Tea Tasting - A Unique New Art

Hi All !

This is Deepika. This is my first post on education Cafe. Hope you will like my contributions/writings. As its my first post here so I will start writing on some unique & offbeat career paths.

There is a saying ‘Each cup of tea represents an imaginary voyage’ and this goes perfectly well in the profession of tea tasting. A tea taster must have his/ her tasting buds exceptionally active and should possess profound knowledge of cultivation and manufacturing processes used in a tea plantation. Support of science and interest in agriculture is essential to hone ‘the art of tea tasting’.

So, who exactly is a tea taster?

Simple. Someone who tastes tea. To give you a better idea, let me elaborate ---

Tea tasters need to sip in 500 to 1000 kinds of tea in a day to determine right kind of leaves that would make a perfect tea (Don’t worry, it’s just tasting not sipping the whole cup of tea). The job of a tea taster involves bringing the right color, taste and strength into the tea. This is done by checking out the leaves for their size, evenness, shape, dryness, twistedness and color. A tea taster detects the crispness and dryness of leaves with his sense of touch to calculate its longevity.

Who can become tea taster?

It is said that those with interest in exploring functioning of a tea plantation and knack for in-depth scientific knowledge of its processes may be suitable for the job. He/ She should primarily have excellent sensory and decision making skills to understand and differentiate the contents of tea samples.

Tea tasters have a unique job as we only begin our day with a cup of tea but they spend the entire day tasting tea. It takes almost three years to learn the art as it comes with experience and many more years to be an expert. There are various professional courses in tea tasting available that imbibe both traditional and modern ways of tasting tea.

So, think and decide if tea tasting is your cup of tea!!