The UK Tea Academy

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Wherever tea is drunk, it is steeped its own individual rituals that are unique to each country. Five close friends and students of the UKTA will explain how and when they drink tea in their region. So we have Poonam from India, Sujin from South Korea, Lacin from Turkey, Sally from Taiwan, and Le from Vietnam. They will describe the tea, how it is brewed and served every day with friends and family and the part tea plays in traditional ceremonies and events such as birthdays and weddings.

UKTA has students all around the world and we are so lucky to be able to learn from them about tea’s significance in their culture. We will hear about what tea they traditionally drink, how they prepare it, how and when it is served. Each speaker is preparing a short powerpoint with images that bring their tea rituals to life.

Our five speakers at this event jumped at the idea of sharing their national tea rituals.

From the 5 countries - you will meet:

Poonam Gupta from India is extremely passionate about good quality loose leaf tea and also about tea education. She owns an online tea company called Holy Cow, which sells ‘single origin & bespoke blends, loose leaf teas and infusions, and premium quality teas that are hand packed with earth-friendly packaging.’ As you will already know, chai is very much a part of India’s tea culture, and Poonam loves creating chai blends using black tea and such spices as cardamom, ginger, cloves, cinnamon, fennel seeds, turmeric and peppercorns.

Sujin Lee, with her husband Pierre, own a tea company called Tea Repertoire which is based in Geneva, Switzerland. Pierre is French Swiss and Sujin is from Jinju in South Korea, just an hour’s drive away from Hadong, the oldest green tea garden in the country, where Sujin discovered the beauty of tea fields and learned the Korean way of tea. Tea Repertoire sells an amazing array of world teas, many of which have won awards in the UK’s Great Taste Awards and The Leafies. The company also sells traditional Korea tea brewing equipage, including Gong Fu tea wares, glass cups, glass teapots, matcha canisters, matcha bowls, bamboo whisks and tea trays.

Dr Sally Wei is a Taiwanese American, an accomplished classical pianist, UKTA Tea Sommelier, and founder and director of Nevada Tea Festival. Sally has merged her love of music with her passion for tea. She combines her love and knowledge of tea with Eastern philosophy and Western etiquette to show us how tea can enrich our lives, relationships and mindsets. Sally will talk about tea’s importance to Taiwanese people of all ages, and will also explain The Jing Si Tea Ceremony which was developed approximately 20 years ago by a group of Buddhist practitioners based on the teaching of Six Paramitas ( Six Perfections). 

Lacin Un is Turkish, a certified UKTA Tea Sommelier and a dedicated tea lover. In Turkey, tea has a long history, and is the national beverage and a central part of Turkish culture. Since the beginning of the 20h century, most of Turkey’s tea is produced in Rize province on the Eastern Black Sea coast. In the 1900s coffee became very expensive and more and more people turned to drinking tea. Lacin will explain the character of Turkish tea, how it is prepared, the brewing equipment that is used, what is added to the tea and how it is drunk.

Le Nguyen is from Vietnam and is working with tea makers to bring Vietnamese teas into the west. The Vietnamese have been drinking tea for 3000 years and because the north of the country borders with China’s Yunnan province, the ancient tea trees are assamicas. Vietnamese tea makers produce green, black, oolong and two famous flavoured teas. Through thousands of years of growing and drinking tea, Vietnamese people have built a tea culture that is both diverse and unique. Tea drinking has become an essential part of daily life.