Mmm...Tastes like Asparagus?

Hello all,

Today's post is part of a project initiated by the Association of Tea Bloggers. A group of bloggers from ATB came upon a study out of Kansas State University that was designed to explore the flavors that present themselves in a cup of green tea. They cupped 138 green teas from nine different countries and, in the process, identified 31 specific flavors. I don't have permission to attach the full study here, but there is a link to the abstract here, as well as other articles about it here and here.

The ATB project makes use of this information in a pretty creative way. Different bloggers are each taking on a specific flavor that was identified in the study. We are charged with recreating the flavor (as described in the study) and then tasting some of our green teas to see if we can recognize the particular flavor.

Two other posts have already been put up. The first was by Brett over at Black Dragon Tea Bar. He analyzed the flavor of seaweed. The second was by Jason at Walker Tea Review who looked at parsley.

My selected flavor was ASPARAGUS.

Preparation - 40 grams of diced asparagus in 300 ml of water. Microwave, covered, for 3 minutes. Drink the water in which the asparagus was cooked.

The water was a cloudy yellow with a slight green tint.

The scent of the water was sweet, full, and rich. It was far more mellow than I had anticipated. I'd anticipated some high sweetness, but it was more like a honey than a sweet sugar. On the other end, it wasn't as earthy as I'd expected. It was more like peas and a little brothy. In the back of the mouth there was more of the anticipated "asparagus" in the asparagus.

I then tested a number of my green teas. The ones that I found the most similar flavor present was an Andrews & Dunham Dragonwell, a Gyokuro from Upton, and Cloud Mist from Zhong Guo Cha.

Next week, Marlena at Tea for Today will explore celery. I'll be sure to post the link on this page.