Workshops and Sessions

We believe every tea experience should be built on beauty, knowledge, and sensorial engagement, and so our tea events and sessions follow in that spirit and nature.

Be it an exploratory session in oolongs or aged teas, or a historically faithful reconstruction of Song Dynasty whisked tea or Qing Dynasty gongfucha, we invite you to our tea experiences, in the hope that you may find inspiration and new discoveries in our dialogues, anecdotes, and insights in the affairs of tea.

course in tea affairs

In addition to our tea experiences and workshops, we also offer a tea course covering numerous topics, some of which are highlighted below. Conceived for the casual tea drinker and the serious hobbyist, the course seeks to offer a comprehensive treatment of tea from its history and culture to its aesthetics and contemporary practice. During the course, we devote some time to tea tastings and hands-on practice, with the endeavour of equipping each participant with a sharper and keener palate as well as proficient tea-brewing skills.

Here follows a broad overview of a part of the syllabus covered in the course:

• The origin and history of tea
The origin of tea
The discovery of tea
荼 and 茶
The evolution and development of tea

• Introduction to tea brewing equipment
Kettle and brazier
Gaizhong
Tea decanter
Shuifang
Tea bowl

• The tea plant
Varieties and cultivars
Terroir

• Tea types
Tea classification
How tea is made
Oxidation vs fermentation
Tea chemistry

• Tea brewing and storage
Gaizhong
Teapot, contemporary method
Teapot, traditional method
Tea bowl
Key factors of brewing
Tea storage

• Tea tasting
Organoleptic approach
Cupping and evaluation

• Contemporary tea affairs
Tea and 人文
Designing a chaxi
Aesthetics in the practice of tea

• The Yixing teapot
History and development
Types of Yixing clay
The old and the new
Use and care

• Taiwanese oolong
Overview of varieties and cultivars
Overview of notable regions and teas
Main constituents of oolong
Four factors that influence aroma and flavour
The question of “one bud and two leaves”

• Wuyi yancha
Notable sites and teas
Making Wuyi yancha
The question of Dahongpao
Nanyang tea

• Pu’er
The Six Great Mountains and notable sites
Making pu’er
Storing pu’er

• On the Shoulders of Giants — Gongfucha
The development of gongfucha
Teaware
Standard brewing method