It only proves your numbers like caffeine percentage by weight and
differential rates of solution contributing to the taste of tea don't
add up. The computations or analysis are so complex to determine the
taste components at anypoint in time even your references just refer to
them as a percentage in time. I go one step further and try to account
for what I taste at anypoint in time. I know that taste is
proportional in the sense there is no fundamental difference in taste
no matter what method or how I brew the tea. As soon as the water hits
the tea all the taste components come into play. The differentials
rates of any given taste component is a concentration your tastebuds
can detect. It is like racing. All the horses are in the race till
taste crosses the finish line first. The longer the brew the more
percentage of the leaf is leached but only in proportions. The only
difference you can tell between a 10% and 25% tannin solution is what
you perceive as a concentration. Also the relative percentage of
tannin is also the relative percentage of any other taste component
including caffine. The only tea taste you can select for is weak to
strong or in gongfu as an average. If your gongfu cup taste
fundamentally different from cup to cup find another master. What I
call trace elements in tea are also alway present in solution but
trigger your tastebuds through accumulation. The gongfu pot will
produce the same tea taste as a brown betty all things being equal. In
other words I can produce any comparable tea taste in a brown betty you
find desirable in any particular gongfu infusion. What you perceive as
the difference between the two pots is nothing more than
concentrations. Some teas produce concentrations good for one infusion
and some teas good over multiple infusions. A concentration is an
average of all components you can taste and not some meaningless
scientific factoid that claims tea taste depends on differential rates
of solution which you could never taste from one split second to the
next.

Jim

Mike Petro wrote:
> On 23 Aug 2005 09:21:43 -0700, "Space Cowboy" >
> wrote:
> > I also claim the caffeine percentage is also
> >'proportionally' distributable among infusions according to taste if
> >the tea supports it.
>
> But this is where the solubility factor comes in, the solubility of
> caffeine is NOT linear with respect to all of the other taste factors.
> Everybody knows that tannins affect flavor, unfavorably in high
> concentrations, that's why you don't steep black tea more than 3
> minutes. Hence the ratio of tannins to caffeine changes the longer you
> steep. This was documented in
> http://www.ibiblio.org/herbmed/eclec...apter-vii.html Notice
> that after 10 minutes the concentration of caffeine only increased by
> 10 percent but the concentration of tannins increased by 25 percent.
> This proves that the 2 are not linear over time, and both affect
> taste! This debunks you proportional theory.