It's Been 30 Years Since Congress Disbanded One of Our Most Important, if Underappreciated, Food Control Groups. The Fallout Since Has Been Tough to Swallow.

"These assembled were the Board of Tea Experts: a cohort of tea industry professionals who were summoned once a year by the United States Food and Drug Administration to meet in New York and choose the teas that would serve as standards by which all other imported tea would be judged. The standard for each tea category was chosen based on leaf size, stem count, color, taste, and other criteria."

"Over the course of a few hours, the board tasted dozens of teas-rolling each sip on their tongues and then spitting it out to avoid overcaffeination-and deliberated until they could unanimously agree on one benchmark product for each category. Specialty tea hadn't taken off yet with American consumers, so the categories were broad: "formosa oolong," "all green teas," "all scented black teas," and not many others."

"Soon, the chair of the board, Supervisory Tea Examiner Bob Dick, would be forced by an act of Congress to vacate this office, where he had taste-tested thousands of teas over more than 40 years. After a 99-year run rife with controversy, the FDA's tea program would be defunded and cease to operate. The consequences of that decision still linger today, dictating how tea is imported and ultimately affecting how it is experienced by the Americans who drink it-and not necessarily for the better."

On a winter morning in early 1995, a yearly FDA convening brought three women and five men together at a Brooklyn table to taste and select benchmark teas. The Board of Tea Experts chose standards for imported tea based on leaf size, stem count, color, taste, and other criteria after tasting dozens of samples and spitting out sips to avoid overcaffeination. Categories were broad due to limited specialty-tea consumption. Soon after that meeting, an act of Congress forced the supervisory tea examiner from his office and the FDA's 99-year tea program was defunded and ended. That defunding continues to shape import rules and the way Americans experience tea.

Read at Slate Magazine