- Good tea takes time. Take time for tea! The manufacturing of tea at origin is an art but the preparation of tea in your cup is a science. There are no excuses for getting it wrong but so many people do.
- While my training as a taster enables me to differentiate and grade/value tea from different origins according to the markets into which it is sold, I am not qualified to tell you which tea tastes “better” than another. This will always be a matter of personal taste.
- Dried botanical raw materials are neither stable nor consistent. For best-tasting products, freshness is so important and underutilized as a point of difference in the industry. So much of the tea available at retail is at least 6 months old and often over a year old. From Albanian apple pieces to Zimbabwean Brokens, the product begins to change on day two. Anyone who has tasted tea on an estate the day it was produced knows what I am talking about. We need to work harder to maintain freshness throughout the supply chain.