tea merchants blender

[kylejustin]

what would a tea merchants blender have done in 1926? it was the occupation given for my 2nd great grandfather on his death certificate.
i would think he ran some sort of tea shop, but i dont think that's right. any ideas?

[WendyPusey]

Wouldn't he have blended different types of tea leaf together to find a new taste?

[Christine in Herts]

The tea you drink is rarely a single leaf-type. People are trained to distinguish all the subtle differences in flavour, and work out how best to blend them into something that customers will want to buy... just think how you prefer one tea brand to another - and whether it tastes the same in different counties, where the water has gone through different ground to make it hard/soft.

It is, in the context of tea, the same as any of the blending jobs - wine, whisky, coffee, perfume...

Christine

[Jill on the A272]

There's a little bit about blending here, shame you are too far a way to visit, it's a fascinating little museum

The Bramah Museum of Tea & Coffee - Tea History

[kylejustin]

thank you for the thoughts. i think thats what he did, but would it have been all? would he have worked in a tea room or possibly owned one?

[Olde Crone Holden]

kylejustin

No, it is a proper full time job and a very skilled one too. He wouldn't have done anything else except blend tea and taste the results.

OC

[kylejustin]

ah, thank you oc. i thought it was interesting. a quick career move. he was a watchouseman in 1920.

[Uncle John]

Scoop, slurp, spit, scoop, slurp, spit - all day long!

[kylejustin]

is a watchman and a watchouseman the same thing?

[Olde Crone Holden]

Are you sure he wasn't a warehouseman?

OC

[kylejustin]

its very bad chicken scratch, but im sure it says wachouseman.

[Trina]

Back then, I would imagine every grocer would have had SOME blends of their own as most things were sold loose anyway. There were probably speciality shops too, that dealt in tea. Even I remember sugar and tea poured into little blue bags and butter being cut into pats - just like cheese nowadays. Not to mention buying nails and screws by weight instead of in little plastic bags!

[Jill on the A272]

I've got a number of grocers & tea dealers (all done from under the same business) bur none employed a tea blender, so I'm sure yours would have been for a tea warehouse/merchant. Whereabouts was he working?

[kylejustin]

he was in leeds, must have been for a tea merchant. when i saw it, i thought he was a tea merchant that invented his own tea. most of my ancestors talked about themselves in the third person on certs! but if he just worked for a tea merchant, i think i get it.