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Is there a biochemist in the house?

- High levels of theanine are largely responsible for the "mellow" taste of gyokuro and tencha as opposed to, say, sencha.

- It's the shading of the tea bushes in the week or two before harvest that keeps theanine levels high in gyokuro and tencha, because sunlight causes the leaves to convert theanine into catechins.

Is this plausible? Do benzene rings get created that easily? Maybe the metabolism in my own body does even more marvelous things before breakfast, but this really surprised me.

/Lew

Reply to
Lewis Perin
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[Lewis Perin]

Not being a biochemist, I certainly find that part plausible. Anyone who doesn't believe in the possible mellowing effect of amino acids and such on other flavors can try adding chicken or beef stock to almost anything else - effect can be surprising, taking the sharp edges off all sorts of flavors. I don't cook much anymore, but used to use this with things like sweet-and-sour sauces. Dunno how it works, but sometimes magic is best left magical.

Oh, aye. Enzymes can do almost anything easily, and sunlight has a lot of energy per photon. Besides, benzene rings are usually way downhill in free-energy terms from whatever gave rise to them. That kind of mechanism is pretty easily tested nowadays, so if it came from anything like a reputable technical journal (rather than speculation on some newsgroup), I'd be inclined to believe it.

At least six, if of appropriate regality.

-DM

Reply to
Dog Ma 1

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