When the term ‘mineral sensation’ appears in the context of food flavor, it is often directly related to its terroir, and in the world of wine, mineral sensation is seen as the highest level of flavor that presents the top-level terroir.
For rock tea, the name is associated with the terroir, and the word “rock” itself gives us a lot of mineral imagination. However, we rarely use the word “mineral feeling” in expressing the terroir of rock tea.
As a trendy term symbolizing top-notch terroir, why do we rarely have the word ‘mine’ when discussing rock tea?
01 What is the feeling of “mineral sensation”
Mineral sensation, literally understood, refers to feeling the presence of minerals while drinking tea.
We know that minerals are natural substances formed through natural geological evolution, and the vast majority exist in solid natural forms. Therefore, in our imagination, mineral induction is a “hard and stable natural feeling that has existed for a long time”, which is somewhat similar to what we often refer to as “bone spurs”.
We remember a 2021 Gujing Beidou tea. The mountain field is deep in the Gujing, and it takes nearly 2 hours to reach the deep forest from the internet famous well of Gujing. When we drank this tea, the deep impression of the rock layers, dense vegetation, and decaying wood scattered in the center of the stream around the tea garden seemed to fall into the tea soup.
I remember the teacher’s evaluation of it at that time was: “like Ludan’s perfume, there is no human smell, only ash, time and withered mountains and rivers.”
Go to the deep stone path of Gujing Mountain Field, where withered branches crisscross and fallen leaves fill the path, with rare human traces
There are also many concrete flavor description terms for mineral sensation, such as limestone, flint, graphite, metal, smoke, iodine, oyster shell, and savory taste, etc.
As mentioned earlier, the 2021 Gujing Beidou will present a dynamic feeling of lime covering charcoal fire in the following waters. There is also the scent of zongzi leaves that we feel in the old bushes, with a lime like feeling of decaying dead leaves.
Maple tree nest, century old clump
In addition, there is another theory that mineral flavors are more likely to appear in tea soups with a certain acidity and less intense flavor.
I remember we had such an experience in a 1997 Beidou aged tea. You should know that Beidou has a characteristic of being mediocre. After a certain period of storage, in addition to the warm plum flavor, it also has a slight sea salt flavor.
However, these claims are still experience sharing without scientific evidence.
In our opinion, mineral perception tends to be more subjective. Based on our life experience, with the fresh and salty taste like seawater and sea breeze, the refreshing sweetness, sourness, and tangible scents or flavors such as lime and metal, the aftertaste of tea soup after passing through triggers our associations with geological layers, rocks and soil, and the flow of vegetation withering and flourishing over time.
Like existing in our imagination of reality.
02 Can minerals produce a mineral sensation?
When drinking tea, minerals generally exist in three scenarios: the mineral components obtained by the tea tree roots from the soil, the inherent minerals in the tea leaves themselves, and the additional minerals added to the tea water.
It should be noted that the minerals referred to here refer to chemical components such as magnesium, sodium, potassium, copper, and iron, rather than rocks and granite themselves. The content of these mineral elements in tea is very low, and the detected minerals are generally below the threshold that our sensory perception can perceive.
These mineral elements exist as if silently contributing, and they are not grasped by us in a concrete form. Instead, they influence the growth of tea trees by providing them with nutrients and altering the metabolic pathways of tea aroma.
For example, relevant studies have shown that more than ten mineral elements such as phosphorus, zinc, iron, potassium, molybdenum, etc. in tea leaves have varying degrees of effects on 3-octen-2-ol (a characteristic metabolite of creamy aroma), 4,8-dimethyl-1,7-nonadien-4-ol (a characteristic metabolite of floral aroma), and 3-ethyl-4-methylpyrrole-2,5-dione (a characteristic metabolite of sandalwood aroma).
The potassium element in soil can not only increase the content of aroma substances, but also show a clear positive correlation with the characteristic aroma component of rock tea, orange blossom tertiary alcohol. In addition, it can also reduce the grassy odor in tea leaves.
So, the minerals in a tea soup cannot give us a direct mineral sensation.
Flavors such as lime, metal, and savory flavors that evoke our imagination of minerals are more likely to come from other substances in tea.
For example, when drinking tea with a slightly salty and savory taste, in the eyes of a seasoned tea enthusiast, “saltiness is organic fertilizer, and glutamic acid in amino acids is salty”, to some extent, it is the result of more refined mountain management.
The lime like sensation that appears in tea is usually believed to be a flavor brought by theophylline, and is usually found in varieties with high theophylline content or in old bushes.
03 Is mineral sensation suitable for rock tea?
Mineral sensation “is a term that emerged relatively late in wine works from the 1960s and 1970s. Although the appearance rate of mineral sensation in the wine industry is no less than that of floral and fruity aromas, it is still a controversial topic. There is no unified understanding of whether it exists, what flavor characteristics it presents, and how it is perceived by us.
In fact, there are many similarities between wine and rock tea, and we can learn from each other appropriately in terms of commonalities. However, they are still two independent categories, and this independence can be reflected in their representative flavor expression vocabulary.
In rock tea, there have long been high-level descriptions of top-level terroirs such as “rock charm”, “rock bones”, and “bone skewers” that have historical significance and have formed public recognition.
Compared to concrete expressions such as “mineral feeling”, descriptions like “rock charm” and “bone skewer” carry a stronger Eastern connotation in our eyes. When they appear in a cup of tea, the lingering sound around the beam appears even longer.