14 DAY TRIAL // When it comes to ensuring body parts, it's legs, bottoms, breasts, lips and any other anatomical bits and pieces bound to look great on the cover of one magazine or another that more often than not make the cut. Mind you, this doesn't mean that others are less important or valuable.
In fact, it was not too long ago that a dude had his taste buds insured for a whopping ₤1 million (€1.26 million / $1.56 million). That's right, his taste buds, as in those teeny tiny structure on our tongue that help us tell mediocre and positively heavenly dishes apart.
The world's most valuable taste buds
The taste buds that were recently insured for a truckload of money belong to Sebastian Michaelis. If we're going to be honest here, it must be said that the majority of people in the world had never even heard about this guys until his taste buds made headlines.
Still, it's this guy whom we should be thanking for the exquisite Tetley tea taste we have grown to love and adore. Thus, it's been years since Sebastian Michaelis became the British tea giant's master blender, and he has since sampled tens of thousands of tea recipes.
“Tea, like wine, will change depending on the amount of sunshine and rain it gets - so it's always changing taste. We know exactly how to blend it together so it tastes the same,” the 32-year-old man explained his work at Tetley in a statement.
According to Sky News, Sebastian Michaelis first started working with the British tea giant about 9 years ago. He has since learned to distinguish between various tea varieties depending on their color, sparkle, body and aroma.
In fact, the 32-year-old man claims that he can taste and grade each and every of the 1,500 different varieties of tea currently available all around the world in just 15 seconds each. Simply put, he is a tea connoisseur through and through.
“First I examine and grade the colour, size and density of the leaf. Then I assess the brew’s purity of colour, the weight of the tea in the mouth and the overall liveliness of the tea on the palate or its zing,” the 32-year-old explained his work.
It was Tetley that paid his insurance
Mind you, it wasn't 32-year-old Sebastian Michaelis that paid the impressive insurance policy for his taste buds. He might be a master blender working for a British tea giant, but apparently, he isn't exactly shoveling money in his spare time.
Thus, media reports say that is was Tetly that coughed out the money needed to insure its master blender's taste buds. Given the value of the insurance policy, it's safe to assume that the British tea giant is quite fond of Sebastian Michaelis and his work.
Interestingly enough, it appears that, although the company currently works with as many as seven tea experts, 32-year-old Sebastian Michaelis is the only one whose taste buds have so far been insured.
