A conversation with our Master Blenders

Twinings Master Blenders Angela Smith and Jeremy Sturges give us a glimpse of what it’s like to taste tea for a living.

What does your role involve?

There are nine tea experts at Twinings responsible for the buying, blending and quality control of every single tea and Twinings product. No matter where you buy or drink Twinings tea in the world, the teas in every blend are tasted and quality assured by us. All that experience is handed down by experts across generations.

The blenders at Twinings focus on different regions of the tea world. Our role is quite unusual in that we each take responsibility for the whole journey of particular origins of tea, from producer country to the finished product.

There is some overlap between areas - we are trained so that there is a guaranteed level of expert knowledge of all the tea origins common to each buyer/blender. Specific blenders also work mainly on the herb and fruit infusions, a huge growth area for us - that’s a real extension of the tea-taster’s skills, as those delicate ingredients and flavours aren't from a tea bush! Luckily, our experience of traveling the world and searching for the best teas gives us the strength to deliver some of the finest herbs as well.

How does Twinings source the highest quality teas?

Twinings doesn’t own any tea gardens, and that means we’re not tied to our own producers, allowing us to select the very best tea leaves every time. We taste tea throughout the world with the growers and suppliers on estates. In fact, we have long-standing relationships with some of the best tea gardens in the world, many spanning several generations. It’s very important that we can give the tea garden feedback at the very earliest stage, so we’re clear on expectations and requirements. We taste with the producers themselves in order to discuss and evaluate current production. It’s a two-way relationship; if we can agree on quality and price, they can then adjust the production based on this early evaluation to suit the type of tea we need for our business. There are auctions on a weekly basis in most tea producing countries - Mombasa in Kenya, Calcutta in North India, Colombo in Sri Lanka are all important markets in which we operate. We will taste, evaluate and grade hundreds of samples the week before the auctions. We will then place a buying order for a weight of tea, at the price we are prepared to pay after considering the market conditions. It’s important to be able to interpret the market, to understand what people are buying and what the principle influences on the supply and demand dynamics are of any given market. Local conditions, such as drought, flood, moving seasons resulting from climate change, socio-political and economic factors all have an effect on tea growth and availability. It’s all about managing a very dynamic environment.

What makes Twinings an expert on tea blending?

Each product is produced from a blend that has its own unique formulation or recipe, known only to the Tea Blenders, some of which have been in use since Thomas Twining started this business in 1706. A blend can include as many as 70 different teas from different tea estates around the world. We follow the same blend recipe to keep the quality consistent. The teas we use are different from blend to blend, but the quality remains the same. Agro-climatic conditions can affect the quality of tea produced on an hourly or daily basis. One ingredient may not be available, or might be ever so slightly different in composition, so the art of blending is to analyse teas in minute detail so that each element of the blend is of consistently high quality. We’re assessing the characteristics and quality of an agricultural crop, and finding a place for it within our blend portfolio. We analyse how to use the crop’s characteristics to best effect, whether it is to enhance flavour, body, colour or brightness of the liquor or to adjust the leaf appearance, for example.

Tea blending has been likened to an artist or painter having a palette of colours, very specific raw ingredients, and knowing how to create a masterpiece which will please a specific audience. In tea blending, your base colours might be different week to week, but you have to know how to create the same finished masterpiece.

What particular qualifications do you need to do this job?

The job is so much about the individual’s ability to taste and the evaluation of quality. Initially, you have to have an aptitude to taste, but this needs to be trained and refined during the first five years - you simply must have the right palate, and be totally passionate about tea of course! As an apprentice, you’re learning from the best. But if you can’t taste, you can’t assess quality and therefore you can’t place a market value of any intrinsic quality. There's no educational fast-track at Twinings, you have to get your spoon out!

Being able to read and interpret a market and make reasoned predictions about the future goes hand in hand with tasting. Negotiation and communication skills, as well as an understanding and appreciation of other cultures are also essential.

So how do you use your highly developed sense of taste?

We use it most when we are looking at buying opportunities in auctions or private offers, assessing blend characteristics, carrying out quality control checks on finished products, or developing new products. We prepare the tea to double the strength of how it is normally drunk, with five grams of tea per cup of 285ml boiled water, brewed for six minutes. This allows the characteristics of the tea to be accentuated in order for us to make a full judgement of what the tea’s quality has to offer as part of a blend. We taste each tea with and without milk.

The process of tasting involves spraying or atomising the tea across the palate, almost ’hoovering’ the tea up from the spoon! The resulting vapour releases the flavour and aroma and enables us to judge the mouth feel in terms of strength, thickness and briskness of the liquor.

We don’t tend to eat strong flavoured foods such as garlic or curry during the week, because those flavours do tend to linger, and the same is true for smoking. The palate is very sensitive to an individual’s habits and it is important to maintain the consistency to retain this sensitivity. Other than that, your sense of taste isn’t really affected once you’ve developed it to this degree.

How do you maintain and build your knowledge of tea?

We are constantly seeing new growths and styles of production every season. Twinings has a challenging programme of new product development to meet consumer demands as it takes a real interest in new variations of taste and style. We are therefore continuously seeking out innovative raw materials to develop blends that deliver new flavours. 80% of Twinings business is exported, so it is essential to develop a feeling for the different tastes and preferences of different consumers in various countries. Our knowledge has to develop with market trends and never remains static. In order to remain the best, we never stop learning, even after 300 years!

Why is Twinings tea so special?

Twinings has a great advantage in that it doesn’t own any tea gardens, which means we’re not tied to our own producers allowing us to select the very best teas every time. Through contacts with producers - especially in the more unusual parts of the world - we can achieve incredibly diverse, inventive and innovative results. Over 300 years, Twinings has been able to develop long-standing, sustainable relationships with producers and agents all over the world. Knowing the people in these companies on a personal level means that they have an intimate knowledge of our requirements.

Another strength of Twinings is borne out of focus and specialisation. By focusing on a particular region - each blender has developed a specialist area of knowledge, though we have visited most producing countries to gain a breadth of understanding across all producing countries of the world. This provides the perspective we need to decide which markets show best value at any given time. We’re also one of the few beverage companies that blend the herb and fruit ingredients at our factories, rather than buying in pre-mixed blends for packing. This ensures that we control what goes into our products, and that we always deliver the highest quality tea, resulting in a better cup of tea for our customers.

What is your favourite tea?

Angela: It really depends on my mood. First thing in the morning a strong cup of English Breakfast works as a treat! When I feel like something refreshing I usually go for a green tea.

Jeremy: Oh, give me a really strong malty, golden-tipped Assam any day. Or a high-grown, flavoury Nuwara Eliya from Sri Lanka. They are very different, but fantastic in their own right.

What is your favourite way to drink your tea?

Jeremy: I like a lot of it, steaming hot, in a large half-pint, solid mug - a bit like a beer tankard.

Angela: Taking time out for the ritual and preparing a pot of tea carefully makes it more special. Tea is about the moment - experiencing tea, visiting people, the whole social experience.

So, milk in first or second?

Historically, the ’milk in first’ rule was to protect the fine bone china it was served in. To be honest, it’s down to personal preference - it’s a very individual thing, whether you drink your tea strong or weak. And it has all changed with the invention of the teabag. I think you can brew tea to colour and strength, by putting the milk in with the teabag in the cup, and add more milk if needed.

Loose tea or teabag?

Both have their benefits. At Twinings, the teas used for teabags are blended to be a replica of the loose tea products. The leaf size is different, but the quality in the cup will always be the same. In fact, our Lady Grey teabags are renowned for the fact that experts can’t taste the difference between them and the Lady Grey loose tea blend.

What's the best thing about your job?

Jeremy: Regular tea breaks! Believe it or not, we do drink tea during our breaks, but in reality we taste about 700 cups a day!

Angela: Honestly, for me it’s the creativity and the sensory aspect of the job. There’s such a wide variety of raw materials that we source - it’s very interesting and exciting. Market demands affect what we’re challenged to do, so it's never static. The diversity and the degree of specialist knowledge you develop is vast because no other tea brand offers the variety of products that we are tasked with supplying. We are currently producing more than 200 blends of all characters and qualities, sourced from all the major tea origins and some lesser known ones as well.