"Scott Dorsey" > wrote in message
...
> Alex Chaihorsky > wrote:
>>
>>The fact that high mineral content helps EXTRACTION is well known and
>>DogMa,
>>I am sure, is quite knowledgeable of that.
>>The fact that adding tiny amount of salts (literally micrograms) in any
>>form
>>to ALREADY BREWED TEA noticeably benefits its taste is not at all well
>>known
>>and if you can provide references to that it would be very helpful.
>
> I have no references specifically regarding tea. But it's fairly well
> established that adding salt, for instance, changes the existing flavour
> of a dish. Escoffier's _Modern Cookery_ might be one of the first places
> this is mentioned.

I say that again and again - adding electrolites BEFORE OR DURING EXTRACTION
is a well established technique. Chemists know that and know how to measure
that effect.
Not so with adding electrolites AFTER, "APRE", POST - factum.
How can I illustrate this so we don't go back to this again? We all know
that giving antibiotics to someone who has a bad case of pneumonia can save
his life. Does that also mean that we won't be surprised if injecting
pennicyllin into a corpse would revive the dead? Because that is what we
have here - apparent improvement of extraction (or its perception) AFTER the
extraction is already finished and solution is separated from


>
>>The ability of salt to improve and affect other flavors is attributed to
>>its
>>ability to make water a better solvent and EXTRACT such flavors during
>>cooking or chewing, but I never saw any references to salt or mineral
>>content measured in micrograms to affect the taste of the solution AFTER
>>extraction
>
> I don't think it _does_ make water that much more efficient.
>

Its not about what we _think_, its a scientific fact. Open any textbook on
water-based extraction and catalisis and find out. The dissociative quality
of water. i.e its ability to break up molecules of solids or in another
words - dissolve matter using HOH dipole is a well-established fact.
Chemistry is a science, not opinion.
In this case we may be dealing with very fine effects of electrolytes being
able to break up very complex (they are even called - "complexes" organic
makromolecules or agglomerates and thus improve the perception of taste.
Another compound that may have similar effect is alchohol. It would be
interesting if DogMa compares the effects of adding few mililitres of
mineral water and tiny amount of alchohol to the same flat brew and compare
the results.
Alchohol also dramatically improves dissociative properties of water,
expecially when it comes to organic extraction. That is why, BTW, almost all
perfumes and medical potions are alchohol -based.

Sasha.