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 Learn
Wine by Tasting...Tea?
Courtesy of
30 Second Wine Advisor
By
Robin GarrWhen circumstances dictate that you have a
non-alcoholic drink with dinner - or (yes, it happens) in the event
you're simply not in the mood for wine - what's your beverage of
choice?
Beer, water, fruit juice, coffee tea or milk ... an argument can
be made for just about any tasty fluid. But when I'm looking for a
beverage that will provide just about everything I enjoy in wine
except the high- octane, my choice is clear: Quality, fresh-brewed
tea - either hot or iced - is the winner by a healthy margin.
The single non-alcoholic beverage most like wine is tea, because
- except for the alcohol - tea brings us many similar sensory
perceptions.
Just like wine, fresh tea offers complex fragrances that are
typically fruity and floral, that vary depending on the variety of
tea leaves and the way they are harvested and processed. Tea
arguably even expresses terroir ... distinctive flavors that reflect
where the tea leaves were grown.
Tea, like wine, may range from light to full-bodied; and tea,
like red wine, boasts an appealing, puckery astringency that's the
result of tannins. Add lemon to your tea to adjust its acidity; put
in sugar, and you alter its sweetness. Introduce a splash of milk to
mellow the tannins and make a fuller-bodied drink.
I've made these points about tea before, but I frankly had never
thought of using tea to learn basic wine tasting until I spotted an
article this week in the Paradise Post in Paradise, Calif., north of
Sacramento.
In "A beginner's guide to wine tasting," Chico, Calif., wine shop
owner Brenda McLaughlin, who teaches wine tasting through the local
Butte College Community Education, told reporter Valerie Lum that
she begins her class on identifying basic wine elements by pouring
her students cups of steaming tea.
"That's right," wrote Lum. "McLaughlin said people are sometimes
surprised when she brings out four different teas: one plain black,
one with a little sugar, one with a little lemon and one with a
little milk.
McLaughlin said the different teas help sharpen the palates of
beginning taste testers, so they can learn to identify the major
components of wine, and determine what makes their mouths happy."
The short article didn't go into detail, but it's not hard to
"reverse- engineer" a tea tasting to give novice tasters a crash
course in basic elements of wine.
- Brew a pot of strong black tea and pour each taster four hot
cups (or four iced glasses)
- Leave one plain, and dose one each with lemon, sugar and milk.
- Sniff, taste and think, very much as you would with wine.
- In the plain cup, try to discern the delicate aromas and
flavors.
Depending on the tea, you may find citrus, other fruit, floral
aromas or even tar and smoke.
- Compare the plain cup with the lemon-dosed sample and see how
a dash of lemon confers acidity ... a tangy, mouth-watering
quality that provides an almost physical sense of structure in the
drink.
- Try the sweetened cup, and think of "off-dry" wine. How does
the version with sugar differ from the unsweetened cup? Does sugar
simply make the drink sweet, or does it change the tea's flavor
profile in unexpected other ways?
- Finally, taste the tea with milk. Note how the "lactic" dairy
element softens the tannic astringency of the straight tea, and
think of malolactic fermentation that softens the sharper acidic
character of wines.
Congratulations! You've completed the course. Now try it again
with green tea. Or Oolong. Or even
Lapsang Souchong. There's a world of tea out there, and a world
of wine. Tasting tea thoughtfully can teach us surprising things
about tasting wine.
This project remains a work in progress. If you try it, I hope
you'll get in touch to let me know how it goes, in E-mail or by
posting to the discussion in our online forum (linked below).
To read the original article in the Paradise (Calif.) Post,
click "A beginner's guide to wine tasting," from the link below:
http://www.paradisepost.com/features/ci_3387061 |
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