The Stadard Tea

This week's post is roughly about food standards. I have been trying to find the most strange standards I can find. This post is a continuation on my previous [blog post][last].

After taking several classes with Professor Vinsel, I have learned about *a lot* of standards. At this point, I am more surprised when I find something that does not have a standard. To try and spice up standards, I am trying to find things that are standardized and surprise me that they are. This means many things in our life are standardized, including many things you probably have never considered. Where possible, I will try to link to the source material.

If the British Government was to standardize one thing, what do you think it would be? Perfectly fulfilling a stereotype, they decided to standardize tea. This standard is codified in [ISO 3103][tea], which was taken from the British Standards Institute Like it was described in class, the smaller national standards boards make the standards, and the international groups adopt them. This standard does not say what kind of leaves have to be used, but does list exactly how the tea should be brewed. The tea must be brewed in a porcelain pot with an exact volume of water, with exactly two grams of tea leaf. Unlike many other food standards, which seem to be about making sure food is safe to eat. The goal of this standard is to make sure that tea tasters have a standard experience.

ISO 3103 was standardized in 1980, how much could have changed in the world of tea? According to other tea standardization documents I found, a lot can change. [This document][tea-ng] I found from the "Intergovernmental Group - on Tea 10th Session" details how tea standards have had to stay up to date. Although it seems that tea has not changed, the spreading usage of instant tea packets has upset the standardization committees. Honestly, this document is filled with more chemistry than I know what to do with. Unlike the standard, this one seems to be more focused around health and consumer expectations. There are also some points that make me think they are trying to use the data they collected to prove or disprove health effects of tea.

I was am a little surprised at how much work goes into studying tea, and figuring out how to make it properly. With Britain's stereotypical tea consumption, it does not seem that strange that someone would try to say they have the standard tea. Since there is so much work that went into this, I am curious if there were any major tea company that funds the research. It is possible that since it is such a cultural drink that it is expected for this to be a standard, but I am unsure how I could properly research the funding. Hopefully for next week's blog post, I can find something even more bizarre.

[tea]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ISO_3103 "ISO 3103"
[tea-ng]: http://www.fao.org/fileadmin/templates/est/COMM_MARKETS_MONITORING/Tea/Documents/Andrew_Scott_ISO_Dehli_13_May_10.pdf "Updating Tea Standards"
[last]: http://stevensstandardsandsociety.blogspot.com/2014/09/shopping-cart-safety-standards.html