Hand-shaken Tea Can Be Tasted!? [Five Attribute Chart], the Exclusive Tea Technique of Ta Chung Ho (Part II)

Author: Lillian

We have discussed the exclusive tea tasting technique [Five Attribute Chart] of Ta Chung Ho in the previous session by explaining five attributes of the tea, including “bitterness, astringency, sweet aftertaste, freshness and liquor.” Those who are interested can review that session again. This session will describe how to determine the “aroma” of tea to further understand how to use this kind of tea. In short, “aroma” means smell, which refers to the reaction of the human olfactory system to certain molecules in the air. When we receive the smell information, the part of the brain which manages emotion and memory will reflect the memory associated with that smell. Most of the time when a group of people smell the same aroma, their reflections of “how it smells” vary from person to person. This has to do with whether the person has the experience or memory of that smell (they might have smelled similar smells before or have never smelled that smell before and therefore have no idea about it). For example, people often describe a food as “tasting like mother’s cooking” when giving a comment, but everyone basically has different associations about this taste.

Thus, to relate to the tea taster, we use smells which are common in life or have been defined to describe the aroma of tea and guide the tea taster to feel the charming aroma of such tea. As the representative organization of tea in Taiwan, “Tea Research and Extension Station” proposed an auxiliary named the “Flavor Wheel” focusing on Taiwan unique teas to assist the public in describing the aroma and taste of tea while tasting the same tea of different brands. Taking Oriental Beauty in Figure (1) below as an example, the aroma has been classified into a big category (fruity and floral etc.) and small category (apple, jasmine etc.) to identify the tea aroma simply. The author of “The Tea Book: Experience the World’s Finest Tea” published worldwide has made the “Flavor Wheel” according to her own experience as a reference for the public. 

※ The Flavor Wheel is a common tool used widely in the field of coffee currently.

Ta Chung Ho provides various kinds of teas (black tea, green tea, oolong and turquoise tea) for hand-shaken drink vendors all year round. To communicate with the customer effectively regarding their demand, we arranged an exclusive “Flavor Wheel” of our own by our experience while taking tea introduction books from the Tea Research and Extension Station and in the market as reference. Corresponding with the exclusive “Five Attribute Chart”, the flavor wheel enables the customer to clearly notice the positioning of the aroma, taste and touch while objectively understanding the bitterness, astringency, sweet aftertaste, freshness and liquor of tea when smelling the tea aroma and tasting the tea. The figure below is the Ta Chung Ho version of the “Flavor Wheel” which is suitable for identifying all kinds of teas. The liquor colors symbolizing fully fermented black tea (red) to non-fermented green tea (yellow) are presented in the center and the external circle classifies tea aroma into 10 big categories with detailed classification of smells common in life.

“Please follow the tea tasting process and use the flavor wheel and five attribute chart for objective analysis of tea.”

So far, we believe the readers can use such method to analyze a type of tea. Only when you understand the attributes of teas can you step out to learn to create hand-shaken teas with different flavors. Praising ourselves as the “tea expert,” Ta Chung Ho is devoted to “developing hand-shaken drinks” for customers, and therefore we shall consider the flavor demand in the consumer market, cost and operation convenience. Hence, when analyzing the tea, we shall understand other additives such as syrup, ingredients, seasonings and even the essence of milk and raw milk besides the flavor and fitness of the tea itself. Just like making a tea with milk, we must select appropriate black tea and raw milk. However, each type of tea has a different flavor and raw milk also varies according to different brands. It is a specialized field to arrange diversified combinations and adjust the parameter of brewing.

“To design delicious drinks, the tea expert must understand the essence of tea and other materials to use and develop their innovation flexibly.”

參考資料:

1.  行政院農業委員會茶業改良場
2. 大中和行銷部內部品評講義 – 承恩食品企業股份有限公司 鄧曉吉撰寫
3. 茶．百科: 全世界最美的茶藝聖經
4. 文章 - 想不起來就用聞的，科學家：氣味與情感、記憶密切關聯