How can I develop an educated tea palate -- at age 68?
I used to drink nothing but café au lait/café con leche. I was truly happy in New Orleans, Spain, the south of France, or Italy — because the coffee beans were black roast special purpose blend, often with chicory, the milk was steamed with a Gaggio and the coffee was double-strength espresso poured directly into the steamed milk. Nectar. Now I’m back in Canada; the coffee is blah; I’m not near a Starbucks and couldn’t afford it if I were.
This past year I got tired of my fat baby and went from 215 lbs (BMI ~30, I’m a 5’11" male) to my present weight of ~147 lbs, just by getting a grip on myself and relentlessly cutting back on the calories. For some unknown reason, this changed my taste! Now I rarely drink coffee, instead I consume usually two quarts of ***tea*** daily. I would like to say that I’m reveling in the infinite variety and subtlety of tea, but that would be a lie. Right now I’m dead broke, so can’t afford to order fancy teas from outfits like Teavana or David’s. On the rare occasions when I get to an urban centre, I get tea from Bulk Barn, or sometimes I order from Fred’s eBay biz in Nova Scotia.
I feel guilty because I can’t seem to educate my palate. So far I’ve found one loose tea I really love — the Scottish Breakfast tea I got from Fred. I also enjoy some Chai blends but always feel as if I ought to do it right and boil the leaves in the milk with tons of sugar — which tastes divine but is an awful lot of trouble and mess. So I wind up doing wimpy North American chai steeped like any other tea.
To me, green tea tastes like dishwater. I got some really good green tea from Fred; I hate it — it tastes like expensive dishwater. I keep trying to develop a taste for the stuff, it’s supposed to be so healthy. My body won’t listen and just says “REJECT.”
I just got some Earl Grey and some Darjeeling from Bulk Barn. I find they can be nice if I’m terribly careful to get enough tea in the pot but not too much, to steep them just so, and sweeten just au point — too weak, or too little sugar, and both taste lousy. I’m trying to cut back sugar, though! That’s a problem for me as I like my tea sweetened; I have some stevia, but find I can’t take it solo; I have to put in about 1 1/2 Tablespoons of sugar per pint of tea, and then finish up with a bit of stevia (otherwise I’d be using maybe 2 1/2 T of sugar). Also I have to have milk in my tea! I use high grade dry skim milk, which I’ve used in coffee for years and years.
I tried some of Bulk Barn’s Assam but wasn’t enthralled with it, even though I seem to go for strong black teas generally. The Scottish Breakfast never fails to satisfy and, oddly enough, I do just fine with Red Rose tea bags — or almost any El Cheapo house-brand tea bags. I’m learning to like the Darjeeling but feel its subtlety is wasted on me.
I cannot distinguish all the various “notes” and “undertones” people discuss. I don’t think I could tell one tea from another reliably; I could probably just distinguish the Scottish Breakfast, the Darjeeling, and the Red Rose if I had them all in front of me at the same time.
Probably I should also try Irish Breakfast, it sounds like my kind of tea. But — is there any way I can educate my palate, at my age, and not be forever a Philistine among tea drinkers? What do you folks think?
no real need to be a “civilized”/“expert” tea drinker, just drink what makes u happy. a lot of the terms thrown around are just people trying to describe the taste of the tea the best they can, so you may not recognize their description of a specific taste note even if you notice it. also things like how long it was brewed, what u add to it, what your water is like, how much tea you use will all change the taste.
if your just trying to get a better sense of what your teas taste like. maybe try drinking them plain/steep them correctly/use proper water temps(especially with blacks because some flavors only come out above a certain water temp). as far as the drinking of tea goes maybe put your pinky up and try to linger on your sips and try to get some air in your mouth( dont just shot/chug)
and ofcourse there is always just try more teas, which im sure everyone here is an advocate of. if you havent tried chinese teas they may be worth looking into, i like yunnan/fujian teas but keemuns also have a pretty distinct taste(different from breakfast/assam/darjeeling) that some may like. many online shops are far cheaper than teavana and offer sampler selections so u dont have to buy too much before you know if you like the taste.
also note that lower grades of tea, teas from the same region, or tea just over/under-steeped, or over-smothered with additives will be far more homogeneous.
Well, basically this sort of thing comes with practice and your age has nothing to do with that.
Since you prefer black teas, try some more of those. You mentioned you weren’t too keen on assam, so I would suggest looking East and seeing what China has to offer. (Of course, IMO China produces the hands down best tea on the planet, so nobody here is surprised that I tell you to explore China. ;) Look up some Yunnan teas, some keemun (There’s a good chance that your breakfast blend already contains keemun), and something from Fujian, either bailin or panyong.
You also mentioned that you were developing a liking for Darjeeling, so I would also suggest that you try some Ceylon. Particularly the Nuwara Eliya area, which I find to be quite similar to Darjeeling.
Finally for something really strong and flavourful, try some pu-erh. That is a type that is generally full of flavour. Some people don’t like it much, though. Same goes for lapsang souchong. If you don’t like smoked food, don’t bother with it.
Someone else asked a similar question a while ago, and I suggested that they make a cup of tea as carefully as they could according to the instructions. Then sit down with pen and paper and just drink the tea slowly. Try to pay close attention to it. Write down whichever words that come into your head. Notice how the tea changes character slightly as it cools. Tea is alive, and it keeps developing even after you’ve stopped the steeping. Don’t be afraid of writing down some crazy things. I’ve learned from my whisky-enthusiast dad that you can never say anybody’s wrong or right when they taste the things they taste in something. If you think you can taste a note, then it is there. Even if I can’t pick it up. I can’t taste with your tongue anymore than you can taste with mine, so we can’t really make that sort of judgment on each other’s behalf. :)
When you’re finished, maybe you’ve written a lot and maybe you haven’t. Even if you haven’t, though, you’ve still had a quiet bit of near meditation, so I’d still call it a win.
I mentioned my age for one reason: I strongly suspect that my sense of smell has greatly diminished in acuity as I’ve aged. Smell is obviously a large factor in tea. Whether my taste buds are also less sensitive, I am less certain but suspect some deterioration there also, but much less than on the olfactory side.
There are two tricks you can use to help overcome less sensitive taste buds. (It also helps to understand that most of your taste actually comes via your sense of smell and not your taste buds).
First, drink from a tall mug that is only about half full. This lets you put your nose into the top and concentrates the smell. Second, when you drink the tea try bringing some air into your mouth at the same time (slurp). This is a wine-tasting trick: the air tends to bring out the flavors.
Now follow the advice others have given you here: try to compare what you are smelling/tasting to other aromas or foods. You can start with simple things like fruity/spicy/grassy and move on from there.
+1 for trying Chinese blacks. They are my personal favourite, so they are my go to suggestion. I understand that money is a factor but one site you could try for good quality teas with a variety at good prices is teavivre.com. They also have a free tea tasting activity which you may be able to participate in and you could then try a couple kinds at no cost. This can help you confirm what you like and what you don’t. I have never come ’round to liking greens, so there are no guarantees on that front but if you do like black teas, roasted oolongs or puerh might be an interesting direction to look into. Of course there is nothing wrong with just drinking black tea either!
As for the sugar, drink what makes you happy but if you are concerned about health and diet you may want to find a way to enjoy your tea sans sweetener. That is up to you though. Congratulations on the weight loss! I lost 70 pounds over a yea and a half myself. I have started creeping back up again this year but am trying to get a handle on things and get back to where I was or lower. Good luck!
My advice for training your palate would be to try eating a large variety of foods (and drinks). With foods, try each component separately and together. Take your time to chew the food and think about what it tastes like at eat point – on first bite, mid way through, right before you swallow. With drink, hold the liquid in your mouth for a few seconds and think about what it tastes like and how the taste might change over those few seconds. As mentioned above, smell is a big part of taste, so make sure to smell before you put it in your mouth. Regarding sugar and milk and such to tea, try the tea first plain, then add each component and taste to see what it taste like with each. To me training your palate is about being able to link similar tastes and textures with eachother (ie. when someone says the tea has undertones of dark chocolate, ect.). The more foods and textures you try, the easier it is to make these connections. Most of all – enjoy your journey!
Your age doesn’t play a large role here. Neither does you potentially losing some taste buds over time. What it comes down is whether you want to spend the time to train your palette. All that is needed to start is to get one of those tea color wheels and consciously eat and smell those foods. Your goal is to create a memory of those smells and tastes that will carry over when you are smelling and tasting teas. With some practice, you will start to notice things in the tea such as whether it has an earthy or fruity or floral taste. Then, with more practice you can be more precise such as that earthy taste is more like wet mud rather than wet grass.
To put all this in perspective, there are people in their 20s in wine who have studied for a couple of years and have a far more advanced palette than someone who has drunk wine their whole life. The reason is because of the practice. The same goes for tea.
Once you start to “consciously study” the tea you drink, you will start to notice things as well. One of the great things about tasting food is it can evoke memories from the past that you long forgot such as a certain aroma from your childhood. Or it could be some random occurrence. For example, I had had an ale at the bar a couple of months ago and a few days later I was tasting a pu-erh and sure enough that same malty taste appeared. It was an amazing thing because I wasn’t expecting the connection and yet, there it appeared.
In short, just give it some consistent practice and you will get better. Also, don’t be afraid some times to take the day off and simply enjoy the tea for what it is. Not everything has to be analyzed so closely as others have mentioned.
Thanks for the thoughts and suggestions, John. Pu-erh… “malty,” eh? I need to try that; I’m big on all things malty, have even thought about
trying to find some barley malt syrup to sweeten my tea!
“Memories from the past”… Marcel Proust’s “A la recherche du temps perdu,” seven volumes all stemming from the taste of a bit of petite madeleine dipped in tea, exactly what you are talking about.
“Take the day off and simply enjoy the tea for what it is” — this I always try to do. Some teas make it hard for me, though. I may never accommodate to green teas, and have been avoiding Chinese teas (probably unjustly) because of that. I need to try pu-erh, yunnan and other china black teas, I guess. I have no problem at all enjoying cheap tea-bag teas, oddly enough. But so far the Scottish Breakfast that I bought from Fred’s shop is my true love.
Interesting what Lala said about taste. I have some odd tastes. Thissummer I began to eat a lot more wild plants, plucking new cattail heads from the marshes and enjoying them fresh like corn on the cob, and, more significantly, I started putting tons of dandelion blossoms on top of my beloved peanut butter, jam and Ancient Grains bread openfaced sandwiches. I love both the silky texture and the piquant flavour of the dandelions — and promptly discovered that dandelions are a superabundant source of the hard-to-get-enough vitamin K — so this could be an actual physical body-craving.
Especially for us older folk, sometimes the palate needs to be “set” for something. These days I frequently find the first bite of anything is a disappointment, but start to really enjoy things two or three bites into the eating of them. A standard small cup of tea is barely enough to set my palate — I need at least a pint of the stuff and often two.
Folks, I would really like to try Irish Breakfast but I’m a bit boggled by the large number of versions, plus the fact that some of the more expensive ones have gotten poor reviews here. Could anyone suggest a really great Irish Breakfast to try, that isn’t too expensive? I would look for what the Irish themselves drink, but can’t seem to find their brands too easily available in Manitoba. I have no credit cards so online purchase works for me only when the seller accepts PayPal, so that limits my choices there also. Ebay works fine except when the shipping is $30 for a couple ounces of tea, so often the case! So… which Irish Breakfast should I try?
Not on topic of tea, but moreso on taste – the first half of this documentary is really interesting in regards to one’s perception of taste
http://youtu.be/V8qdmBEF-Hk (BBC Horizon The Truth About Taste) again – some biological (maybe you don’t have a super tongue) and lots smell.
On pu’er – I’d recommend that as well. Don’t fret if the price is a little high for weight, they resteep very very well! Depending on your steep times, you can get easily 5 to 15 (or more) resteeps. I’d go for a ripe/shu pu’er since you like black teas.
These two ebay sellers are pretty good and cheap for chinese teas:
http://stores.ebay.com/shanghaistory
http://stores.ebay.com/dragonteahouse
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