Tea Tasting
 

The flavor of tea is a complex perception. There is a certain flavor dynamic. What is meant by the dynamics of flavor? Most teas can be described as having a foreground flavor, middle ground flavor and background flavor. These combine to produce a profile, a "flavor profile". For example, there is a "flavor profile" into which all Darjeeling's will fall simply because they are Darjeelings or all Keemuns or all Yunnans or all Assams, etc. The reason is because all of the individual leaves of each growing region are basically identical. However, a well-balanced profile of each growing region falls within specific profile outlines. An unbalanced profile looks ragged (somewhat like a saw blade) and therefore becomes somewhat less than pleasant to drink. This unbalanced profile can be caused by many things: low altitude, improper pluck, poor processing, bad manufacturing, exposure to water or excessive moisture, to name a few. Tea is like the little girl: when it is good it is very, very good and when it is bad it is horrid.
Flavor is a combination of two sensory perceptions: taste and odor or aroma. The first part of the flavor duo of taste and aroma is perceived by the taste buds and other sensory tissues on the tongue. It is this area which perceives non-volatile stimuli such as: salt, sweet, acid (sour) and bitter. (Occasionally considered also as a functional perception is the taste sensation of metallic, but this may also be caused by medication, metals used to fill dental carries and several other extraneous causes.) These taste buds are generally located in very specific areas on the tongue (sweet in front, salt next and along the sides, acid (sour) next and along the sides, bitter in the rear and from side to side covering the back of the tongue). However, all types of taste buds can be found located sparsely throughout the tongue's entire surface.

Secondly, one must consider the sense of smell when discussing what makes up flavor perception. One's sense of smell, or odor, is one's reaction to the stimulus of volatile components found in the tea which we consume. When one is swallowing tea there are volatile components present. It is these volatiles that evaporate up into the nasal cavity (retro-nasally) and stimulate the nerve endings in the olfactory bulb region. The fact that we are also smelling food as we are tasting it is the reason why we cannot "flavor" things well when we have a cold. It is also the reason why it becomes difficult, if not impossible, to discern the difference between an apple and a potato when we tightly hold our nose and chew them separately. The texture is similar and that is all that we seem to perceive.
Besides these two sensory perceptions, the physical aspects of tea come very much into play:

Mouth feel: Astringency (dryness) and slipperiness (that reaction which follows immediately after astringency in a very good tea).

Temperature: Affects the relative volatility of the odorants and therefore, the flavor.
The tea preparation system as it affects the solubility and the corresponding vapor pressure of each volatile. What does this mean? Tea should be made in a lidded vessel to contain the volatile and vital aromatics it contains, not in an open cup. And, further, the teapot or lidded cup should be appropriate in every respect to the tea which is being infused inside of it. The condition (physical, mental, overall health, age, etc.) of those partaking of tea is of major concern since these conditions will effect flavor acuity.

The flavor system — the nose and tongue — is one of the most sensitive of all of our senses and, perhaps because of this, the most easily fatigued. When a Tea Master has been cupping tea for a long period of time on a project that requires crucial flavor judgment, he (she) might wash out his (her) mouth with water or chew on an unsalted cracker in order to aid in his (her) perception, but when nerve endings are fully desensitized by over stimulation these are just temporary aids — not cures. Only time will help and usually somewhere between forty and fifty hours are needed to restore flavor acuity and judgment. Perception of tea depends a lot upon the system used to prepare the tea since the method of preparation preserves or destroys the aromatic compounds. Below is a sequence of steps in the flavor release of tea compounds:

Solubility or dispersibility of the tea in the saliva in the mouth.

The subsequent solubility of taste components of the tea which are perceived by taste buds.

Evaporation (retro-nasally —remember) of the volatile portion of the tea.

Perception of these volatiles via stimulation of nerve endings in the olfactory bulb region.

Believe me, all of this happens within milliseconds. This is why, as many of you have witnessed,  I need take just one sip of a freshly and correctly infused tea and am able to form a judgment on that tea immediately.                  

              
                                                                                                            Tea Taster