Evaluation of the astringency of black tea by a taste sensor system: scope and limitation.

Grading the astringency of black tea by a taste sensor system was studied. The black tea samples manufactured in India and Sri Lanka were classified into ten steps on the basis of two standard solutions (0.65 mM and 0.26 mM EGCg aqueous solutions). An organoleptic test demonstrated that the sensor output was correlative to the human gustatory sense.