juliantai wrote:
> I have been looking into this wonderful and impernetrable subject of
> tea chemistry and got struck in the terminology. I wonder if you
> could help. Apparently there are 6 tea tastes:

and

> ... For green tea, caffeine tastes bitter, while catechins taste
> astringent. But together, they create something else -neither bitter
> nor astringent ... It might really be well a complex experience that
> defies words ...

Speaking as a chemist who's worked occasionally in food sciences, I'd
make a clear distinction between molecules and experiences. Even the
simplest cases (salt tastes salty) can fall apart under some
physiological conditions. As with the other senses, personal state,
cultural training and expectations play a major role. (How else could
one explain how Americans like American food?)

Professional tasters in tea, wine and other foods and drinks, perfume
designers, visual artists, musicians and choreographers (among many
others) evolve ad-hoc languages to communicate their common experience.
These typically do not convey much to outsiders, but are testably
precise between experts. In few if any cases is the underlying
physical/chemical/optical/? state of the observed system sufficient to
predict accurately each user's response, given current levels of
understanding of cognitive psychology.

IMO, for most of us,learning a little food science is useful (beyond
just mind games) insofar as it guides personally effective choices in
buying, brewing, sharing and describing.

-DM