Advertising for Evergreen’s 2021 Lunar New Year Celebrations.

•#3.5a: Film Series: Program Questions in Scenes

Tea: The Story of a Leaf, Episodes 1-6

•# 3.5b: (un)Natural Histories

The History of Tea, 2017
Video by Shunan Teng
My Little Tea School – The ABC of Tea
My Little Tea School is a creation of Siam Tea Shop, located in Nonnweiler-Otzenhausen, Germany. Their blog, Siam Teabloid, is a premier source of information on teas from around the world.

•# 3.5c: Regenerative Agriculture

•# 3.5d: Case Study Tasting Research: Tea

Oolong Tea Appreciation with Instructor Dewey Meyer

Background reading: McGee, On Food and Cooking Pages 434 – 441.

Have prepared:

  • Water at 190°F temperature in kettle that can be kept at constant temperature or a thermos
  • Three 1 c canning jars from kit
  • Tea strainer from kit
  • 1 c measuring cup for pouring
  • 3 small plates for wet tea leaves
  • 4 g of each tea (half the amount in each sample; can be weighed out on scale from kit)
  • Timer or watch
  • Tea flavor wheel from folder in kit or in electronic form below
  • Tasting grid below

Tea: Camellia sinensis

Tea Type Aroma ColorFlavor   Body/Briskness
Green ‘TeiGuanYin’ Floral and Grassy Gardinia, Petrichor, Fresh Light, Translucent Green Floral, Sweetness, Orchids, Wet Rocks, Hay, Smooth and a Bit Astringent
‘Qilan Wuyi’         Roasted, Tobacco, Coffee, Decaying Wood, Light Brown Mineral,
Charcoal, Chicory, Sandlewood? 		Lightly Astringent, Smooth, Lingers on the tongue.
Oolong- ‘Bao Jao’ or ‘Oriental Beauty’ –leafhopper bitten     Dried Apricot, Cherries, Peaches, Hay, Woody, Baby Powder Very light brown, but with red Undertones Parsley, Nasturtium, Dandelion, Salt, Woody, Light Sweetness Most Astringent, Heavy on the Tongue, Almost Fatty
tea flavor wheel
This Tea Flavor Wheel was provided by the 2021 Food, Health, and Sustainability Program of The Evergreen State College.
This Flavor Wheel was provided by the Siam Tea Shop.

•# 3.5e: Stuckey’s Taste Book Experiments

Experiencing Mutual Suppression

This experiment was adapted from the taste experiment from barbstuckey.com.

You will need:

  • 4 Lipton, PG Tips, or other black tea bags[1]
  • A 2-cup liquid measure
  • 3 glasses
  • 4 tablespoons sugar
  • 1/8 teaspoon salt

Directions:

  1. Pour 13 oz of boiling water over the 4 teabags and let the tea brew for 10 minutes. You want to over-brew the tea so that the bitterness is pronounced.
  2. While the tea is brewing, mark the glasses with tape on the bottom. Mark them:
    • Tea
    • Tea + S
    • Tea + S + S
  3. Put 2 tablespoons of sugar in the glass marked Tea + S
  4. Put 2 tablespoons of sugar + 1/8 teaspoon salt in the glass marked Tea + S + S
  5. Remove the teabags after the 10 minutes are up
  6. You should be left with 12 oz of water. Equally divide the tea into all 3 glasses so that each glass gets 4 oz of water
  7. Put a spoon in each glass and stir until all the sugar and salt is dissolved.
  8. Pour another 4 oz of cold water into each glass.
  9. Taste all 3 teas and note how bitter and sweet each one tastes.

Discuss

  • You’ll notice that the Tea (Tea) tastes bitter
  • You’ll notice that the sweetened tea (Tea + S) tastes less bitter.
  • When you taste the Tea with sugar and salt (T + S + S) you should notice that it is slightly less bitter than (Tea + S) but it’s also slightly more sweet.
  • You’ve just experienced the super-heroism of salt. It thwarts the bad tastes (bitter) and enhances the good tastes (sweet).

•# 3.5f: Sustainable Entrepreneurship

•# 3.5g: Climate and Resilience Event Series/Seminar

•# 3.5h: Foodoir: Your Story of Tasting Place

Year of the White Metal Ox

This short film created by Panda Express tells both the legend of Lunar New Year and the legend of the Great Race.

•# 3.5i: Bibliography