If you like this e-zine, please "email it forward" to someone you know who's interested in the tea business. If a friend did forward this to you and you like what you read, please subscribe so you don't miss the upcoming issues.

If you have suggestions, article requests, comments, or corrections, please feel free to contact me.

To be sure you never miss an issue of "Tea Business Success News" in your e-mail box, please add the following Tea Business Guide domain to your list of trusted senders / your address book / contact list (in your e-mail software) and to your ISP/ mail service's "whitelist": @tea-business-guide.com

© by Sally Jones; all rights reserved

The end of January I attended the Level 3 class of the Tea Certification Program put on by the Speciality Tea Institute. It was a two day class on black teas.

Wow! I had no idea I could learn so much about black tea. I mean black tea is black tea, right? There is more to black tea than I ever imagined.

We learned about teas from China, Sri Lanka, India, Nilgiri, Nepal, and Africa. The objectives of the course was "to help advance users in the specialty tea industry to better understand the process of creating black teas, the similarities and differences in these teas, the steeping of these teas and the flavor and aroma profiles, and what is desirable and undesirable about these black teas." And the course did just that.

We learned about production; high, medium, and low grown tea; aroma profiles; outside elements that affect the growth and flavor of the teas; and the history of black teas grown in different countries. We also tasted about 60 black teas.

I tasted many wonderful black teas. I also tasted some I did not like as well. I increased my vocabulary about teas. When we tasted the teas and learned the vocabulary that goes along with cupping tea, I was able to put the taste with the vocabulary word to better understand what the speaker was discussing. My skill at cupping tea was increased as well. We tasted two teas at a time and were able to compare the similarities and the differences. This got a little overwhelming at times.

We had knowleable speakers from China, Sri Lanka, and India. I was amased at the differences in taste between these countries and in the taste of the tea grown at different elevations.

There was a test at the end of each day to see what we had learned. I am happy to say I passed both tests, although I felt they were difficult.

If you want to learn about tea effectively and efficiently, I would highly recommend these tea certification classes. The information is put together by professionals and saves you many months and years of research on your own.

I am forever grateful for this program put on by the Specialty Tea Institue. There are plans for eight levels, however, only three are available so far.

How about doing a Mad Hatters Tea Party with tea and cookies. Your guests wear their own hats, either bought or homemade, and you provide the sweets and tea. This time of year you could serve a cookie, a cupcake with green colored coconut as Easter grass with small candy eggs, a Peep, and a cookie. You can decorate the plate with jelly beans. Charge $5 or $6 and serve your favorite afternoon tea.

March 27-29, 2006:
World Tea Expo, Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada

April 7-8, 2006:
Specialty Tea Institute 9th Annual Tea Symposium, Charlotte, NC

April 27-30, 2006:
Tea & Coffee International Exhibition, Moscow, Russia info@infosite.ru

May 4-5, 2006
Fresh Cup Roadshow, Adam Mark, St. Louis, Missouri

May 7-9, 2006
8th Spring Fancy Food Show, McCormick Place, Chicago, Illinois

July 8-9, 2006:
Specialty Tea Instutite Tea Certification Program, New York City, NY

July 9-11, 2006
52nd Summer Fancy Food Show, Jacob K. Javits Center, New York

September 26-28, 2006:
Tea & Coffee World Cup, Shanghai, China

We would like to hear from you. If you have any tips that you found helped you build a successful tea business, please submit a tip and we will publish it in a future Tea Business Success News. We will also give you a permanent link to your site.

As promised, the information on becoming a tea importer. The US Tea Association at www.teausa.com will be able to give you information on contacts for importing tea.

I think for a small business you will want to work with brokers. There will be a tea auction at the World Tea Expo, Las Vegas Hilton Hotel, Las Vegas, Nevada. This would be an excellent opportunity to talk with brokers and make contacts for a tea importing business.

Hope to see you at the World Tea Expo.

Contact Sally