Nigel Melican has 42 years of hands-on experience in all facets of the tea industry, providing technical guidance to clients in 32 countries – from green tea feasibility in Australia to tea extracts in Zimbabwe.  Latterly he has progressed from assisting large-scale commodity tea production; now concentrating on helping to develop non-traditional tea growing origins in the USA and Europe – and solving the challenges of growing specialty teas under marginal conditions.
Nigel is the owner of Ireland-based Teacraft Technical Services founded in 1990 supplying specialist technical support, and consultancy to clients worldwide.  Its expertise covers tea husbandry, processing, mechanization, and systems management, through value addition, artisanal tea processing, marketing, and training.
Widely traveled, Nigel has been known to boast that he has personally manufactured black tea on six of the seven continents.  In 2018 he received the World Tea Expo John Harney Lifetime Achievement Award. He is also co-founder of the US League of Tea Growers and President of the European Specialty Tea Association.