A JOB you’ve probably never heard of pays £25,000 a year and lets you travel the world – but there’s a catch.
The little-known role lets you put your love of tea to good use and has been described as “the best job in the country, but one that few know exists”.
GettyThe little-known role lets you put your love of tea to good use[/caption]
Brits love a good cup of tea – but some people even make a living out of tasting different teabags.
Tea tasters could earn an impressive £25,000 a year – but it’s not all fun and games.
While it sounds like many Brits’ dream job, it’s actually a particularly challenging role.
It takes five years to train to identify, blindfold, the origin and blend of each sample, the Guardian reported.
Plus, an expert is expected to be able to detect not only the country that produced a certain batch, but the region.
Giles Oakley, a tea taster and buyer with Tetley, said: “Tetley has five offices across India and Africa and staff there will taste the individual lots before an auction then we in the UK taste bulk lots to decide which will blend well together.
“The trickiest part is relating what you’re tasting in the office to the practical demands in the factory.”
New recruits on a starting salary of around £25,000 spend their first months testing all sorts of different teas a day while under supervision.
They also have to memorise the names and groups of leaves and master the language used by different tea companies to describe them.
Trainees must understand the full process of the tea trade from crop planting to the supermarket shelves.
They present market reports at weekly buying meetings where purchases are discussed and forecasts for future prices, availability and demand explored.
Then, after detailed courses on blending different varieties to suit public demand, there’s a lengthy training trip overseas to study,
It might not be as fun as it sounds, though – as the point of travel is to learn about the manufacturing process and how tea is bought and sold and to meet the network of traders they will work with.
Giles explained: “The first experience of a tea auction is terrifying because you are spending vast sums of money with the nod of your head.
“It’s essential to have stamina because you always get pushed around a bit on your first few visits.”
There’s plenty of other weird and unique jobs that could earn you great sums.
A job you’ve probably never heard of pays £61,000 a year – and you don’t need a degree.
The little-known role lets you put your social media addiction to good use for nearly triple the UK average wage.
It comes after headhunters revealed a job where you can earn £90,000 without needing any qualifications – but there’s a catch.
Meanwhile, another profession you might never have heard of pays a whopping £70k a year – and you don’t even need to have a degree.
A Scrum Master is one of the highest-paid jobs for non-graduates, according to job website Adzuna.