Abstract: A practical approach for determining tannin contents is very useful for sorghum breeders. Tannin contents were determined with vanillin-HCl method for 24 sorghum entries varying in origin, pericarp color, presence or absence of testa and testa color. The relations of these kernel characteristics with their tannin contents were investigated. It was revealed that dark color pericarp produces trace amount of tannins, while the tannin contents in the sorghum cultivars with purple testa were much lower than those with brown testa. Subdivision of type 1 and type 2 sorghum was proposed to provide sorghum breeders more practical classification system for selecting cultivars with suitable tannin contents.