Approaching tea (using wine as a reference)

[Tillerman]

Question, not necessarily to state a position but to generate comments: is our intellectual approach to tea any different from our approach to wine? Put more crudely, is what we say about tea about as empty as most of what is said about wine?

[Bok]

Kind of depends, as always. Some descriptions are full of colourful references to a multitude of things, which always seems a bit much for my taste...

In the end it becomes a bit of flavour-racism - why does the tea taste like cinnamon and not the cinnamon like Yancha?

As for wine, there are those few with the super palate and nose, which will taste things others don’t. What matters is what I taste myself and if I like it or not. Does it cause a body reaction or not? All very personal.

I mostly refrain from describing flavours for the reasons mentioned.

[Ethan Kurland]

I suspect talk about wine is pretentious to cover the base fact that people want to get tipsy or drunk. I have drunk grape juice as dynamic as great wines (and as expensive); and, when I told people about them, no one ever asked me where to buy them. Obviously, people want the alcohol....

Likewise, I think some drinking of herbal tea supposedly for health benefits, is just an excuse to put a lot of honey into something hot. Adults want to avoid seeming childish, drinking sweetened water or sweetened water and milk.

[pedant]

Question, not necessarily to state a position but to generate comments: is our intellectual approach to tea any different from our approach to wine? Put more crudely, is what we say about tea about as empty as most of what is said about wine?

i don't drink much wine, so i rationalize occasionally drinking an expensive tea by comparing it to the cost of enjoying a nice bottle.
i know that's not what you're talking about, but i don't read a lot about wine, so i can't comment.

As for wine, there are those few with the super palate and nose, which will taste things others don’t. What matters is what I taste myself and if I like it or not. Does it cause a body reaction or not? All very personal.

i would argue that those with normal palates, in a sense, taste more than supertasters. my theory is that supertasters are overwhelmed by their sensitivity to first-order effects (like bitter taste) and then fail to appreciate many flavors (defined as combination of taste, aroma, and chemesthesis). after eating a lot of spicy food and becoming desensitized to capsaicinoids, i've really come to appreciate subtle pepper flavors where others may only say, "this tastes like burning."
also, when working with fragrance chemicals, usually you can't properly smell them in high concentrations. you actually have to take a small amount and dilute it in solution and/or on a piece of paper and waft it around away from your face to perceive the complexity. i wouldn't want to be a supertaster/supersmeller.

here's a nice article about a woman who, despite having a wine expert for a father, never liked drinking it. she felt bad about it, but later found solace in the fact that she's probably a supertaster.
https://www.newyorker.com/tech/annals-o ... -love-wine

[There is no self]

I was thinking about something like this the other day. Amongst tea drinkers (on forums or in real life) we talk about the smallest aspects of tea as if they were everyday life (matter of fact, they are): washing our mouth (and face) before drinking, measuring temperatures with a cooking thermometre, discussing the endless varieties of a certain tea and whether this year's harvest is better than last year's. We muse on stuff like cha qi whilst the rest of the world would probably ask what the hell is cha qi and what do you mean you've been "tea drunk"?!
In this, I think, we're quite similar to wine connoiseurs.

Now wine is a funny business. Some of those so-called experts are either taking grist to their mill, if they're selling something, or taking part in the common practice of circle-j****ng, pardon my French.
That being said, wine tasting is serious business as well. Working for a wine company, a friend of mine took a course as sommelier that definitely improved her taste. She wouldn't go on listing the unthinkable from a single glass, but she can spot different and deeper notes - not to mention if a wine is a cheaper variety than stated. Of course, she says, wine tasting should be done with a clean palate, the right attitude, and focusing exclusively on the liquid. Anyone who tells you otherwise belongs to either one of the categories listed above.

Which brings me to another similarity between tea and wine.
Now, wine is everywhere in my country. Countless varieties drunk in countless different occasions. Some wines are so widely drunk that they are sometimes referred to as "the Coca-Cola of wines".
Different occasions is key here. If I just want to unwind and have a glass (or ten) with a friend, I'll go to a bar or an osteria (old establishments akin to taverns, focusing on basic and abundant food and wine) and have a not-too-fancy bottle or the house wine. Likewise, if I'm having dinner with some friends, the wine should be good but not too complex, because the subtler notes would be lost amongst the food and the chattering. If we really want to appreciate a high-quality wine, we don't eat anything except for some crackers, we are focused, mostly silent, and usually no more than 3-4 people - we might even go to a winery and take part in wine tasting.
This is the same with tea. In the morning I brew some random Assam, because all I care about in that moment is to wake up. With meals it's a random pu'erh or kukicha. When I brew gong fu, on the other hand, the quality is higher and I am alone, and silent, and completely absorbed by the tea, outside world be damned.

Long story short, I believe emptiness and depth depend on the occasion, and whether someone had the opportunity to develop a taste for tea/wine.