Reading a Cup: Liquor, Aroma, Finish

Our tasting room runs on a simple liturgy: look, smell, sip, wait. First the liquor — a first flush should pour bright and golden, catching light like honey in glass. Cloudiness is a flaw; brilliance is a promise. Then the aroma, taken from the lid of the tasting set. Hot leaf tells the truth that hot water sometimes hides. Look for the top note first — floral in spring, fruity in summer — then the base note beneath it. Finally the finish: what remains thirty seconds after the sip. Great Kangra tea leaves a faint sweetness at the back of the tongue, a memory of muscatel. If the cup keeps talking after you've swallowed, the garden did its work.