I just got my ITA Certified Tea Sommelier Certification! I did an online Course by Shana Zhang on Udemy. Shana Zhang is the founder of International Tea Academy. She has a deep and unique perspective of the tea industry from the Chinese side of things. I did all 4 courses ( click here for the course)
My review of her courses:
I love course #1 and #2. Course #1 is the foundations of Chinese tea. it’s about all thing Chinese tea, the origin, migration. just to name a few, I enjoy it. Course #2 is Chinese tea ceremony & history. I love learning about all the tea ceremonies and the history (i love history and tea Haha). I learned a lot in these two courses.
Courses #3 and #4. #3 is about the Chinese traditional medicine what 5 elements, what organ goes to what element and what tea too. Now don’t get me Wrong I did learn some things from this course but not things I needed to know for what I’m doing with tea, or you can say not my cup of tea. sure, if you are in this type of thing, you would enjoy these courses, but I didn’t. #4 the final course. this is about blending teas and your thinking Jordan why do you not like blending teas? I do I love blending teas. but the way she talks about blending tea by element not by flavor. now I have done herbalist courses before and I do know that somethings work better with other things for health, this is something even if I don’t believe in this kind of thing, it’s interesting to see what other people believe.
My rating: #1 ☆☆☆☆☆, #2 ☆☆☆☆☆, #3☆☆☆, #4☆☆☆.
I do thank that I’m not a tea sommelier in any meaning just because I did this course, but I learned a lot of new things and that is what matters. now I know new things about tea and Chinese culture.
PS. a Sommelier is a trained and knowledgeable professional usually refer to a wine Sommelier, but in this case, we are talking about tea.
if you have any teas or teas related books, course, cups, influence, you want me to try comment!