ART OF TEA TASTING

Find out how long it takes to become a master Twinings tea taster and how seriously we take our spoons!

We all think we know what a good cuppa tastes like but it takes 5 years training to be able to taste tea like a Twinings tea blender. Once qualified, our tea tasters can distinguish the tiniest differences between teas - even if they taste two batches from the same estate.

Before they taste the teas, our blenders first examine the leaves when they're wet and when they're dry. Each tea then goes through this strict tea making procedure:
1. Fresh water is boiled in a copper kettle
2. 280ml of the boiling water is poured over 5g of tea in a special white, lidded, ceramic cup
3. The leaves are left to infuse for exactly 6 minutes
4. The tea is poured into a bowl, ready for tasting

Tasting the tea is a serious job - no milk, sugar or cakes allowed! The tasters use spoons to suck the tea quickly against their palates before spitting it out and making notes. But they don't use any old spoon - each of our blenders has their own special tasting spoon, engraved with their name. And each spoon is kept in a special spoon holder in our tasting room.

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