Thursday TeaDay 3/19/09 Oh say can you smell?

[chad]

I voted 40% mainly since, as a former restaurant manager/cook, I know how important "smell" is in "taste". I enjoy the smell that comes after a nice sip of my tea.

Margaret's Hope darjeeling this morning.

[Chip]

The scent of things tells you one story, sometimes the taste of things tells you a different one -- this can be a mark of greatness, like with the best vintages of Laville Haut-Brion -- but taste usually affirms what you smell. Anyway, I like to sniff.

Teaspring's Rou Gui this morning.

Great post. And speaking of aromatic tea, great Rou Gui is so ...WOW.

Aroma is a make or break thing for me, no question. Tea enjoyment takes this to an extreme. I smell the dry leaf, smell the leaf warming in a preheated pot, smell the tea, then the impact of the sense of smell on taste. It is huge to me. I will say 40%. I would say even more, but I still have taste to factor in.

Started the TeaDay with a new bag of Takumi, which is Gokoh leaf (usually used in gyokuro) grown in the sun, sencha. It was grown in Yame. Quite a different aroma to this sencha! SweeTea approved. Pyrit, TEAh, and Gandalf paid homage at the TeaTable.

[1brown1]

Aroma is really important to me so I rated it pretty high. I think its why i pick a lot of teas.

in my cup now - pistachio apple pie

[acdidion]

I voted 40% because of how much impact smell has on taste. I've noticed when I drink tea from a cup or mug that is covered, like a travel mug, it just does not taste as good because I can't get as much of the smell.

[chamekke]

I'm the lone voice (so far) who voted for 60%. Smell is so much a part of taste that I suspect I'm erring on the low side. I just love enjoying the aroma of the dry leaf, the liquid as it steeps, and of course the tea when it is finally drunk. (The fragrance of fresh matcha, when the hot water first hits it, is pretty fantastic too!)

The problem with this kind of poll is that I can also imagine assigning 60% to taste, 60% to the tea vessel and 60% to the brewing vessel I enjoy tea 240%!

[olivierco]

Around 30% which leaves me 60% for taste.

Kanro gyokuro this afternoon. Nice daily gyokuro.

[Pentox]

About 30% for me, most of it's in the taste.

Se Zhong this morning. Meh, it's ok.

[Chip]

I'm the lone voice (so far) who voted for 60%. Smell is so much a part of taste that I suspect I'm erring on the low side. I just love enjoying the aroma of the dry leaf, the liquid as it steeps, and of course the tea when it is finally drunk. (The fragrance of fresh matcha, when the hot water first hits it, is pretty fantastic too!)

The problem with this kind of poll is that I can also imagine assigning 60% to taste, 60% to the tea vessel and 60% to the brewing vessel I enjoy tea 240%!

True that!!!

O-Cha Chiran Supreme currently in my cup, smells soooo nice.

[hooksie]

I voted 50%, a lot because of what Chad said, but also because I just tend to smell my tea a lot. I've never steeped a tea I haven't thoroughly smelled. Sometimes I'll go to my tea shelf just to smell something.

[Intuit]

Probably should be as high as 50%, given the integration within the oral cavity for taste and odor receptors - and mind you, receptor activity is malleable with respect to new ligand and the neurons they 'ping', as we adapt to new foods, beverages and odorants.

Keemun in the cup, in just a bit.

[olivierco]

Aiguilles d'or SFTGFOP1(golden needles) from Mariage Frères. Very good Yunnan, perhaps a little bit pricey (40€ (55$) per 100g).

[danibob]

Well the way I break it down, I alot 20% to smell. I voted 10% to touch and 20% to visual which leaves 50% to taste alone. That seems about right. Of course you can't really generalize all teas. Obviously smell plays a bigger role with some oolongs like dancong, visual and taste will dominate matcha brewing, etc. Although Intuit makes a good point about integration between smell and taste.

Today's a try-new-teas day since I received 2 packages. First was 2 cans of matcha from yuuki-cha. Tried both back to back. Their yuuki midori matcha is lovely.
Next came a package from the tea gallery. Some TGY and their Phoenix oolong. Not sure which one I'll try first.

I sense sencha in my very near future..

[hooksie]

I voted 40% because of how much impact smell has on taste. I've noticed when I drink tea from a cup or mug that is covered, like a travel mug, it just does not taste as good because I can't get as much of the smell.

I hear you. I've pretty much stopped drinking from my travel mug through the cap. I tend to use it now as a mini-thermos, then remove the cover when I want to have a sip.

[augie]

I wonder why making gyokuro reminds me of cooking vegetables.

Gyokuro is the only green I have not tried. I am thinking ov pre-ordering some Sincha and getting Gyokuro to wash it down.

I voted 80% on smell. I don't care for osmanthus or flavored teas (like the peach or vanilla stuff). And, just smelling Pu Ehr sends me into a state of Cha Qi!

[JP]

Smell really is a large part of the experience, it always has been for me with tea.