One of the hallmarks of evaluating the quality of a black tea is by assessing how tightly the leaves are rolled. Generally, higher-graded teas are teas with leaves that are tightly and uniformly rolled. ① Lower-graded teas, on the other hand, are teas with leaves that are loosely and inconsistently rolled. ② With that said, the tightness of the roll has more to do with the steepability of a leaf than it does with the taste of a tea. ③ The rolling of leaves is done by machine or, sometimes, by hand to break the cell walls of the leaves and release essential oils. ④ Therefore, one should not evaluate the tea’s drinkability or taste merely because its leaves are not tightly rolled. ⑤ It is common to find that people prefer the taste of looser rolled black teas over more expensive or more highly graded black teas that have been tightly rolled.
* hallmark: 특징, 특질 ** steepability: (차를) 우려낼 수 있음