How is Tea Flavored?
One of the most prized and amazing characteristics of tea is the dizzying array of natural flavors and aromas that can be coaxed from this single leaf by variations in climate, geography and processing. That said, we must be careful to avoid becoming tea snobs. There is nothing unnatural about adding the sweet fragrance of a jasmine blossom to the cup - or any other herb fruit or spice for that matter.
Before we get into how tea is flavored, let's define a few terms:
Inclusions are blossoms, pieces of dried fruit, herbs or spices that are added to the tea leaves for either visual or sensory effect.
Extracts are flavoring agents derived by extracting the essential oils from the leaves, fruits, blossoms, roots or other parts of a plant. These "essential oils" carry the distinctive scents or flavors that we come to expect from that plant. Extracts can be as simple as the oil obtained from pressing a lemon peel, or require much more complex means of extraction, like soaking vanilla beans in alcohol.
Nature-Identical flavoring agents are obtained from natural substances with the aid of chemical synthesis. The end product has the identical chemical structure as the "Natural" flavor but was derived by a chemist. Nature-identical flavors tend to be more stable than purely natural flavoring extracts and are usually significantly less expensive. The vast majority of flavored products are flavored with nature-identical flavors. Unfortunately the FDA does not have a classification for this and they consider nature-identical to be "artificial".
Artificial Flavors are created by altering the chemical structure of a naturally occurring molecule to create a different, more intense, or less expensive flavor. These molecules do not exist in nature. Adagio does not use this type of artificial flavoring agent in any of our blends.
A tea can be flavored through the addition of inclusions, by being coated in extracts, or by being scented. Often more than one method is used. Most inclusions alter the flavor or aroma of the cup in some ways, but are not strong enough to deliver the punch we're looking for. Most "flavored" teas, are flavored with Natural Identical flavoring agents. These flavoring agents are thicker than water but usually thinner than olive oil. The total amount of agent applied depends on the flavor and desired strength, but usually falls between 0.5% and 5% of the weight of the tea being flavored.
To apply an extract to the tea, the flavoring agent is poured or sprayed over the dry leaf and then the leaves are blended (mixed) to ensure an even distribution. Larger companies like Adagio do this in large rotating drums filled with hundreds of kilograms of tea. Most teas can be flavored (properly absorbing the extract) in under 30 minutes, though some flavors do require significantly longer.
Scented teas, like Jasmine or Lapsang Souchong, derive their flavor and aroma simply from proximity to strong flavors. While some jasmine teas may be artificially flavored, "real" jasmine teas are scented with Jasmine blossoms which are the removed (jasmine blossoms have a much shorter shelf life than tea). Lapsang Souchong is scented by being exposed to the smoke of a pinewood fire.
| review lesson |
|
Voice your opinion about this article on TeaChat! |
|
Mar 10th '10 13:44
This discussion thread is dedicated to questions and comments on the TeaClass lesson: How is Tea Flavored (http://www.teaclass.com/lesson_0202.html). TeaClass is designed to be a free educational tool so if anything is unclear, let us know! We're also using TeaClass to train our own retail store staff so please feel free to share anything you've heard or read that disagrees with the lesson. Our goal is to continually improve this tool based on your feedback.
|
Chicago, IL |
|
Mar 12th '10 20:30
Aha, I had wondered about this. Thanks for the information. I am curious what sort/s of chemical synthesis is/are used to obtain the nature-identical flavoring agents.
|
desdemona1230
|
|
Mar 13th '10 8:54
Well, the truth is that flavor and aroma are nothing more than chemical compounds that are perceived and interpreted by receptors in our nose and mouth. The taste of a strawberry is a series of chemical compounds that combine to deliver a certain impression on our sensory system. Any decent chemist can combine or break apart individual compounds to derive that same composition. For example, Salt is NaCl (Na = Sodium, Cl = Chloride). We get most of our salt by evaporating seawater or mining rock salt. Our blood also contains about 0.9% NaCl. Sugar is sucrose and is usually derived from Sugar Cane or Sugar Beets. Sugar and Salt are plentiful and easy to get from these "natural" sources. That said, there is no more difference between NaCl derived from water or rock or in a lab. By definition there are no other molecules present and so NO contamination is possible. By this measure, chemically synthesized compounds are SAFER and MORE STABLE because, unlike naturally extracted compounds, there are no other compounds or molecules hanging around. We tend to have a fear of anything we don't understand, but chemical reactions shouldn't scare us. The "oxidation" that turns green teas to black is Oxygen reacting with other compounds in the leaf. The Antioxidants that we covet from tea are chemical compounds that bond with free radicals in our system. Our bodies are nothing more than a soup of chemicals reacting with each other. The key is simply to avoid chemicals that that will hurt us. |
Chicago, IL |
