Durban -
Tea taster wanted. Those were the words of a classified job advert in the Daily News 26 years ago which led a Durban man to have the country’s most valuable tongue.
Master tea blender, Jonathan Kelsey of Kloof, has insured his taste buds and tongue for a whopping R5 million.
Kelsey, one of the directors at Joekels Tea Packers in Pinetown, has been slurping tea professionally since 1989.
The insurance of his “tools of trade” will kick in should they be damaged in any way - rendering him unable to taste the teas which ensures consistency throughout the various blends.
Kelsey emigrated from the United Kingdom to South Africa with his parents as a child.
Coming from a place where tea is the “national drink”, he said he had been drinking tea all his life.
“My mother would pour some tea from her own cup into a saucer to cool down for me to drink like a cat,” he chuckles.
Kelsey also recalls watching, “a bald man with glasses, slurping and spitting tea like they do with wine. I remember being so fascinated, but soon forgot about it”.
It would be almost 10 years later that the image of the bald man would come back to him when, while working in the water industry, he spotted a job advert for a tea taster in the Daily News.
“I was trained by a master tea blender, John Paulet, and learnt to differentiate the taste of different teas from around the world,” he said.
In 1994, Kelsey branched out on his own and founded Joekels with friend, Joe Swart.
The company, which now employs 170 people, are blenders and packers of some of South Africa’s most popular household brands of quality tea including Tetley Tea, Tea Time, Tea for Me, Tea4Kidz, Laager Rooibos and the strong regional brands Phendula Tea, Teeco Tea, and Southalls Rooibos. They buy all their teas from Africa.
The move to insure follows a similar initiative by Tetley, the world’s second-largest tea maker, which insured the taste buds of master tea blender Sebastian Michaelis for £1 million (R18m) last year.
Tetley has a stake in Joekels, allowing for a global growth for the South African brand and for Tetley to entrench its presence in South Africa and neighbouring countries.
South Africans consume 20 million kilograms of black tea and 7 million kilograms of rooibos a year, placing the market value at about R1.8 billion.
“After a good cup of tea, you feel rejuvenated. It is the second most consumed beverage in the world after water,” Kelsey said.
Despite his prized tongue, he plans to continue honing his passion, learning and testing himself. Kelsey has even passed on the love of a brew to his youngest of three children.
“My 4-year-old daughter drinks tea hot or cold, with milk and honey or any of our variations for kids. It’s all she wants to drink,” he smiles.
Daily News