How do you "wash" your mouth before drinking tea?

[Silvarine]

I wanted to ask to the more expert tea drinkers here if they do, and eventually how they do "wash" their mouth before drinking tea!

I noticed that sometimes, if I just ate something or I have a bad taste in my mouth for whatever reason, it is definitely more difficult to taste the tea.
I tried to use toothpaste but of course it was an awful idea (silly me) and I also tried drinking water or eating some bread but it didn't really work

So how do you prepare your mouth to completely enjoy your tea?

[debunix]

Depends on how strong the flavors in my mouth were. I try to avoid the very strong mints I prefer near the time I will be drinking tea. Usually it's nothing more than a rinse with plain water, sometimes a few bites of bland cracker or few nuts.

[jayinhk]

Brush your teeth and give your tongue a good scraping. Crackers after would help get the mintiness out!

[kyarazen]

its more important to clear the nose than regenerate the tastebuds...

[Bok]

For me rinsing and brushing and whatnot mostly do not work for certain foods, I just have to wait a few hours before having tea!

Taiwanese hotpot is one of those foods after which I know, I can scrap my evening tea session…

[jayinhk]

For me, smoking or chewing betelnut = drink crappy tea, you won't be able to taste the good stuff! Cleaning your nose is definitely important too.

[.m.]

Usually i drink the water used for warming up the teapot and the cups - this
way I can also taste the pure water first.

Of course, there are some food tastes make just won't go away, like garlic (i try to stay away from it), or grapefruits (which i love)...

Sometimes, when drinking casually, i like to have a bit honey or peanut butter, it coats the tongue and affects the taste, but i enjoy the sweetness it leaves.

[Hunster]

Depending on the quality of the tea I plan on drinking on any given day, I have tried using the following to cleanse the palate: unripe pear, grated daikon or plain white crackers... followed by washing it down with water... tends to work for me, but we're all different... unripe pears tend to work best personally... (prefer them ripe any other time of course, but I always have a batch at varied stages of ripening).

... and avoid any dairy products well before as they tend to stick around in the mouth for ages...

[AT333]

I would gargle with the tea that I wanted to drink until all other food flavours are gone and drink some water to reset the taste bud to start the real tea tasting action.

[miig]

I sometimes just eat something that is not too sweet or spicy.. all of this seems to allow most teas to shine. May not count as "cleaning", but it resets the taste buds quite well. E.g. rice, bread, olives...

[Silvarine]

I definitely want to try with nuts, I see some people suggested it..sounds like a good idea!
I've seen that bread doesn't work for me, maybe I'll try with crackers as well

its more important to clear the nose than regenerate the tastebuds...

Thank you for pointing this out! I never paid much attention to this, I'm definitely going to be more careful about my nose from now on

[PatrickCamellia]

I just drink some water.

[the_winding_path]

More than just drinking water, I swish the water around my mouth, blast it between my teeth and then gargle with it a couple if not a few times. Very warm tap (if it's good) or like someone previously suggested the hot water you'll be brewing with will help to dissolve and wash off your palate so you don't get any left over retro-nasal smells coming through and offsetting the tea being consumed.
Also, as Hunster suggested, pear has always been a great palate reset tool for me. I still do the warm water wash after though. I have never tried unripe pear myself but it makes sense.
You could also brush your teeth, tongue and roof of mouth with only warm water and gargle/rinse after. That has worked well for me in the past also. These days I am generally just mindful of what I eat when I have the hankering for a tea session in mind.