Hot Tea Class

Competition Procedures

• Entrants determine which categories they want to submit teas into and complete an entry form.
• Upon receipt of entry forms, all expected submissions are cataloged and receive a unique code identifier.
• Submissions are then sent to World Tea Media and upon receipt competition coordinators code the submissions respectively on the outside of the packaging. 
  
  • The tea is never opened.
  • Submissions are grouped into categories and stored in a dark, cool room until evaluation day.
• The judges are flown competition site the eve before judging begins.
• Judging begins 8:00 am each day.  Roughly twenty minutes before a given category is evaluated, the teas are opened by coordinators and poured into matching coded paper boats in a private room.
• The boats are transferred to the cupping room and placed on the tables in alignment with the corresponding codes topside.
• The category is cupped and evaluated.
  • Categories are cupped in an order based on best for palate, caffeine levels, and primary flavors.
  • Oolongs and puers are cupped twice.
  • Matcha tea is prepared Usucha, thin-styled, by a Urasenke schooled Cupping Coordinator.

Judging/ Cupping Processes

• Submissions must meet category definitions.  Entrants choose which category to submit their tea into and if the judges determine the tea falls outside that definition, the submission is disqualified.  See Tips & Tricks for further information.
• Submissions are then rated 1 - 10 on the following characteristics:
  • Dry Leaf
  • Brewed Color
  • Brewed Aroma
  • Brewed Flavor
  • Brewed Mouth-Feel
  • Brewed Harmony
• The ratings for each characteristic are then used to calculate an overall numerical value on a 100-point scale.  This value is each tea's World Tea Rating™.  Winners are determined by rank.

Brew Plan