Tea Sommelier Course

By Michael Chamberlain

Become the tea connoisseur within your family, or circle of friends, without taking expensive lengthy exams. We don't all want tea to be hard, boring, or over-complex!

Tea is a means to enjoyment, providing ways to relax and spend time with our own thoughts in quiet contemplation or, as a set of simple tools that allow you to enjoy a great time with friends …or even a precursor to extending your knowledge into further realms of learning on a professional front.

This course provides you with an easy means to learn more about tea, but more importantly, a means to take that knowledge and spread the joy of tea drinking to friends ….and strangers alike.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Michael Chamberlain
• Release date: Mar 24, 2021
• ISBN: 9781005179144

Michael Chamberlain

Michael is one of those people who would be in a million different places at once if he could - such is his enthusiasm to learn and experience new things on a constant ...and sometimes annoying basis. Some of his wild antics of learning have produced some fascinating results. Not least was his desire to deconstruct the myths and mystery surrounding that of tea drinking and tea tasting. Which he has done, here.

Book preview

Part 1. A Tea Sommelier

Why become a tea expert?

Whether it’s for personal pleasure, social enjoyment, or as someone who is looking to become a tea sommelier. There is an air about tea that not many people know or understand.

A little knowledge about tea not only elevates your understanding, health, and experience, but provides that high brow knowledge that puts you alongside other intellectuals in any crowd.

Like many things in the modern world, Tea has become subjected to standard, mundane, consumerism, which has diminished the enjoyment that tea could bring when in the right hands.

Tea can be both a hobby, and/or a profession that you can immerse yourself in, consuming all aspects of the experience, physically and spiritually enjoying everything tea has to offer.

And learning about tea... never really ends!

Tea sommelier attributes

With this course, you can simply stop when you have enough knowledge to gain personal or social enjoyment from tea. Or, you could keep one eye on the option of becoming a tea professional.

So what attributes would a tea sommelier need in order to become accomplished in their profession?

Passion

This is probably already there, you purchased this course by teahow.com, so you already have the enthusiasm to learn more about teas.

Now is the time to build on that enthusiasm, get excited about tea, about what the next one will be, could be or should be. Take any opportunity you can to explore tea shops, tea tastings and tea wares to increase your knowledge further.

Taste

Having good taste is important, particularly when you get into the finer points of cooking with tea, and pairing teas. Being able to understand what matches with what is a great asset.

And, of course, by taste, I also mean differentiating the subtle differences between tea types, and even infusions. Taste bud memory is a skill you can and should develop for becoming a tea sommelier.

Memory

There is such a vast knowledge of tea that you eventually need to learn and assimilate that having a good memory will pay dividends.

Not only for the points I’ve mentioned below but also for remembering tastes that match teas, memories of teas, and all the language that goes with each.

Language

By language, I mean that of two areas.

Firstly there’s an array of terminology to describe tea, but this terminology varies based on countries and even regions.

So the terms used, across many different types of tea can seem a daunting prospect at first.

Secondly, languages. You don’t need to learn Chinese or Japanese, but there are specific names of teas, and terms, that crop up repeatedly.

For those not versed in these languages, this too can seem difficult. Again, this is something that you will become more familiar with over time as you come across and experience each of them.

Where to start…

Assuming you feel you have the attributes needed, then what? Where do you start?

This type of knowledge isn’t one you can download and consume over a week. It’s the kind of knowledge you would accumulate over years, and indeed a lifetime.

"Every 1000 mile journey begins with a first step."

The first and simplest step is for you to start by leveraging the passion you have to understand more about tea and take one tea, and one bite-size bit of knowledge at a time, absorb it, understand it, and move on to the next. ... It’s the only way!

This course is designed in such a way that enables you to dip in and out as you choose to add to your knowledge. The subjects covered here are by no means exhaustive. I could write thousands of more words on each subject, and add hundreds of more categories. But that would be way too overwhelming.

Read through, and absorb this course, the knowledge it has, and the practical points to try, then seek your own experience, and build upon your knowledge as you go.

What a Tea Sommelier does!

Here’s a brief list of the multifaceted tasks and career opportunities that a tea sommelier can carry out or become wholly involved with.

It’s not vital that you achieve all of them, but the more you know and understand, the more opportunities there are for a career in the world of Tea.

Writing tea menus

For your own tea shop, or for your clients, selecting teas that provide the right variety and choice for your clients (or your own) customers.

Advising clients

This could be as an independent tea consultant for a hotel chain or independent restaurants, or to the patrons within a single establishment. A tea sommeliers job is to bring knowledge to those that want it, or need it.

Keeping up to date

New tea techniques and ways of producing are being discovered all the time, and new tastes are constantly coming on to the market.

If this is your area of expertise, there’s a certain expectation that you will hear of these and make it your business to search for and find new methods, new advancements, and ultimately, new teas learn about and try.

Preparation and service

Preparing tea, whether for clients, in shops as demonstration tastes, or in a restaurant scenario is something you need to be well versed in. Preparing the tea is a large part of the tea experience that it will be down to you to create.

Tea storage and tea management

Tea does have a shelf life, and it can change with age. Some teas are better stored in other ways. Teas can also be expensive, so it may be your responsibility to ensure proper storage and management of tea stocks within an establishment.

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Sharing knowledge

Most tea sommeliers have a natural desire to share their passion for tea.

Reviews for Tea Sommelier Course

[Toby bates · Rating: 1 out of 5 stars]

Not a lot of specific information, mostly for a basic reference of stuff. Certainly not an exhaustive course.