One whose business is to test the quality of samples of tea by tasting them; a tea-expert. So Tea-tasting, the occupation or business of a tea-taster.
1819. Q. Rev., XXI. Jan., 87. Mr. Reeves, the deputy tea-taster at Canton, an ingenious and inquisitive gentleman, discovered that the Chinese had a practice of communicating a finer bloom to dull green teas, by sprinkling a little indigo, mixed with powder of gypsum, while stirring the leaf about in the heated iron pan.
1858. in Simmonds, Dict. Trade.
1859. All Year Round, No. 2. 38. The tea-tasters and clerks of the different English and American houses.
1888. J. Paton, in Encycl. Brit., XXIII. 100/2. The qualities of a sample of tea and its commercial value can only, with accuracy be determined by actual infusion and trial by a skilled tea-taster.
1907. Gentl. Mag., May, 494. Tea-tasters use the weight of a new sixpence to three and a half ounces of water.
