How can you tell if it's artificially flavored?
I’m curious as to how I can tell. Mainly because it it’s artificially flavored then I can’t use it in a Yixing pot. Even if the company says “Ingredients: (tea), (fruit), (spice)” is there a possibility that it has artificial flavoring/oils? Thanks :D
Some companies disclose all their ingredients, others don’t. To be sure you would have to contact the company about each tea and get their answer, other than that it would be using your best judgment based on the smell, taste, look and feel of the tea.
I also want to mention that the difference between “natural” flavouring and artificial is a lot more complex than it may initially seem. Natural flavours just mean that the flavouring additives come from nature in some way, not that they come from the scent or flavour they are mimicking.
I don’t have enough experience to tell, because I rarely drink any tea with artificial flavor. But in recent years, I’ve noticed some Chinese restaurant uses jasmine tea with artificial flavor. It’s completely disgusting. In China, most people dislike any tea with artificial flavor. So unlike in the States, where there are some legitimate and probably not so bad artificially flavored tea, in China, a tea with artificial flavor is usually made with bad intention and is very bad, and probably not safe at all.
Although I didn’t have any “fake” jasmine tea before going to those Chinese restaurants, I could tell immediately the tea was not right. The fragrance tries to mimic natural jasmine flower, but is not the same at all. It has a subtle unpleasant sweetness that’s somewhat similar to the sweetness one could feel from MSG and some artificial sweetener. The fragrance is strong at the first second, but disappear soon leaving you a dry mouth. Most natural aromas would be more subtle and linger around for a while.
But I was mainly talking about the worst kind of artificial flavor. I don’t know if you can really taste a difference between artificial flavor and natural flavor if both are legitimate. But I do think there is a huge difference between any kind of concentrated flavoring and tea flavored with real flowers or fruits.
The difference between natural and artificial flavoring is as such:
Natural flavorings try to replicate a flavor based on other flavors. For example, to replicate “apricot,” they might mix apple flavoring with peach flavoring with pear flavoring, until they got to a flavor that tasted like apricot.
Artificial flavorings are flavorings created with compounds, so a scientist trying to create an apricot flavoring would create in the lab a compound that most closely replicated the flavor found in a natural apricot.
Often flavored teas are done so using oils, and you can often see the oil floating on the top of the brewed tea.
Hmmm, we don’t use oil flavorings; however, we do get some oil floating on certain teas that contain nuts or chocolate.
whynotzoidberg-If they are listing ingredients, then the flavorings should be listed if they are used.
Why would you want to put ANY flavored tea in a Yixing pot????
Just get yourself a nice glass or ceramic pot and use that. Please.
Oh, sorry, I did something you don’t approve of? Please allow me to take a moment and correct my wrong-doings and hope that you forgive me for my heinous act of putting a flavored tea in a Yixing pot eye roll
It’s not snobbish to suggest not using your yixing pot for flavored teas – they’re very porous and really do take on the flavor of what’s brewed in them. If you don’t mind those flavors appearing in other teas there’s absolutely no problem, but it’s honestly true that you can end up with muddled, unpleasant tea if you mix it up much. Ceramic and glass doesn’t hold flavors.
I don’t drink flavored teas, natural or otherwise. But I guess you could just use different tea pot for the teas that you suspect are artificially flavored. I find that part of the fun in tea is collecting different tea pots!
I wouldn’t put any flavored or scented tea into a yixing because even natural flavors can leach into the clay and cause everything to taste off.
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