Oh Lew,
all that techno-speak (spectrum, peaks, ...) comes from my weird
engineering/scientific background. I always try to perceive tea with
all available (deteroriated) senses and e.g. while sniffing or slurping
teas I get all kinds of visuals on my internal screen, sometimes
accompanied by physical perceptions. Then I usually convert them onto a
2-dimensional plane and interpret them as a 2d spectrum to make them
more communicable. There must be a hidden database somewhere that
allows me to automatically compare those spectrums with that of other
substances. Of course this is highly subjective, but working with other
folks in the past has shown that there's at least a bit of an
intersubjective consensus. For example blind testing of homeopathic or
Bach remedies by taking them into your hand and letting them "tell
their stories" (takes between 5 seconds and 3 minutes). I and others
could do it for hours without one wrong guessing.

Back to your question, take for example the frequency-over-time
spectrums of music, from low-freq bass notes up to overtones (a
Schubert piano piece vs. full-spectrum electronic music) and try to
see or analyse, say the aroma or flavor of tea that way. If I think of
the masala I mentioned (a masala - nothing to defined but again one of
those files in my database <g>) I perceive a synergistic
multi-dimensional projection (pls forgive me) of it's aroma/flavor that
matches my perception of that tea at that moment (and later on) pretty
much like spectrums of different pieces of music can be pretty similar
in appearance.
I can't help it, it just happens, I just hope it makes a bit sense to
those who waste their valuable time reading those lines .
As Namkhai Norbu, a Dzogchen master, used to say, looking all over the
seminar room: "This all dream".

Karsten / Darjeeling