October 2006 - Twinings Teas

Angela Smith (l) from Twinings Teas with Liz Scrace, President

For our October meeting the Andover Women In Business Club met at the Bourne Valley Inn, St Mary Bourne and our guest speaker was  Angela Smith, a Senior Tea Buyer  and Blender from Twinings Tea.  The meeting, as usual, was very well attended and we welcomed 3 guests and one new member.

Angela is one of only a small handful of women tasters and blenders in the country, until quite recently male dominated. More women, however, are now entering the profession.   The training consists of a long and intensive apprenticeship taking up to 5 years, in order to develop and educate the palette to the required level of expertise.  Angela told us there can be as many as 20 types of tea in a single blend to ensure that our breakfast cuppa is of the consistently high quality we have come to expect.

Tea is that most quintessential of all English drinks and Angela gave us an entertaining and informative talk on the company’s background and the history and process of tea production.  It is still gathered or “plucked” by hand, a highly skilled process, which is carried out mainly by women who select the perfect “two leaf and a bud” shoot. So far, no machine has been able to emulate this with any degree of success.

She is involved in the whole process of tea production  from visiting the tea plantations and overseeing the gathering and drying of the leaf through to the blending and tasting of the final product, a process which, including shipping,  can take up to 2 ½ months.     

Angela’s speciality is China tea, which entails frequent visits to the country although she has spent time in India and Kenya the other large tea producers. She explained how changes in climate can affect the quality of the leaf with the recent droughts in Kenya reducing the crop by a much as 50%.  The time of day when the tea is plucked can also make a difference to the taste.

A few Tea facts:   
Tea was originally drunk in China over 5000 years ago.
It was introduced to the English by Catherine of Braganza the wife of Charles II in the late17C.
Per capita, Ireland is the world’s largest consumer of tea
Tea bags were invented in America in the early 20th century but didn’t become popular in this country until the 1970’s

And finally… it is correct to put the milk in first before pouring your tea, which should settle some domestic disputes!