Recently during TeaGather, we started hosting small circles where our executive board members would serve master tea using professional tea sets. When I was serving tea and talking to our participants, I got asked this question a lot: “How do you become a tea master?” Well, I have to clarify that I am not a tea master despite the fact that I make master tea during TeaGather. I did, however, take lessons from a tea art master Mr. Zhou a couple years ago, and that was when I first started learning about the profound culture of tea. (You can read my essay Tea Story about the experience if you are interested in learning more about it) After I took lessons from him for a month, I took an examination, passed it, and became a certified tea art specialist.
You might wonder, what is a tea art specialist? According to Baidu Baike, tea art specialists are those who possess professional knowledge about tea, performance, service, and management skills in the tea industry. To put it in another way, tea art is the skill/art about making tea and drinking tea. In 1999, it was included in one of the 1800 occupations in China.
There are five levels of tea art specialist, with the first level being the highest. I am currently a fourth-level tea art specialist, and my tea art master Mr. Zhou is in the first-level, who has worked in the tea industry for many years and occasionally performs long mouth pot on stage.
So, how do you become a tea art specialist? Here, I list some fundamental skills for an entry-level tea art specialist.
Understand different components of a tea set, such as porcelain covered bowl, fair cup, and all kinds of tea-making utensils, and be able to serve tea using them under the etiquette of tea ceremonies.Have sufficient knowledge about the six major categories of tea (including white, green, yellow, oolong, black, and dark green tea), their history, attributes, the process of making, and different ways to steep them.Understand the evolution and development of tea sets and utensils throughout history, such as clay and ceramic teapots used in different dynasties in ancient China.
During my training with Mr. Zhou, I was introduced to multiple types of tea from each category and learned to steep them using traditional tea sets. But these are just some basic skills. When I became certified, I was still not able to distinguish good tea and bad tea. After all, one’s taste cannot be refined over just a few weeks.
Over the past several years, I had tasted many kinds of tea, especially after I started CommuniTEA and developed more familiarity for each of them. I remember Helen, a tea master who lives close to Duke, once told me that tea was like her friend. Whenever she felt stressed or confused, she could always find reliefs or answers in tea. Therefore, my view of what defines a tea specialist/master has shifted over time.
Besides technical skills on how to make tea under certain rules and etiquette, what matters more, it seems to me, is the relationship that you develop with tea. True tea art specialists/masters are able to appreciate different kinds of tea and to incorporate what they learn from tea into their own life, such as tranquility and humbleness, and these are what I am aiming to practice more about.
If you are interested in learning more about tea, you can now apply to our Tea Culture Committee. As part of the executive board, you will learn about the history and culture of tea from the tea culture sessions during our executive board meetings and organize 5 TeaGather events together with other members.
Besides, there are plenty of resources:
Websites
Books
Classic of Tea: Origins and Rituals (the first book written about tea)
The Book of TeaLiquid jade : the story of tea from east to west
Video
Tea: the story of a leaf (a great introductory documentary series)
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