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In the world of sports and supermodels, insuring a certain part of your body is a common thing, Julia Roberts famously insured her trademark smile for millions of dollars and now, Sebastian Michaelis, a tea taster for Tetleys has had his tongue insured for £1million ($1,575,850).
Michaelis has worked for the tea company for nine years and spent much of that time tasting the over 1,500 different varieties of tea in the world.
He is said to be able to taste and a tea in just 15 seconds and to be responsible for tasting over 250,000 blends of tea during his career.
The company value his tastebuds so much that his tongue was recently insured for the hefty price tag.
Michaelis tastes teas from many different producers around the world with the aim of making recreating the well known Tetley blend - he says that if the company used the same suppliers every time they blended tea - the taste would alter too much because of the many factors that effect the overall taste of tea. His job is to accurately choose different teas and blend them in a way that is instantly recognisable as Tetleys tea.
Alex Snowden, Senior Brand Manager at Tetley, told the Telegraph: “Our master blenders have over 900 years of tea tasting experience between them and taste 40,000 cups of tea every week. This is essential to achieving the best blends. So, their taste buds are extremely important to our business.”
