Dog Ma /14/05
reply w/o spam

>>> Question: Is Gyokuro dyed green?
>> That's an interesting and scarey observation. Perhaps Dog Ma could help
> with
>> the chemistry.
>
> Good grief, I hope not. It would be very easy to tell with a
> spectrophotometer, but I'm much too important now actually to do any honest
> lab work. Or maybe they just don't trust me around expensive equipment.
>
> Anyway, rapid cold-water extraction of color from tea shouldn't be too
> surprising; works on plenty of other vegetables.

Well, as had been suggested elsewhere I think, it would be quite surprising
when experience in this case suggests the contrary. That the Japanese
wouldn't necessarily poison themselves for a deep green brew doesn't mean
they wouldn't happily poison us, if we were willing to pay for it. (Please
don't tell me how inappropriate that is; I already know it. Promise to try
to put a lid on it.) Seriously, and this in response to somebody else's
comment, have you looked at the ingredient list of those packaged Japanese
sweet and/or salt crackery things lately?)

Michael