@0#I'm Phil#FALSE# @2#I work in the tea tasting room#FALSE# @5#and the reason we need to taste tea is because teas are produced all around the world #CUPS# @10#– different colours, different qualities, different thicknesses – #CUPS# @13#and what we’ve got to do is to arrive at describing teas that best fit our blends#CUPS# @19#that are required for the Lipton Yellow Label (Quality Black) brand. #CUPS#
Guaranteed Quality
@0#Tea teas that we’re using in Lipton Yellow label come from all over the world. #FALSE# @4#The vast majority are coming# @6#from Kenya.#KENYA# @7#We’re also using some teas from Indonesia.#INDONESIA# @11#and South India.#INDIA# @12#They’re the regular parts but having said that#FALSE# @14# we’ll also be looking, through our offices overseas, for all the potential teas that can fit into this brand.#FALSE# @20#So they could be coming from Rwanda, Burundi, Malawi, Zimbabwe, South Africa #GROWINGREGIONS# @26#and anywhere around the world actually that’s producing tea at the quality that is picked by our primary buying units could potentially end up#FALSE# @33#in our Lipton Yellow Label.#FALSE# @35#But as a general statement, Kenya#KENYA# @37#South India#INDIA# @38#and Indonesia would be the backbone of this particular blend. #INDONESIA# @43#What we’re doing here, I’m just checking the various Lipton products that we’ve had sent back from our units,#FALSE# @49#just to check it is a nice even standard because it is one quality that we’re putting out around the world.# @55## @62#So I’m just checking each tea here for consistency and quality, and the taste. # @70#The profile is smack on!#
Tea Lingo
@0#So here at the Lipton Institute of Tea,#FALSE# @3#we use Tea Lingo, #TEALINGO# @5#which is a system that we’ve devised to be able to categorise tea from anywhere in the world, #TEALINGO# @10#to be able to put into our various Lipton products.#TEALINGO# @13#Here we are, just having a look at this first tea here.#FALSE# @16# #FALSE# @18#I’ll score that a 4.6. It’s got quite good colour. I’ll be calling that an EG1.#CUPS# @23# #FALSE# @26#– Umoja slightly plainer, still coloury tea. I’ll call it a 4.4 – still fitting into EG1.#CUPS# @32# #FALSE# @35#Here’s a Ugandan.#FALSE# @37#– I’m putting it back up to a 4.6. Again, a very useful tea - a good blending tea. #FALSE# @41# #FALSE# @44#This is a much thicker tea.#FALSE# @46#We’ll put that into a mouth-fill item, and what we’re doing here by tasting is looking for the flavoury teas, the coloury teas, the thick teas#WORDS# @53#– all the various components that we need to achieve our Lipton brand. #WORDS#
Maintaining Consistency
@0# # @1#Blending is an art and it’s a skill that you attain after many years of tasting# @7#and the blenders job is to make sure that the various teas that are being brought around the world are mixed together in the correct proportions # @14#to arrive at the various blends that we need, in this case, Lipton Yellow Label. # @19#And Tony now is just going to taste the teas here and what we’ve got are three previous blends that we did# @26#over the last few weeks and the latest - number 4 - is a new blend. # @30#Now for these teas the numbers are mixed.# @31#We don’t know which is the new blend and what we’re going to try and do is to make sure that the new blend is not at the very top,# @38#not at the very bottom, it should be in the middle # @40#so that we don’t have a “salami effect” where your blends are getting better and better and better or worse and worse and worse. # @45#So Tony is now going to taste the first four teas and give them his order of preference. # @49# #SCORING# @57#Tony: I’d probably put these two in first, number 4, which is the latest blend.#SCORING# @65#Second will be number three,#SCORING# @66#which will be the freshest actual #SCORING# @69# #SCORING# @74#and here’s number 1 and number 2.#SCORING# @76#Phil: They’re all fully on standard?#SCORING# @78#Tony: Yes, fully on standard.#SCORING# @79#Phil: Fantastic! #SCORING# @80#Tony: A nice, brisk, 423 tea that we expect. #SCORING# @83#Phil: Lovely. Now we’re going to do the same thing with the second four, which is just to make sure that if there’s a liquoring problem,#FALSE# @89#or what have you, that there’s no risk of an odd bowla fruity bowl or a bad liquoring. So we’re just going to check the second four. #FALSE# @97# #SCORING# @106#Tony: Again, number 4.#FALSE# @107#Phil: 4 has come through. #FALSE# @107# #SCORING# @114#Tony: Number 3 and between these two, there’s virtually nothing in it. I might go for this one, number 1, number 2. So exactly the same order.# @126#Phil: We’ve got the same order. #SCORING# @128#Tony: But all good teas, all fresh, brisk – what you’d expect from 423#SCORING# @132#Phil: That’s good. Now what we tend to do is if we’d said number 4 was best both times round, what we’d probably need to do is to tone it down a little bit#SCORING# @141# to make sure it’s fitting within the blend profile.#SCORING# @144#We wouldn’t want it to be the best or the worst, it should be in the middle so we’re maintaining that blend quality the whole time.#SCORING#
Your favourite tea ?
@0#My favourite tea is actually a South Indian tea from the Nilgiri Hills.# @5#I like the light, delicate, sort of high-taste profile of that tea. #FAVTEA# @10#It’s not too thick and strong. #FALSE# @11#I drink it all the time - there’s no right or wrong time of the day.# @15#I must admit I still make it from the loose leaf in a teapot, but it’s an absolutely fantastic tea and it’s certainly the tea I take on holiday with me!#
