Tetley’s Sebastian Michaelis will be the Keynote Speaker at the World Tea Conference + Expo in Denver, Colorado in June 2020. As Tetley’s new head of the International Division he will oversee the buying and blending for all of Tetley’s brands worldwide.
Michaelis grew up in the United Kingdom drinking a “builder’s brew” or English Breakfast style tea, much like a typical English consumer. Since then, his palate has become more sophisticated and discerning—so much so that Tetley has insured his taste buds for 1 million pounds.
Michaelis began his career at Tetley 15 years ago, aftergraduating from the University of Sussex with a degree in philosophy. He wastrained as a tea taster in Tetley’s intense five-year program during which hetasted hundreds of thousands of teas, building up his palate and hisunderstanding of tea. He also traveled to Kenya, Malawi, India, Indonesia,China to learn about its provenance and what influences tea quality and taste “frombush to cup” in each region.
“It was a wonderful introduction, and spending time atorigin was key to doing my job, but it was also lovely to visit tea estates indifferent remote locations and get to know the people who are involved in thesupply chain throughout.” said Michaelis. “That was really what hooked me.” Hecontinues to travel to tea producing countries several times each year. “It’svery much a people business. You can’t just be behind a computer, you have tobuild relationships and know the people who are growing it for you.”
Michaelis’s role evolved into buying and blending teas, ranging from single origin to multiple origin blends. He looks after the quality and works with teams in different countries to understand what consumers want before introducing new products to the market. “Ultimately, the market is becoming a lot more personalized,” said Michaelis, who has observed a steady drop in black tea consumption in the U.K. and a move towards botanical infusions. There are a lot more choices for consumers. He added that in the United States, where iced tea has traditionally dominated the market, there are now premium teas that offer alternatives to coffee.
He also works with Tetley’s sustainable sourcing programs, includingits Rainforest Alliance Certification practices and its Ethical Tea Partnershipmembership. “Every country has its own challenges,” said Michaelis, who workswith farmers to improve their livelihoods and to ensure tea will be asustainable crop in the decades to come.
Michaelis is excited about experiencing the World TeaConference + Expo for the first time. “The best part of my job is traveling totea estates, and I do love being able to taste very unique teas from estates,gardens and farms around the world so going to something like this where I cansee what is on offer from around the world would be amazing,” he said. “I’mlooking forward to meeting people.”
He hinted at the topic of his keynote speech, titled “In GoodTaste,” which is still in progress, “I want to talk about what we call withinTetley ‘the magic tea.’ We’ve got an amazing industry and an incredible storyto tell about this natural product, which is fitting in so well with theconsumers who are looking for a healthy product, for something which isartisanal, which has a provenance story behind it,” said Michaelis. “But at thesame time we need to be conscious of what is it that other industries have doneto plug the gap between those specialty products and consumers’ relative lackof knowledge.”
He sees the World Tea Conference + Expo as a way for tealovers to understand trends and consumers’ needs while helping each other movethe whole industry forward.
“Ultimately I think we’re all in it together and I think anyof these events are always great fun because you get to meet people who have asimilar love of tea as you. I’ve been to many tea events and that always comesthrough.”
Michaelis’s favorite tea is a strong black tea from Rwanda and he enjoys specialty loose leaf green tea or oolong in the afternoon.