Dave Sharp, who had spent 38 years with Unilever, shared his wealth of experience with tea processing, from field to bag at our November South East Midlands Branch meeting. It was illuminating, starting with the basics of the two principal varieties of Camelia, Assamica and Sinensis which make up the bulk of all the tea produced, the former being more suited to the tropics and producing more "catechins" (sweeter component), the other to more temperate regions but lower in catechins. The surprising thing that I learned was the fact that all true teas produced, from "white" to "black", come from just these two varieties - the differences are all down to the processing and Dave being a Process Engineer was just the person to know all the key components that make for the very varying products that emerge from the different processes involved. Also key to the development of new processes (of which Dave was named on a number of patents) is that they can only be properly developed "on site" and not remotely such as at his site office at Colworth in Bedfordshire. Hence, at least a full year of the 14 years he spent working with tea was spent in Kenya.
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