Tea, in all its varieties, has many complex flavors. To fully taste and experience the flavor of a cup of tea it is necessary that the tea touches all parts of your mouth.
The reason why the tea must encounter all the parts of your tongue and mouth is because there are 4 major types of tastes and different parts of your mouth taste different things. The 4 tastes are sweet, bitter, salt, and sour. Bitterness is tasted at the back of the tongue, and sweetness is experienced at the front part of the tongue. Sourness is tasted by the back of the tongue and saltiness at the front.
So, if the tea you are drinking only touches certain parts of your tongue and mouth you will not experience the full flavor of that tea. For this reason, professional tea tasters actually slurp up tea and make sure the different flavors and tastes are experienced by all the parts of the mouth.
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7 responses so far ↓
I have actually noticed this when drinking tea. If I only let the tea sit in the front of my mouth I will taste sweetness, while if I don’t let it touch the front of my mouth it doesn’t taste sweet.
I think this is why tea may taste different if drank through a straw. Becuase when you drink the tea with a straw, the tea probably only touches the back of the mouth.
Very interesting. I will make sure to swish the tea around my whole mouth from now on to get the full flavor of the tea
Is it really,great .Actually I never thought much in depth about this I love tea thats all.Enjoy Tea!!
Also if you fold your tonge back in your mouth you’ll taste the tannin on the edge of your tounge.
Yes the folding tounge back thing definitely works for me.
So you need to gargle with your tea to truly taste it?