ninety-five words you can actually say.

Sellers describe with it, buyers check against it. Tap any segment and the teas here carrying that note are listed.

← Swipe to see the whole wheel · pinch to zoom →

TasteBasic tasteSourSweetBitterSaltyUmamiMouthfeelCleannesscleanmuddledFinenessfinecoarseSmoothnesssmoothroughBodythickthinFinishlongshortAromaGreenGrassfresh grasshaymesonatobaccoVegetablesweet potato leafwater spinachbamboo shootchayote shootbaby cornBeanmung beansoybeantofuplant proteinSweetSugarcaramelrock sugarHoneyhoneyFloralFlowerjasminepomelo blossomosmanthusFruityFruitlemonguavacitruspomeloNut & grainNutpeanutalmondchestnutRootsweet potatotarobeetrootRoastedBakedpuffed riceSmokysmoked plumsmokeOtherWoodycypresspinecamphorbambooSpicemintbasilpepperStaleearthmudmouldMarinekelpnorifishyChemicalplasticrubbermedicineFlavour

Tap any segment. Faded ones mean no tea on this site carries that flavour yet — the wheel is a vocabulary for all of Taiwan; this site has 107 teas.

How the wheel was made

  1. Samples firstThe research station gathered around 495 representative samples from tea quality competitions across Taiwan — not a handful of favourites, but the range of tea actually circulating in the country.
  2. Then 25 specialists tastedA working group of the station’s tea-making and sensory researchers worked through the samples using descriptive analysis. One person saying “fragrant” proves nothing; a word only enters the wheel when many people reach for it in front of the same cup.
  3. Back to the growersOnce the vocabulary was organised into liquor colour, aroma and taste, the station held sessions to hear from growers and traders, and kept revising. This is what separates it from an academic taxonomy: a word the people using it cannot make work gets changed.

How to read it

  1. From the centre outwardThe innermost ring says “aroma”, the next “sweet”, the next “honey-like”, and only the outer ring says “honey” — it gets more specific as it goes out. Stop at whatever layer matches what you smell; “floral” is a complete answer if you cannot name the flower.
  2. Colour marks the family, not the qualityThe blue wedge — stale, marine, chemical — does not mean “spoiled”. A Baozhong that smells of nori and a damp-damaged tea that smells of mould are described with the same vocabulary; what differs is whether that note belongs in that tea.
  3. Mouthfeel is a scale, not a yes or noCleanness, fineness, smoothness, body and finish are each a line between two ends. The question is not whether a tea has it, but which end it sits nearer.

“Milky” and “cool mineral” are terms Taiwanese drinkers use often but the official wheel does not include. We place them on the nearest branch and note it here: they are not part of the TRES classification.

Vocabulary from Tea and Beverage Research Station — the Taiwan tea flavour wheel