Tea-tasting is one of the most exciting offbeat career options in India. The tea industry is well established and well developed in India. It provides more opportunities than one might expect. If you are yearning to be a tea-taster and enjoying sipping and tasting teas, this is your vocation.
What does a tea-taster do?
Tea-taster is a specialised professional in the tea industry. The job of a tea-taster is one among the most gifted careers in the world today. Tea tasting is totally an art, but needs the support of science to upgrade it to a career in the modern tea industry.
A tea-taster should have a fool-proof methodology to identify good teas rich in colour, taste and flavour. He has standard reference to compare and fix the color and taste categories and say some thing concrete about the fragrances also. Science will give constant results when the experiments are repeated. This assures a flawless performance at the end.
He combines the goodness of traditional tea tasting with the modern truthful scientific methods. He is capable of confirming the degree of qualitative and functional characters of select teas. This enables him to find their percentage or proportional utility in making desired blending combinations. This is to satisfy the need of every section of the society to enhance the harmony of mankind.
Eligibility criteria:
Skills required:
- Love and interest for outdoor life
- Physical fitness
- Keep the taste buds alive
- Leadership and communication qualities for dealing with labourers
- Initiative taking
- Tea market sensitivity
- Topographic and geographic knowledge of teas
- Tea plantation knowledge is essential
Institutes offering courses in Tea Management:
- Department of Tea Husbandry and Technology, Assam Agricultural University
- Dipras Institute of Professional Studies, Kolkata
- Darjeeling Tea Research and Management Association, Darjeeling
- Birla Institute of Management and Futuristic Studies, Kolkata
- Indian Institute of Plantation Management, Bangalore
Job opportunities in Tea Management:
- Tea tasting
- Research
- Plantation management
- Tea brokering
- Consulting
- Plantation
- Processing
- Auctioning
- Branding
- Marketing
Salary:
Despite it being a new career, the pay scale is decent for starters. For beginners, the salary is Rs. 10,000 to Rs. 15,000 while it can go up to Rs. 60,000 to Rs. 1 lakh, with experience and knowledge.
