Specialteas Bai Hao Special Grade Formosa oolong

Hey, you weren't hallucinating, and you have every right to expect to similar experiences in the future. Welcome to the world of oolong sniffing!

/Lew

Mmmmm.... Bai Hao. Judging nuances in tea is more than just a matter of good senses. It involves building a tasting vocabulary, something which can only be done with experience. The more tea you try, the more distinct each individual tea becomes. It sounds as if you're well on your way.

Cheers,

Cameron

Cameron snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/10/04

Cameron,

I wonder. From another viewpoint, judging (experiencing/knowing) the nuances of tea requires *no* vocabulary whatsoever; expressing and explaining these nuances to others, and comparing one tea to another requires words.

Michael

Hi Melinda, you have luckily hit a fine Formosa Bai Hao Oolong ( or Wulong) . It's also my favored tea. Cheers Karel Valter

My local tea shoppe has tastings where everybody describes the tea taste. I've never attended because I would sound like a complete idiot. I drink tea for the immediacy of the moment. So at any moment in time all I could say is not good, not bad, ok, good, great, yum. I more than anything appreciate infusion clues like freshness, smell, color, purity, grade, and a great swansong. If it looks sexy in the pot then the taste is a bonus and not a requirement. I've drank enough tea of any variety to know what I like but I couldn't tell you why in so many words. I've said this before the last time I tasted Ceylon Lover's Leaf was twenty years ago and I remember how much I like it. I just tasted it again at my local tea shoppe and memory serves me right.

Jim

Space snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/10/04

Jim,

My guess is, if you did decide to attend one of these events, you would find yourself surrounded by idiots of the pretentious and the simple orders. Why not have a go, sit back, and enjoy us both? Another fun thing to do is to invent words and then use them to describe a tea. If somebody calls you on this, just look knowingly, slightly disappointed, and whistful, but don't speak more. Works for me. As you know from long experience, it's not about words, it's about tea.

Michael

What I meant was a catalogue of memories of tastes and aromas. I used the word "tasting vocabulary" as a short form. The more memories of distinct tastes you have, the better you can discriminate between different teas, and the more significant each experience of tea becomes. It is like learning a new language.

At first there is only a torrent of sound, which can barely be distinguished from gibberish. Next comes a stage where one knows the basic words and where a given sentence has meaning and can be distinguished from another sentence. Then competence where coherent speech is possible. Eventually fluency where each subtle shade of difference and meaning is clear. The neophyte can hardly tell black tea from green. The novice can discern the difference between the categories (black, green, white, oolong, etc). The journeyman, can identify regions and styles. The master knows the estate, the season, the variance in processing techniques and whatnot.

Regards,

Cameron

An excellent point, though controversial in the cognitive psych field. Benjamin Lee Whorf (not to be confused with Security Chief Worf) asserted that one can't actually have an experience until there exists a category by which to understand it. Much of the work has been on color terminology, but no doubt other sensory attributes have been studied in this way. See also Prof. Noble's "flavor wheel" learning tool for wine analysis and enjoyment:

-DM

That sounds like strong Sapir-Whorf. Weak is much more believable. Having the extra `mental vocabulary' enables a person to better comprehend their experiences, perhaps, but it's not a prerequisite to actually having the experience.

To put it another way, you're most well equipped to taste tea by having had a lot of experience tasting tea.

Cheers,

- Joel

And then the next, which dispenses with the conceptual and discursive altogether to come directly in touch with tea itself. A mind cluttered with all kinds of associated analytical thoughts is wise, but only in a superficial way.

--crymad

Oh you mean behave like I do when I go to the symphony. I can't tell you how long it took me to accept the fact that some employee measures tea into a sock and hangs on the side of a large styrofoam cup then topped off with hot water with a small decant cup for cups to go. They've learned I don't need a lid or a timer. I haven't been to the Friday night soirees because my wife can't stand the smell of smoky teas which doesn't have a separate ventilation system for non smoky tea drinkers like the one required for smokers in restaurants.

Jim

...bit bucket...

I wouldn't suggest otherwise - just pointing out that some people believe in the "strong" Wghorfian hypothesis, and many more in the weaker version.

My own experience is that experience alone is both necessary and sufficient for enjoying tea, but not sufficient to develop a useful vocabulary by which to describe the experience. Further, sharing even clumsy concepts of the taste/aroma experience and its evocations is a great way to develop sensitivity to distinctions both subtle and coarse. Many people smell cyanide and benzaldehyde as "almond" until some differences are pointed out. Likewise, lots of things are categorized as "yucky" until (1) associated with positive shared experiences, social cachet, etc.; and (2) clearly distinguished as to source, context and safety.

-DM

Cameron snipped-for-privacy@posting.google.com11/10/04

That other point of view I mentioned puts "catalogue," "distinct," and "discriminate" into the "vocabulary" column, as you suggest when you refer to this as learning a new "language." Tea is beyond language. It is experience.

All this learning can have deleterious effects. OK, so I'll never journey toward master status, but I'll muddle through somehow. I can at least sit on the side of the road and be a friend to man.

Michael

Dog Ma 16bMkd.883545$ snipped-for-privacy@bgtnsc04-news.ops.worldnet.att.net11/11/04

Read them many many years ago and do not intend to dig them up again.

Describing the experience is the booby prize. Experiencing is....

"Distinctions," eh? There ya go again.

God, I hope theres more coming.

Durian: We love that aroma from cheese, but we want our fruit to be...fruity.

Michael