Tea - Loose Leaf Tea - Ramblings

Tasting tea

Tea, in all its wonderful varieties, has many complex flavors. If you want to fullytaste and experience the flavor of a cup of tea it is necessary that the tea touches every part of your mouth.

The reason why the tea must encounter all the parts of your tongue and mouth is because there are 4 major types of tastes and different parts of your mouth taste different things. The 4 tastes are sweet, bitter, salt, and sour. Bitterness is tasted at the back of the tongue, and sweetness is experienced at the front part of the tongue. Sourness is tasted by the back of the tongue and saltiness at the front.

So, if the tea you are drinking only touches certain parts of your tongue and mouth you will not experience the full flavor of that tea. For this reason, professional tea tasters actually slurp up tea and make sure the different flavors and tastes are experienced by all the parts of the mouth.