??how tea gets its flavour

茶的风味是如何构成的？

micro-organisms play a bigger part in tea-making than was realised

微生物在制茶进程中所起的作用比我们愿望的要大

tea is familiar around the world. people drink more than 2bn cups of it each and every day. even s

o, it can pull surprises, as ali inayat mallano and jeffrey bennetzen of anhui agricultural university, in china, have just shown.

茶叶在世界各地都很常见。我们每天要喝跨越20亿杯茶。即便如此，正如安徽农业大学的阿里·伊纳亚特·马拉诺和杰弗里·贝内岑迩来所展示的那样，它也能带来惊喜。

tea producers long assumed that the flavours of the most widely drunk varieties of this beverage, so-called black teas like darjeeling, assam and english breakfast, were a consequence of some of the chemicals in tea leaves being oxidised while those leaves were being dried.?

长时刻以来，茶叶出产商一向认为，最受等待的茶叶品种——红茶（如大吉岭红茶、阿萨姆红茶和英式早餐红茶）的风味是茶叶中的一些化学物质在单调进程中被氧化的成果。dr mallano and dr bennetzen suspected, however, that, like the flavours of more expensive and rarefied “dark” teas such as kombucha, pu-erh and anhua, black-tea flavours are at least partly a product of fermentation. this would mean they could be?manipulated?by tweaking the mix of micro-organisms doing the?fermenting.可是，马拉诺和贝内岑认为，就像康普茶、普洱茶和安化黑茶等更名贵、更稀有的“深色”茶的味道相同，红茶的风味在必定程度上也要归功于发酵的产品。这意味着红茶的风味可以经过调整发酵进程中微生物的比例来控制。

to test their hypothesis they obtained some leaves from the dongzhi tea plantation in anhui province. as they explain in the journal of agricultural and food chemistry, they then sampled the microbes thereon before?sterilising?half of the leaves in mild bleach for five minutes.?

为了验证假定，他们从安徽省的东至茶?鸭艘恍┎枰丁Ｕ缢窃凇杜┮涤胧澄锘г又尽飞纤杌娴哪茄诙圆枰渡系奈⑸锊裳螅怯梦挛牡钠准炼云浼湟话氲牟枰督?分钟以灭菌。

after that (having washed the sterilised leaves thoroughly, to get rid of the bleach) they processed both the sterilised and the unsterilised leaves in the normal way. in other words, they withered, rolled, oxidised and dried them.?

之后（完全清洗灭菌过的茶叶，以去掉漂白剂），他们以正常的方法处置经过灭菌和未经灭菌的茶叶。换句?担圆枰督形鳌⑷嗄怼⒎⒔秃偷サ鳌?br>

they then tested them all for microbes once more. they also tested the result of all this treatment in a more time-honoured manner, by brewing numerous cups of tea.

然后，他们再次对这些茶叶的微生物进行检测。他们还以一种更陈旧的方法（即重复冲泡的方法）对一切这些处置方法的成果进行了查验。

if oxidation were the main cause of chemical change in black-tea leaves as they were processed, the sterilisation would have made little difference either to the chemistry or the taste of the final product. but this was not the case.?

假定氧化是红茶在加工进程中发生化学改变的首要缘由，那么灭菌关于究竟制品的化学成分和风味都不会发生啥影响。但实际并非如此。

black tea brewed from unsterilised leaves had, as per normal, lots of catechins and theanine, both of which made it flavourful. tea made from sterilised leaves did not, and its taste suffered as a consequence. black tea, then, seems to get its flavour in the same way that dark tea does.

冲泡未经灭菌的红茶，茶汤便像往常相同富含许多儿茶素和茶氨酸，这两种物质都使红茶极具风味。而灭菌后的叶片制成的茶叶则否则，其风味也遭到了影响。因而，红茶风味的来历如同和黑茶相同。

the next job, which dr mallano and dr bennetzen are now engaged in, is to identify the bugs involved. once they have done that, tweaking the microbial mixture to produce novel flavours should become possible. and that is good news for tea snobs everywhere.?

马拉诺和贝内岑如今正在打开下一步研讨，即辨别其间对风味发生影响的微生物品种。一旦研讨获得作用，那么或许就能经过调整微生物比例来改动茶的风味。这关于世界各地的茶迷来说是个好消息。

(黑色标示词为重难点词汇)?

这篇文章翻译：vinnie

重难点词汇：

manipulate?[m??n?pjule?t] v. 操作；支配；篡改

ferment?[f?r?ment] v. 发酵；骚动；激起

sterilise?[?ster?la?z] vt. 消毒；灭菌

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