Tea-Tasting Tribunal Toppled?

The government’s tea party should end, the Senate said in voting Monday to end the Board of Tea Experts, a panel that has been sipping imported tea since 1897 to make sure it tastes right.

The Senate thought it had eliminated the board two years ago when Congress voted to forbid any money for the panel, which has six outside experts and a Food and Drug Administration chemist. But the board survived, in part because the FDA began collecting higher fees from the industry to cover more of its $200,000 in costs.

Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., complained Monday that taxpayers were still paying the $68,600 salary of Robert Dick, the FDA chemist who has run the board for 56 years, and those of the FDA staffers who support the program, as well as the room used for tasting.

The panel sniffs, touches and tastes samples from the 209 million pounds of tea that enter this country each year to make sure it’s good quality.

Don McLearn, an FDA spokesman, said that some salaries the lawmakers criticized were for employees who inspect tea for wholesomeness and safety, not for quality.