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tea ball vs. bag per cup?
(Space Cowboy) writes:
> Largely if not mostly what determines the taste and color of tea are
> the various antioxident polyphenols such as catechins, flavonoids,
> tannins, theanine, vitamins, minerals, etc (I don't play a chemist on
Are you sure? You can tell superficially that many of the chemicals in
teas don't have a colour from the fact that green and white teas do
not infuse much colour into the water. Caffeine is tasteless,
odourless and colourless. Only some polyphenols, not even all of the
flavonoids, have a colour. Similarly with taste. Despite the name,
some flavonoids are tasteless.
> TV.) These constituents are released on a bell curve and if I were
> guessing a 10 minute infusions of white tea buds would release 90% of
> the healthfull benefits. Obviously tea volume is no more than
While you're right about the bell curve as far as I know, wouldn't the
standard deviation of the curve vary from compound to compound?
That's what I meant by differint `rates' in my other post. I don't
know the details, but the solubility of these compounds will be
affected by other compounds, by the pH of the water, etc. A
rudimentary web search turns up at least one flavonoid that is
hydrophobic.
It would be nice if all these compounds behaved roughly the same way,
but I really don't think it happens, and I wouldn't trust taste and
colour.
Cheers,
- Joel
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