futurebird wrote:I just wanted to understand what other people mean when they use various words to describe tea-- this will let me better decipher which teas I enjoy.
It might even be the case that I learn that any tea that so-and-so hates I'll enjoy!
This is somewhat related to your other post about what kind of tea description you would like to see. To me, for books, movies, and traveling destinations, I always would like to see comparisons - such as, if you like A and B, then probably you would like this. If you hate C and D, then probably you won't like this...
For descriptive words, people use them differently anyway. I never figured out what people really mean with camphor. And in Chinese, for "zhang xiang" (supposedly Chinese meaning of "camphor"), I've heard several versions of its explanation, and since I don't have much personal experience with camphor itself, there is no way for me to tell which flavor is really the "camphor flavor" said by people.
Some other Chinese tea jargon, such as "chestnut flavor", "green bean flavor", I could understand better, because I eat them.
But for people who don't eat them often, such descriptions may not make much sense.