Tea Blending: an Accidental Invention

There was an English tea merchant selling tea packs in his town during the year 1660 A.D. He used to get a bag of tea from one estate or the other and make small packs and sell them to the people in his area.

People were buying from him, but used to make remarks on the quality of the tea he supplied.

THE GOODNESS OF TEAS!

It had become quite customary to hear comments of his customers about his tea. They said, "The tea was good last time, but it is different now". When the color was good, the taste was not so. Again, when the taste was good, the tea color was very low. The flavor was not always the same.

When ever he buys a new tea bag and distributes it in small packs, the customers' comments were also changed. This is because the teas grown in different estates differ in their characters. The tea characters change from grade to grade, season to season, process to process and even time to time. Man could be a silent listener of all these things and cannot control. The merchant was not able to find out a way to escape from the unsatisfied customers' remarks.

NO SINGLE TEA HAS ALL CHARACTERS IN PERFECT MATCH!

Once it happened that he sold almost all the tea and could not get the new bag instantly. Then, he just started searching and collecting all teas left out in all the tea bags as remnants. To cover up the time, he mixed all the remaining of tea bags and made into small packs and sold to his customers with all the reluctance. It was quite surprising to hear from almost all consumers that the tea was good that time in all respects.

He had actually mixed all the leftover teas purchased so far and supplied to the consumers only to avoid the time gap. But, the customers were satisfied and started asking to supply only similar teas in future also.

MIXING MAKES IT BETTER - AN ACCIDENTAL INVENTION!

The trader understood the idea and started buying different kinds and grades of teas from a number of estates! He started mixing and selling! It was fine; blending of various kinds of tea had helped the merchant to run his business without much of bad comments. The color, taste and flavor are average and were acceptable to the people of the town.

THANKS TO THE ANANYMOUS TEA MERCHANT!

Though accidental, it was really an invention worth to be written in the history of tea industry! So, tea blending was born. It has its own merits! But, this will not suffice the varying market needs of this modern day. We cannot continue with just mixing any kind or grade of tea available in the market as did by the merchant.

TEAS ARE DIFFERENT! WANTS ARE DIFFERENT!

There are different kinds of people loving different kinds of teas to make varying tea drinks. Some love teas made by orthodox way and others the modern CTC way of production. Some like leaf teas and others dust teas. The tea taste changes with so many factors, natural and man made too.

NEED TO INVENT, INNOVATE AND STRATEGISE!

The growth of any product depends on the merits ofinvention to begin with, innovation in course of time and finally the strategy to cope up with the market competition.

RESEARCH NEEDED!

Hence, there is a need to do a research at a higher level with identification of tea grades, their physical and functional characters in relation to the final tea drink. There is also a compelling need to have an unbiased tea evaluation technique to judge true market values of the teas in question.

ART OF TEA TASTING - WITH HUMAN ERRORS!

It took a number of years gradually to improve up on the art or knowledge of tea tasting. However, it has all the demerits of the human errors. Simply because, the traditional tea tasting is an art and has no scientific base. It has erroneous influences of human mind. Evaluation based on this gives only artistic values and do not speak about the real value of tea.

You know an art is enjoyable, but contains more of illusions and not the truth always. An art is always kept as a secret and not open for scientific analysis and confirmations.

SCIENCE IS TRUTH, A FOUNDATION FOR GROWTH!

However a revolutionary tea research culminating into a unique "scientific tea testing, tasting and blending technique" was done only very recently. Science is truth always and gives confirmative results and paves way for innovative and progressive growth of any business.

There is delay and it is due to the strong belief of the tea industry in the art of tea tasting. As it is still kept as a secret, the real beneficiaries are only the already accepted high ranking popular tea estates. But, the truth lies only with the real scientific evaluation techniques to find the real value of a tea in question.

The industry should keep its mind open to accept this change, the innovation. The change is law of life! That will bring great benefit to manufacturers, traders, consumers and the tea industry as a whole!

TEA TESTING, TASTING AND BLENDING TECHNIQUES:

Is it different from traditional tea tasting?

Yes. With all scientific base!

Is it a competition technique to the art of tea tasting?

No, it is complementary and supportive!

Will this help the tea business and industry?

Yes. In a big way! Tea researchers and students will also get benefited!

Tea blending, an accidental invention has opened new vistas to tea industry through scientific tea testing, tasting and blending techniques!
To know more about it, please contact:

pnkguru@yahoo.com

Please visit for more info on tea blending!

http://www.teablends.blogspot.com