Tea professional

1. 1. Evaluation

   Everything else in the trade rests on repeatable assessment.

   • How professional tea tasting differs from drinking tea
   • Running a side-by-side tasting that tells you something
   • Blind tasting: what it controls for, how to run one, and what it can show

2. 2. Grading and quality

   Grade and quality are different questions, and buyers are paid to know it.

   • How to judge tea quality
   • OP, BOP, FTGFOP: what the letters mean, and what they cannot tell you
   • CTC grade codes: BP, PF, PD, Dust and what the letters mean here

3. 3. Sourcing

   How tea changes hands decides what a buyer can know about it.

   • How a tea auction works
   • Direct trade in speciality tea: what it fixes and what it does not
   • Traceability: what a lot code can and cannot tell you

4. 4. Blending and scenting

   Consistency is a product too, and it has its own economics.

   • Why tea is blended, and what blending costs in traceability
   • Scented and flavoured are two different productions, with a difference you can taste

5. 5. Claims and protection

   Regulation decides which claims on a label are enforceable.

   • Geographical indications as an economic instrument
   • The Japanese Tea GI: what it does and does not mean
   • Certification schemes: what an audit does and does not check

All learning paths and diagrams