Can I Make Good Money As A Tea Sommelier

How to get a certified tea sommelier

I started taking courses towards my tea sommelier certification through the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada in Jan 2015. If you haven't plant your New year's day'south Resolution yet, perhaps this is it!

Tea sommeliers are the new vino sommeliers. Tea sommelier classes and certification programs are popping upwards all over the globe as tea drinking enjoys a surge in popularity. Some love tea every bit a healthy alternative to juice or pop, some love the irresistible dessert blends from David'south Tea.  A tea sommelier is someone whose expertise is in, you guessed it, tea!

Here's how I became a certified tea sommelier with the Tea and Herbal Clan of Canada, and how yous can too.

How I Started My Tea Sommelier Training

I can't remember exactly what made me enrol in Tea 101, but it was probably a Facebook advertisement. January is Hot Tea Month and tea found me. I clicked on the link and signed up, thinking, "Oh cool, I like tea."

At the fourth dimension I was working equally a legal banana, and missed doing classes since I finished my B.A. the spring earlier.

Cut to ii and one-half years later and I rode this train all the mode to the finish of the line—I'thousand a bona fide certified TAC Tea Sommelier®.

Making tea at Hwaeomsa temple in South Korea.

What is a tea sommelier?

Tea sommeliers are people who—like wine sommeliers—are trained in the sense of taste, terroir, history, and pairing noesis of tea.

Much like our friends the vino sommelier, they tin can recommend how to better prepare and swallow tea, can create tasting menus, and accept knowledge of the steeped foliage that runs the gamut.

Some tea sommeliers who have specially deep regional cognition have been known to tell you what mountain a tea was grown on, just by tasting the leaf's liquor. Those people are similar magicians.

All of us have our specialties, of grade. Some might be experts in blending and scented tea, some might exist Indian black tea ninjas. Some might be handy in the history of Taiwanese tea cultivars. Others might be soil and terroir nerds.

What kind of jobs does a tea sommelier piece of work?

Yous can expect to see tea sommeliers running tea shops, being hired at upscale hotels to blueprint tea menus and offer advice to restaurant proprietors.

Some examples of Tea Sommelier careers are Jennifer Commins, who runs a specialty tea shop in Toronto, Jan Subchartanan who searches for tea for a Thai import/consign visitor, and Gabriela Lombardi who runs a tea shop in Milan, Italy. 1 of my favourite tea experts to follow, Kathy YL Chan, shares her tea communication with businesses—here'due south a absurd profile of her in the New York Times.

A sure amount of entrepreneurship is involved in finding yourself in whatsoever career. The tea sommelier certificate surely doesn't guarantee anyone a job, but here's a fun anecdote for you:

Much to my pride and pleasure, I finished a  Master's in Journalism caste in the Leap of 2017, graduating with the class prize and everything. It was dandy, but I didn't take anyone knocking on my door with job offers.

Then, a couple of months later I passed my tea sommelier exam and had two job offers in my inbox the same calendar week. I ended up non taking either (both required me to move), but still, it goes to testify that yous never know where work volition come from, and an expensive university degree doesn't hateful annihilation on the job market place.

Beingness a tea sommelier ways studying lots of moisture tea leaves! Yum.

Becoming a Certified Tea Sommelier in Canada

I took my preparation with the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada, through their TAC TEA SOMMELIER® plan.

More than than 210 certified TAC Tea Sommelier® Professionals take graduated from the program, and their students aren't limited to merely Canadians.

The Tea and Herbal Association of Canada has graduated tea sommeliers in Canada, the Us, Denmark, Republic of india, Italia, the Uk, the United Arab Emirates, France, Hong Kong, Columbia, Mexico, and South Korea.

There are also students in Kingdom of norway, Switzerland, Southward Africa, Poland, Spain, Sweden, Federal republic of germany, Belgium, Morocco, Republic of mauritius, Brazil, Australia, Japan, and Indonesia.

And so, as you tin can see, it's quite a global program. In my classes I had some students from France, and Brazil, and it was always interesting to hear their perspective and comments to the grade on how tea culture was in their hometowns.

The TAC TEA SOMMELIER® program consists of 8 courses and 1 final exam. I'll break downwardly the contents of each course and the exam below.

Step One: Fall in Love with Tea

Stride one of your tea sommelier training is to, well, autumn in dearest with tea. That'southward the easy part. The hard part will exist the crazy relationship with tea y'all have after.

Okay, so while you could in theory autumn in beloved with tea while studying to be a tea sommelier, I think nosotros all know information technology'll be easier if you lot love tea from the get-go. Otherwise, the mere sight of your poor kitchen drain clogged with tea leaves afterward a twenty cup tasting session might get further chock-full by your tears of desperation.

Me in high schoolhouse at a bubble tea shop in Halifax. Yous can't fake enthusiasm like this.

Stride Ii: Have Classes With the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada

There are a few different options for taking the 8 courses required to become a tea sommelier through the Tea and Herbal Association of Canada.

Classes In Person

If yous have the luck of living near one of the colleges where teachers administer the course in person, then I highly recommend you go that route equally you'll get a lot out of the face up-to-confront interaction, and tasting tea with a group.

Right now, Algonquin College in Ottawa, Mohawk Higher in Hamilton, Niagara College at Niagara-on-the-Lake, Seneca College, and Vancouver Community Higher offer the program regularly.

Classes Online

If you're like me and live in a part of the earth where no in-person tea sommelier courses exist—never fear! Y'all can do the unabridged TAC Certified Tea Sommelier plan online through the Academy of Tea. I took 100% of my classes online since the TAC doesn't currently offering them in person in Nova Scotia.

Classes in Italian and Spanish

You tin can also take the same curriculum in Italian through the Protea University, or in Castilian via the Escuela Mexicana de Té.

Online classes consist of weekly, live, 60 minutes-long lessons with teachers conducted via GoToMeeting (like Skype, only better for classroom settings).

In betwixt lessons, you lot'll have tea tasting homework and written assignments. Normally the course begins past reviewing the lesson for the week, and then you're asked to describe the teas you've tasted, nosotros exercise a bit of tea sommelier vocabulary learning, then there'll be an open Q&A menstruum at the end.

During your tea sommelier studies you'll sense of taste tea from around the globe.

One of the best parts almost getting into tea is meeting other 'tea people' from all over the world.

Who Should Take Tea Sommelier Classes

I should mention now that people hoping to get tea sommeliers or work in tea aren't the only ones who'd benefit from the tea sommelier classes. I'd also recommend them to anyone who works in professional nutrient and beverage.

The tasting and menu grooming classes in particular are useful for anyone working with artisanal foods—such as wine, chocolate, or coffee.

Restaurateurs could also do good from this knowledge. As a foodie and tea sommelier, ane of my biggest gripes is the astringent lack of tea knowledge in the eating house world.

Even at very upscale places I've had a lot of 'meh' tea experiences. Sure, the occasional restaurant volition be able to serve a scented tea, breakfast blend, or even a Darjeeling no trouble, but ask for a overnice oolong, or (god forbid) dark-green tea, and yous're near always left with a sub par tea feel.

When I go out with friends to restaurants, I'll often society coffee.

"But don't you like, LOVE tea?" they ask.

"Exactly," I say, "That'south why I tin't club tea here."

It sounds snobbish, but once you've had expert tea it'southward hard to drink packaged dust served with wrong temperature water, which (honestly) is what about places offer.

In closing: Restaurants—know your teas!

A lovely spot of tea in the U.K.

A Tea Sommelier Course Timeline

Other than Tea 101, which must exist completed outset, the other courses can be done in whatever society y'all like. I took my beginning class in January 2015 and took my certification exam in June 2017. So I spread out the classes over nigh 2 and a half years.

Honestly, I think spreading it out over fourth dimension was a nifty fashion to do it. A large part of learning how to be a tea sommelier is edifice your palette. I could practise a whole post on just learning how to taste tea.

How Much Practice Yous Need to Know to Start Taking Tea Sommelier Classes?

Null! Literally. All you lot demand is enthusiasm for the brewed foliage, and an open mind.

When I started I knew a few basic teas— earl grey, genmaicha, and could basically tell you whether a tea was white, greenish, oolong, or black. Well, most of the time.

'Tis a brutal and unusual person who doesn't dearest a matcha latte.

I definitely couldn't tell the deviation between a short and long-oxidized oolong, sencha and gyokuro, Chinese green vs Japanese light-green. I definitely would not have been able to tell y'all whether a black tea came from Republic of india or Sri Lanka, whether a white tea was a bai mu dan (white peony) or bai hao yin zhen (white silver needle).

Now... I can! And I have a super-powered vocabulary of artistic words to utilize when talking nearly tea. I can discuss how tea affects and pairs with the five primary sense of taste sensations—salty, sour, sweet, bitter, and umami.

Just a baby tea nerd

When I started my grooming I was super into Japanese tea culture, fresh of my student exchange from Nihon where I'd seen chawans (Japanese tea bowls) made up close by a Japanese master potter in the Hagi region, famous for its Hagi Yaki pottery and wabi sabi fashion.

Just, to be honest, across my enthusiasm, I didn't have a great base of knowledge for tea history, and was hungry to learn.

For me in item, I love learning virtually how colonization and culture affected tea practices, and how different cultures interpret one astonishing leaf.

In Burma you have Lahpet (tea leaf salad), in Tibet—salty butter tea, while in Japan people spend hours on the highly ritualized Japanese tea ceremony, while in the back alleys of Prc grandfathers sit and drink tea all day in the laissez-faire gong fu mode.

Of grade, the British know how to offer a nice loving cup of tea as well. Thick cream and biscuits always at hand!

The TAC Certified Tea Sommelier Class Outline

Tea 101: Introduction to Tea

This was my commencement class and introduction to the tea world. Jeff Kovac from Four Seasons Tea was our teacher.

Tea 101 was awesome because it got me totally hooked into learning more than nearly tea. I signed up for this course on a bit of a whim, just thinking I'd exercise the Tea 101 and the non go on with the rest of the course.

Boy, was I wrong.

Nosotros learned what the deviation is in processing between white, yellow, green, oolong, black, and fermented teas, and how they all come from the camellia sinensis plant.

We too learned the origins of tea—historically factual and mythical, the basics of tasting teas and tea sommelier vocabulary, some basic tea types with the overall categories—like Ti Kuan Yin, Gunpowder, White Silver Needle, etc.

At that place was also a lot of learning about tea grading and types. We distinguished big, whole orthodox tea leaves from the finely footing CTC (cut, tear, roll) that appears in our breakfast blends. This might take also been when I unfortunately realized most restaurants in North American essentially serve packages dust, or sweepings off the factory floor, bearded as tea. Yuck. Once you lot taste good tea, you can never go dorsum!

Tea 102: Regions of the World

Shabnam Weber taught this and all the rest of my courses. Shabnam is an entrepreneur and founder of The Tea Emporium in Toronto. She is an absolute encyclopedia of tea noesis, and dedicated instructor. She also had a huge part in designing the tea sommelier program.

Regions of the world was COOL. As a travel-phile and cross-cultural nerd, I loved how each lesson here focused on tea in a different function of the world, from Communist china, to Japan, Sri Lanka & India, Kenya, Malawi, Tanzania, Taiwan, Vietnam, Indonesia, Bangladesh, Russia, and more.

If Tea 101 got me hooked, Tea 102 grabbed me by the hand and said, "Yeah, you're in this for the long haul."

Tea 103: Sensory Evolution

Tea 103 was a more difficult course. I hateful, everything is exercise-able and figure-out-able, but Sensory Evolution definitely challenged me. Instead of just focusing on fun facts, now we had to really learn to train our palates.

In that location was a lot of cross-comparison and blind gustatory modality testing, with a focus on describing what we were experiencing.

A rewarding part of the class was when we got to compare tasting notes for waters, chocolate, coffees, and olive oil.

This class might have also fabricated an olive oil fan out of me.

*Halifax readers should try a visit to Liquid Golden in the Hydrostone or Sunnyside Mall for some really quality olive oil and vinegar pairings. What? It's for your tea studies.

Tea 104: Tea Types

Hither we took a MUCH deeper dive into the various subdivisions of tea. Here'southward an excerpt of my tasting listing from the China department to give you an idea of what we tried. It goes far beyond 'green,' 'black,' etc.

• Bai hao yin zhen (Chinese white tea)

• Pai mu tan (Chinese white tea)

• Ti kuan yin (Chinese oolong)

• Gunpowder (Chinese dark-green)

• Mao feng (Chinese green)

• Mao jian (Chinese greenish)

• Dragonwell (Chinese green)

• Jasmine (Chinese green)

• Keemun (Chinese blackness)

• Lapsang souchong (Chinese black)

And then only when yous had your palette sorted with the differences between all those greens and whites, for example, then you lot'd start on a completely new region.

For example, Republic of india and Sri Lanka were as follows:

• Assam Black Orthodox (Indian black tea)

• Nilgiri (Indian black tea)

• Darjeeling White (Indian white tea)

• Darjeeling 1st Flush (a flush is a harvest) (Indian black tea)

• Darjeeling 2d Affluent (Indian black tea)

• Kandy (Sri Lankan blackness tea)

• Dimbula (Sri Lankan black tea)

• Nuwara Eliya (Sri Lankan black tea)

• Uva (Sri Lankan black tea)

• Ruhuna (Sri Lankan black tea)

• Green (Sri Lankan green tea)

You get the picture? It was great for making my palate more than specific. The merely way to know is to sip!

Wet oolong leaves are then pretty. Notice the carmine, partly oxidized edges.

Tea 105: From Bush to Cup

This section focuses much more than in-depth on the process of harvesting and processing tea. Literally, how the leaf gets from the bush to your loving cup.

You'll talk a lot well-nigh practical issues that growers and producers face up, like how to create a breakfast tea blend that tastes the same year subsequently year, even when production and taste from tea fields differs year afterwards year.

Another trouble a buyer might face is how to shop and ship tea from sale once information technology'southward been bought. Tea is fickle to store. Whatsoever lite or damp can have a negative affect!

We also learned about varieties of tea, hybridization, cloning, and some botanist considerations of tea. This is also where we discussed differences in production methods betwixt countries that give each tea its unique sense of taste.

For instance, in Mainland china pan-frying stops tea from oxidizing. In Nippon, information technology's steam. These two dissimilar methods give their respective teas unique flavour characteristics.

Another attribute of production is organic consideration and social responsibility—off-white trade, regulations, codes of conduct, philosophies, etc.

Tea 106: Preparation, Consumption, and Health

Pretty straightforward and as the title says, this course focused on unlike ways tea is consumed around the globe, with a focus on the health aspects of tea, which have spurred its popularity in North America especially.

Whether it's cold-steeped, brewed hot, left in the ground for days, or eaten, tea has a chemical effect on the torso.

In this class nosotros discuss compounds like caffeine, polyphenols like epigallocatechin gallate (EGCG), amino acids like L-Theanine, and more than!  EGCG is a catechin and ofttimes the subject of tea antioxidant studies. 50-Theanine is responsible for tea inducing alpha waves in the encephalon. They're the ones responsible for that pleasant 'mindful alertness' state you become when drinking tea.

Tea 107: Menu Design, Food Pairing & Cooking

THIS was a fun course. Here we focus on using tea in cooking and baking—from genmaicha-infused chicken noodle soup, to earl greyness custards, and more than.

The highlight of this form for me was the last projection—picking your favourite restaurant and creating a paired tea card to become with their offerings. Too much fun.

We also had to explain tea storage and service as though we were working with restaurateurs. Once again—eatery owners! There'south no reason to be serving sub-par tea in your restaurants. At that place are lots of qualified tea sommeliers you tin contract out to aid y'all get your tea service top-notch.

Tasting teas with chocolate. One of my favourites (or ii, actually!).

Tea 108: The Business organisation of Tea

Oh, then you thought tea was all floral mainland china cups and cucumber sandwiches? Not true!

Tea is a huge, global, multi-billion dollar industry with millions of people involved. Here you come across some of the large players, from growers, to pickers, to brands, to consumers. You lot'll discover out how they all interact, how government regulations work, and how politics is also involved in the tea merchandise.

There's also a dainty section in here on Canadian Imports and Canadian tea statistics. I say 'nice' because ordinarily when I'chiliad doing online learning the course is almost invariably from America and requires me to do some extra enquiry to detect out if what I'm learning holds up in Canada. So it was nice not to take to do that here.

I enjoyed learning about the different relationships between smallholder growers, factory-owned estates, blending factories, overseas packers, distributors, retailers, auctions, and more. Man, it'due south amazing the places your tea goes before it ever makes it into your cup.

Concluding Exam Prep Session

At present nosotros're in the home stretch. This prep session arranged by the TAC is completely optional but I 100% recommend you take it. It ended up being a few months between my last class (Tea 108 finished in September) and my concluding exam date (June in 2017).

I took the prep session a few weeks before the test and I really feel it helped refresh my knowledge and gave me confidence that I knew what I was doing earlier I went into the exam. You go through each section and talk over how to best perform in each one. You lot'll too review the types of teas that might show up on the bullheaded gustatory modality examination during the exam.

Stopping by to say hi to Louise Roberge, President of the Tea Association of Canada at the Halifax tea Festival in 2017. Louise was the adjudicator for my concluding exam!

Step 3: Complete the TAC Tea Sommelier Terminal Exam

The TAC Tea Sommelier® final examination has four parts. All must be completed on the exam day.

1. Multiple Choice Exam (60 questions, xxx minutes) (30%)

2. Tea Preparation (~15 minutes) (30%)

3. Oral Presentation (10 minutes) (10%)

4. Blind Tasting (30 minutes) (xxx%)

Yous can do the multiple choice exam online and it's adequately straightforward—choose the right answer and move on.

First of all, for tea preparation, your examiner chooses a white, greenish, oolong, pu'erh, or black tea at random. Y'all take to set up that tea for them explaining how you're doing information technology (water temperature, amount, steep time, utensils) and why.

In the oral presentation section your examiner volition depict one of 6 topics out of a hat: tea regions, tea history, types of tea and processing methods, health of tea, tea preparation, or menu suggestions. Whatever they choose, you have to launch into a ten infinitesimal talk most it. Good luck!

The blind tasting section is what everyone worries nigh the most. To pass the overall examination yous need to get at least a 75% on the blind cupping.

For the blind tasting, an assistant prepares 10 teas in cups. You lot never see the wet leaves, which could be a dead giveaway of the tea. All yous see is the liquid.

From at that place, you accept to name the way, type, and state of origin (for some countries, the region also). For example, if the tea is a white tea from China, you have to say whether information technology'south White Argent Needle (bai hao yin zhen) or White Peony (bai mu dan). If it's a black tea from India, you have to say whether it's Assam, Darjeeling, or Nilgiri.

Blind Cupping Tips

I was definitely about intimidated by this section of the exam, but drinking truckloads of tea the week earlier paid off. I passed the blind taste examination with a absurd 100% mark. Best. Twenty-four hour period. Always.

The best tip I have for preparing for the blind taste test is this:

1. Do contrasting sips for teas with similar teas. (ex: Darjeeling vs. Assam, or White Silver Needle vs. White Peony, dorsum and along)

1. Pick i tea per week (or day), and then drink the hell out of that tea. When you lot move on to your side by side tea, the difference volition exist a lot more obvious.

For case, I drank genmaicha and then much every bit a teenager that as shortly as information technology touches my lips I know, 'That'southward genmaicha.' Y'all need to train your taste buds with all the other teas so equally soon equally they touch y'all know, "that'due south Keemun," or "That's darjeeling." The only way to get better at this is to drink more tea (yay!).

Toll of Condign a Certified Tea Sommelier

Here'south a breakdown of what my tea sommelier certification cost me.

Tea 101: Introduction to Tea

$228. 85

Tea 102: Regions of the World

$316.25

Tea 103: Sensory Evolution

$316.25

Tea 104: Tea Types

$316.25

Tea 105: From Bush to Cup

$316.25

Tea 106: Preparation, Consumption, and Health

$316.25

Tea 107: Bill of fare Pattern, Food Pairing, and Cooking

$339.25

Tea 108: The Business of Tea

$339.25

Last Exam Prep Class

$201.25

Final Exam

$305.35

Membership Cost (Yearly)

$113.00

My total investment in the TAC Tea Sommelier Plan was $3,108.20 in Canadian dollars. That's an boilerplate of $103 per calendar month over ii and a one-half years.

Now that I'one thousand a tea sommelier, I pay a yearly fee of $113. This fee keeps me a fellow member of the Tea Clan of Canada, and has benefits such equally: free professional development webinars, special rates to tea conferences, being included in their 'Find a TAC Tea Sommelier® Professional' web portal, free access to the Tea House Time quarterly publication, speaking opportunities, and other professional jazz.

Of these benefits, the ones I most appreciate are being included in their tea sommelier database, and access to the professional evolution webinars.

Whatever More Questions?

I'd love to help reply any more questions you have near condign a tea sommelier, or most annihilation. Just leave a annotate and I'll get back to yous!

Mel Hattie

A thirst for tea and stories.

https://melhadtea.com

Source: https://melhadtea.com/blog/tea-sommelier-training

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