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A taste for tea

 

People often ask me why I decided to study to be a tea sommelier. My love of tea stems from my Cake Awards days when I was introduced to the Sri Lankan tea company Dilmah and its quality single estate teas.
I attended their School of Tea course in Sri Lanka and everything about that trip – from the lush fields of tea bushes to the tasting sessions akin to wine – made we want to discover more.
Not long afterwards I saw how I could turn my passion into a business opportunity when I started working on a Dragons’ Den business for Kelly Hoppen. Here I was using loose teas, learning about their different flavours and processes for the products we were working on and it only served to heighten my taste for it.
It was Dilmah who recommended the Tea Association of Canada Tea Sommelier course as the best available way to learn more and I’m half way through it now.

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The course is quite a challenge – eight modules that are four to six weeks each. I’m always excited when the mysterious collection of packets arrives at the start of every course. I have to study modules on sensory analysis, teas by region and terroir, types of tea, menu design, tea pairing, tea for health and more. You can’t sit the final exam out in Canada until you’ve passed them all.
Not surprisingly tea is drunk whenever I’m at home. You need to in order to keep your taste buds keen.
Gadgets like the tea infuser I bought at Kusmi Tea in Marylebone High Street help with this. You can brew single portions of loose tea and its funky design includes a stand that catches any drips. It comes apart easily for cleaning too – handy for all those brewed leaves.

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The highlight of my beverage odyssey has been the introduction to Chinese green teas. I like the fact they are less vegetative and more toasted in flavour. But since I’m only half way through my course, I expect more delights are to come.
Oscar Woolley at Suki Tea has been my unofficial tea mentor. I can quickly check something with him or ask for further advice on what teas to try which has been so important to my studies.
If I pass the course next year I will be one of only a few qualified tea sommeliers in the UK, and will look forwarding to using my new skills to inspire new food products flavoured with teas, to work specifically on hot and cold beverage innovations and to help customers with tea menus too.
If you’d like to know more then please Tweet me or drop me a line. I’ll put the kettle on.

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FROM MY PODCAST

Jane Milton

Food industry expert Jane Milton has been in the business for more than 30 years and has the inside track on all things food!

In her podcast, Jane takes you behind the scenes of the food business and introduces you to her incredible network of producers, entrepreneurs and
consultants she works with. She shares inspiring stories and experiences with you to help you to build a stronger, healthier, better version of your own business.

Let Me Introduce You with Jane Milton

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Fresh Banter with Giles Christopher ,Food, Drink & Hospitality Photographer
byJane Milton

Fresh Banter with Giles Christopher, the food, drink and hospitality photographer

 

Giles and I met many years ago through his wife and business partner Abi, and since then we have all worked on a lot of jobs together and have spent a lot of time together socially chatting about business and life.

 

He got some great advice from his Dad about offering to do things nobody else likes to do at work and making himself a valuable team member and sound found he had multiple job offers …

 

He’s run his own business for over 20 years and we talk about how basic business skills should be part of the curriculum for everyone nowadays

 

He shares about the prep that goes into shoots and how technology has changed the job so much and how much time photographers now spend in post production too. And about the sheer weight of kit that he takes to ‘location’ shoots too.

 

Giles loves tech and is always pushing himself to learn new ways of doing things , or master new equipment and he also talks about keeping up with and ahead of that if you can

 

A really interesting insight into all that food and drink photography involves, and some great tips for podcasts and business blogs to watch out for too.

 

I’m really pleased we managed to book Giles for a chat in this last episode of series 3…

 

Let me introduce you to Giles Christopher


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