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Cameron 11/10/04
> What I meant was a catalogue of memories of tastes and aromas. I used
> the word "tasting vocabulary" as a short form. The more memories of
> distinct tastes you have, the better you can discriminate between
> different teas, and the more significant each experience of tea
> becomes. It is like learning a new language.
That other point of view I mentioned puts "catalogue," "distinct," and
"discriminate" into the "vocabulary" column, as you suggest when you refer
to this as learning a new "language." Tea is beyond language. It is
experience.
>
> At first there is only a torrent of sound, which can barely be
> distinguished from gibberish. Next comes a stage where one knows the
> basic words and where a given sentence has meaning and can be
> distinguished from another sentence. Then competence where coherent
> speech is possible. Eventually fluency where each subtle shade of
> difference and meaning is clear. The neophyte can hardly tell black
> tea from green. The novice can discern the difference between the
> categories (black, green, white, oolong, etc). The journeyman, can
> identify regions and styles. The master knows the estate, the season,
> the variance in processing techniques and whatnot.
All this learning can have deleterious effects. OK, so I'll never journey
toward master status, but I'll muddle through somehow. I can at least sit on
the side of the road and be a friend to man.
Michael
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