As the second generation from his family in the tea industry, it was only natural for Sanjay Sethi to become a tea taster. The 49-year-old grew up in Assam, a tea growing region in eastern India, and Kolkata, a tea trading hub. He is now the director of Gundlach Packaging, a German tea-tag printer that also advises companies on tea blending, packing, procurement and professional tasting.
6am
I wake up and three or four times a week I hit the gym. When I come back I have a nice cup of Darjeeling tea. I prefer a blend, not a particular garden. Tea is a very personal product. Around 8.45am I come to the office in Jebel Ali in Dubai and get busy in the factory, with meetings, checking emails and talking to the manager. Once at office, I like to drink a cup of sulaimani tea with sugar and two to three cups of green tea with lemon without sugar. Dubai is not a huge consumer of tea, but an important point of transit and a value addition point such as blending and packaging of it. Almost nine per cent of the total tea export of the world goes through Dubai.
11.30am
I get involved in tea tasting. I taste one lot in the morning, and another in the afternoon at the tasting room in an adjoining building of Dubai Multi Commodities Centre's Tea Center. I taste 50 to 60 cups a day now. I started as a tea taster when I was around 19 years old, and then I used to taste 500 to 600 cups a day as part of the training. It is important for the tea tasting room to have good natural light, or if this is not available to have special neon lights to see the tea, the leaf and the cup - to see the colour and the depth of tea. I taste 2 grams to 5 grams of tea. As tea tasters, we taste for leaf, liquid and infusion. I check the texture, bloom, colour, and aroma among others. Because in Middle East and CIS [former Soviet] countries people like their tea with milk, we also see the liquid with and without milk. We check the infusion of the tea to see the quality and see whether it will last for a long time.
1.30pm
I usually get something from home for lunch or have it with the guys in the canteen. I get a sandwich for a quick bite, and get back to the office for another round of meetings.
2.30pm
I spent another one to one and a half hours of tasting. Now, I do not clean my mouth before tasting, not after 30 years in the industry. But I do have to take water in between cups. I swirl the liquid in the mouth and spit it out while tasting tea. Tea tasting depends on experience. In Kolkata, I primarily tasted Indian teas. In Dubai, I get to taste teas from almost all the origins, and also the opportunity to taste the teas that are being sold in different markets. So, we link up the market and the suppliers. I mostly taste granulated CTCs [crush, tear and curl], long leaf teas and green teas both before and after they are blended, so that the consumers get a consistent cup of tea.
7pm
I am back home and spend time with my wife by watching television or do research on the internet on tea. My son, 23, and daughter, 19, are in the United States, and none of them are in the tea industry. I started working in the tea industry when I was in college because it ran in the family. My father spent 50 years in the tea industry. Today, children have more options, and it is just a natural flow of life. I am happy for them. Moreover, you need to have a passion for tea. I live it every day.
11pm
This is when I go to sleep after a dinner with usually Indian, continental or Chinese food. It is advisable for tea tasters to get into the profession as early as possible because then the palate is quite sensitive, and you need a couple of years to develop.
