The Science of Taste

Tea 103 from the Tea Sommelier course put on by the Tea Association of Canada is finally here!  This module is somewhat different from the others in that it's not so much about tea, history terroir, etc.  It's more about how we taste.

In this first week we did two tastings:  The first involved tasting sensory.  So we chewed down on a coffee bean, honey, salt, lime and a tomato!!  The objective of this was to demonstrate where on the tongue certain flavours are concentrated.  So the coffee was to show bitterness, and how the main area we taste bitter is at the back of the tongue.  Sweet is on the tip of the tongue, salt on the sides of the tongue near the front and sour on the sides of the tongue near the back.  If you are interested you can do this experiment as see for yourself how these flavours are predominant in those area.

Let's get tasting!!

The tomato was an interesting one.  It is a fifth sense that has been put forth by the Japanese.  They refer to to this as Umami - and represents the flavour savoury.  It encompasses the whole mouth working together producing this explosion of flavour that is - well savoury, full bodied and all encompassing.

We aslo did a cupping.  They were all teas that we had cupped before except for Mao Jian.  So we basically did Sencha, Gyokuro, and Mao Jian, and then we did First Flush Darjeeling, Second Flush Darjeeling and black tea from Nilgiri.  The purpose for this is to really learn about cross sectional cupping and be able to identify teas not just as to what class it belongs, but also to identify the country and the region within the country, as well as the particular style.

The Mao Jian was a new tea for me and I found it to have a spinachy taste, that light and refreshing.  I enjoyed this tea very much.  The color of the liquor is very light, like straw.

Errors in tasting can happen for a variety of reasons.  For example say you read on the package of the tea what the expected flavour is suppose to be, then you have predisposed yourself to taste that.  Sometimes even the packaging could cloud your taste judgement.  Perhaps the product is packaged in colors and graphics that appeal to you - then the tea is more likely to be appealing as well.  Another error that I've noticed already is if my palate isn't totally clean when I taste the tea, then sometimes the lingering flavours on my palette distort what I am actually tasting.  There are so many ways that our taste can be distorted or influenced without us really even knowing it is happening.

Does anybody have any other barriers to effective tasting that they could share?