Down to a tea

WE have a saying in this industry that you have to taste a million cups of tea before you finally get it,’ laughs Tresham Graham. ‘In 1996, when I tasted my first batch of 150 or so cups for Birchall, I remember being stunned how our senior taster had picked out differences in all these teas, which, quite frankly, had tasted much the same to me—but day by day, batch by batch, the ability to differentiate comes. We’re born with a decent sense of taste and smell, it’s simply a matter of engaging it, honing it and thinking