For discussion, excerpted from "Teatime" by Aubrey Franklin, appointed "Tea
Ambassador" by the Tea Council of the U.S.A., Inc., © 1981, ISBN:
0-8119-0414-8, pps. 48-50:

"The world's great auction centers are Calcutta and Cochin in India, Colombo
in Sri Lanka, Jakarta in Indonesia, Mombasa in East Africa, and London...The
United States receives its tea either direct from the countries where it was
grown or through London.

Before the auction, the tea chests are arranged side by side in long rows in
the warehouse. A hole is bored in each chest and a sample of the tea it
contains taken out. The samples are then sent to the leading tea buyers. If
a buyer likes the sample he or she bids on it. Sometimes as many as 50,000
chests, or 5,000,000 pounds, of tea are sold in one day at these auctions.

....the buyer either ships it to fill an order, or sends samples to importers
throughout the world. Most of the American importers or the packers who buy
this tea direct are located in the major tea-buying centers of New York,
Boston, Philadelphia, Chicago, New Orleans, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and
Seattle.

....Then the tea starts is sea voyage to the United States, which usually
takes seven weeks from Calcutta. As the aluminum foil-lined tea chests
arrive in the principal U.S. ports of entry for tea, they are placed in
bonded warehouses. By provisions set forth in the Tea Act of 1897, the tea
cannot be moved from these warehouses until it is either approved or
disapproved for entry by the U.S. Board of Tea Experts...

This Board - which operates under the Food and Drug Administration, but is
paid for by the tea industry...Its members are six men chosen from the tea
trade and one from the government. The U.S. Board of Tea Experts meets once
each year, usually in February or March. The purpose of this meeting, held
in the office of the government member in New York, is to set up minimum
standards for the tea you will drink during the following year. These
standards go into effect on May 1 of each year.

Board members...brew the tea to be judged...

Perhaps one hundred samples of tea are submitted to the Board and judged
during its annual meeting...Tea that do not meet this [the minimum standard]
standard will not be admitted to the United States. Most of the 200 million
pounds of tea imported into the country each year, though, is of higher
grade than the standard.

Should an importer object to the rejection of his tea by the U.S. Board of
Tea Experts, he may take his case to the Board of Appeals. This Board, made
up of three members, will call in three different tea-tasters from the trade
to judge the rejected tea. The decision of the Board is final. If it rejects
the tea the shipment will not be permitted to enter."

After that, the book relates the tea going to the blenders and packaged as
loose, instant, or in teabags ready for the grocer either straight from the
packer or through wholesalers. It doesn't seem to address, however, estate
teas or blends purchased by consumers like us who've gotten away from
grocery store tea.

Still, it's interesting...any comments on the process described above?

--
~~Bluesea~~
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