Evaluating your results
Always brew your tea in a clear cup or one with a white interior to evaluate it for the first time. You cannot properly assess color in anything other than a white or clear vessel. Also take care to brew your tea at the proper temperature and for the proper time. This will give your homemade tea its best chance to shine.
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Green teas
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Tea made from green tea leaves should have a vibrant color ranging from straw to greenish-yellow to light brown. It should have good aroma, which can vary from grassy to floral plus a range of subtle scents. The flavor should be pronounced, with aspects of bitter, sweet, vegetal, and earthy all possible.
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Black teas
Tea made from black tea leaves should brew a rich reddish to dark brown. It should smell earthy, foresty, or perhaps pungent. The flavor should be smooth, bitter, savory, with perhaps a bit of astringence.
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Ultimately, your tea should taste good to you. The descriptions I give are to provide context for the quality issues I will describe below. If you are happy with a very bland, astringent tea, have at it.
Processed leaves
Argh! So bad! Uneven color, all broken up in to pieces, this tea is awful!
This one rolled into the needle shape, but oxidation did not finish. Not good! But not the worst.
Nice thread shapes, dark, even coloration. Pretty good looking tea!
Good threads, uniform, deep green color, a winner!
Brew color
Green tea, extremely pale, low quality. This tea was all aroma, no flavor.
Green tea, vibrant yellow-green, better quality. This tea had a beautiful floral aroma, and a pleasingly bitter and sweet flavor. Lighter than a Japanese daily sencha.
Not bad, a bit anemic, black tea. This tea had a nice fragrance, but lacked flavor and was too astringent.
Black tea, getting better! Lovely aroma, and while the flavor was modest, it was smooth and reminiscent of an Assam.
Black tea, beautiful red-brown. I was excited about this tea. The aroma, color, and flavor were comparable to a respectable, inexpensive Assam.