How to Track Your Tea: Leaves, Steeps & Tasting Notes
A tea journal has two halves: the leaves you own and the sessions you brew from them — with scores consistent enough that a spring Long Jing and an aged sheng pu-erh can sit in the same system. Tea collections sprawl faster than any other drink shelf: a tin from a trip, three samples from an order, a gift you can't read the label of. Six months later, nobody remembers which one was the revelation.
Log the leaf first
One entry per tea: type (green, white, oolong, black, pu-erh…), producer or shop, origin, and harvest or flush if the label says — spring versus autumn pickings of the same garden can drink like different teas. Storage age matters at the extremes too: greens fade in months while good pu-erh is just warming up at ten years. In Crumble's tea journal (a free add-on) your leaves live on a shelf, and with Crumble Plus scanning the packaging fills in the details.
Score sessions on tea's own six axes
- Sweetness — from delicate (white teas) to malty-honeyed (Yunnan blacks).
- Astringency — the drying grip; spine in moderation, punishment past it.
- Body — water-light to broth-thick; aged and roasted teas climb here.
- Aroma — orchid oolongs, smoky lapsang, stone fruit Darjeelings; half of tea is the nose.
- Umami — the savory depth of shaded Japanese greens; gyokuro's whole argument.
- Finish — the returning sweetness (hui gan) that the best teas leave behind.
Tea adds one wrinkle no other drink has: the same leaves change across infusions. Score the session as a whole, then spend your free-text line on the arc — "peaks at steep three, mineral by five" is the most tea-specific note you can take.
Tea houses count too
Gongfu bars, Japanese tea rooms, the café with the surprisingly serious oolong list — venues are free to track on Crumble like any spot: rate what you drank, wishlist the tea houses you haven't visited, and share finds with your circle through the map. Tea pilgrimage through Taiwan or Kyoto? It becomes a trip with its own recap.
Habits for a tea journal that survives
- Standardize your brewing baseline. Note your default (e.g. gongfu, 95°C, quick steeps) once in the shelf entry; only log deviations per session.
- First session per tea is the honest one. Score every new tea once with your full attention; daily-driver brews afterwards don't all need entries.
- Note water when it surprises you. The same tea on holiday tap water can drop two points. One word ("hotel water") saves future confusion.
- Revisit aged teas yearly. A dated annual entry per pu-erh cake is a time-lapse of its development — the most rewarding long game in tea.
The rest of the shelf
The same journal model covers matcha (its own guide — the workflow differs), specialty coffee, wine, whisky, and beer. One app for everything you steep and pour, all free — Crumble Plus adds the AI label scan.
Frequently asked questions
What should I write in a tea journal?
Per tea: what it is (type, producer, origin, harvest if known) and how you brewed it (leaf amount, water temperature, steep time). Per session: scores on consistent axes — sweetness, astringency, body, aroma, umami, finish — plus one line of free text. The consistent axes are what let a Dan Cong from March meet a Darjeeling from June on equal terms.
Is there an app for tea tasting notes?
Yes — Crumble's free tea add-on keeps your leaves on a shelf and logs each session against them with a six-axis flavor radar built for tea, astringency and umami included. With Crumble Plus, scan the packaging and the AI fills in producer and style.
How do I track multiple infusions of the same tea?
Score the session, not each steep — but note how the tea moved: good oolongs and pu-erhs change character across five or more infusions, and "opens floral, turns mineral by steep four" is exactly the kind of line worth writing down. If one steep was the peak, say which.
What is astringency in tea?
The drying, mouth-puckering grip — from tannins, the same family that structures red wine. A little gives tea its spine; too much usually means the water was too hot or the steep too long. Tracking it separately from bitterness is what makes tea notes precise.