top of page
How to Taste Tea Like a Pro
Taste has as much to do with the eyes and the nose as it does with the tongue.
This is why when tasting tea we observe the color (liquor), aroma, and then the flavor.
It's all about the slurp.
When you are tasting the tea it is important to slurp it. You wan to swish the tea around so that your entire tongue can taste it and you can experience all the flavors.
The white tasting cup is ideal for tasting tea. It allows your nose to get into the cup so you can get a good sniff of the aroma. It also allows the tea to breath, opening it up so that the aroma and flavor can build as it is exposed to oxygen.
Taste & The Tongue
Taste buds are located inside papillae. A person can have up to 2-4 thousand taste buds. Each taste bud has anywhere from 10 to 50 sensory cells, which are called taste hairs. These taste hairs are connected to nerve fibers.
The tongue has three types of taste-sensing papillae:
-
Fungiform papillae: Located at the tongue's sides and tip.
-
Foliate papillae: Located on the tongue's sides.
-
Vallate papillae: Located toward the back of the tongue.
Humans can detect five primary taste sensations: sweet, sour, salty, umami, and bitter. As a person chews, proteins bind taste chemicals to the taste hairs for taste processing.
How It All Works Together:
It is through chemosensation that taste, sight and smell all work together. They are tied together with tiny nerve endings. The nerves on our tongue and in our nose and eyes work together.
In all of these areas, thousands of free nerve endings identify sensations such as taste, odor, hot, cold, or even something that stings like ammonia. They take this information and create a memory profile of that experience. For instnace an onion, you know how it smells, taste, and how it can burn your eyes.
bottom of page