Tea education is one of the core activities of our association. We have been holding tea courses for several years and now have three levels on Japanese tea: Foundation, Intermediate and Master.
Believing that the best way to learn is to experience it yourself, we strive to provide as much hands-on experience as possible. Most of our courses are held in-person, and our Master Course is held right in the heart of tea – in a tea region.
The pandemic of 2020, however, has forced us to adjust and change the direction. Many countries have limited in-person activities and Japan has completely closed immigration to foreign visitors. This meant that most of our in-person courses had to be put on-hold.
People around the world, though, did not stop loving tea and wanting to learn more. Thanks to the enthusiasm and encouragement of several of our members, we have developed the online version of our Japanese Tea Foundation Course.
During the summer of 2020 we ran a trial and the course was officially launched in October 2020. The course is held in 4 weekly sessions, that cover Japanese tea history, tea production, tea kinds and tea brewing. To make sure the students have as much hands on experience as possible, a course set with tea and teaware is sent to everyone ahead of time.
At the end of October, we now have the first graduates of our Japanese Tea Foundation Course Online – 8 students from 5 countries, who took the course in 2 groups. So far the feedback has been positive, and many students were grateful for an opportunity to study online amidst the lockdowns and quarantines.
The November course will start in a few days and the registration for the December course is open now! Along that we are working on making the Intermediate Course available online from the next year too.