Adding salt to tea

That is an excellent question, so I looked into it, here:

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK50958/

Salt imparts more than just a salt taste to overall food flavor. In work with a variety of foods (soups, rice, eggs, and potato chips), salt was found to improve the perception of product thickness, enhance sweetness, mask metallic or chemical off-notes, and round out overall flavor while improving flavor intensity… The mechanisms underlying these varied sensory effects of salt in foods are not well understood… It is conceivable that in addition to interacting with salt taste receptor(s), salt could also activate somatosensory (touch) neural systems… One understood mechanism by which sodium-containing compounds may improve overall flavor is by the suppression of bitter tastes.

I would have thought the opposite, that salt only adds saltiness, or at most somehow helps us pick up or better accept other flavors by shifting an overall balance of tastes, but it’s not that simple.

You can’t make salted caramel tea without salt! :)

When I was young, MANY years ago, a family friend, who was a missionary in Japan, came to visit. She made for me my first cup of “green tea”. As well as it being my first loose leaf, it also reminded me of chicken soup. It most certainly had a salty flavour. It was delish, I wish Iknew exactly what it was made from.

It seems possible that was just green tea with a strong umami flavor (the basic taste described as “savory” in nature). Unless that’s already familiar, I guess, and then it wasn’t that. Different green teas from Japan can taste like that, but it can be quite pronounced in Gyokuro (versus Sencha, the relatively standard type).

The daughter of a local tea shop owner drinks a smoky Tian Jian as a milk tea with salt. I don’t drink milk so I just tried it with salt and it diminished the smokiness and brought the fruit notes in the tea forward. It is delicious.

Ochazuke-green tea poured over rice. The green tea is flavored with salt and maybe msg. If it’s not salty enough, you can add cod roe.

Matsutake tea is flavored with a touch of salt.

Konbucha-salted seaweed (might also have msg) in Japanese tea.

I personally like all of the above