Head sommelier — Chinese-tea certification prep

how the cohort unfolds

The cohort runs across twenty-six weeks, tight enough to build momentum and deep enough to let knowledge settle. every week follows a single tea — a real, nameable Chinese tea you will taste, inspect, and discuss — and a single core concept from the tea.academy Level II syllabus. we designed the rhythm for people who are already on a restaurant floor: a ninety-minute live session each Monday evening, plus curated self-study materials that tuck between service prep and staff briefing.

the spine of the programme is deliberate sensory repetition. early weeks lock in leaf-grade recognition, water temperature control, and the muscle memory of a proper gài wǎn (盖碗) pour. by week eight you are reading wet leaf as fluently as you read a wine label. mid-cohort, we shift into the processing windows that turn the same leaf into lǜ chá (绿茶), hóng chá (红茶), or shēng pǔ’ěr (生普洱) — and then into the regional signatures of provinces like Fujian, Yunnan, and Guangdong. the last third sharpens the exam skills: blind tasting grids, defect diagnosis, and the structured language a sommelier needs to write a tea list that reads like an essay, not a catalogue.

the cohort is led by Chen Hui Yi, whose own practice spans the white, green, and yellow tea categories. she brings an unhurried but exacting teaching style — the kind that leaves you tasting a Bái Háo Yín Zhēn (白毫银针) and noticing for the first time the cool-watermelon note you had always missed. every session includes a live cupping; you will receive a curated shipment of eighteen teas across the programme, matched to the weekly focus, so what you taste at home is the same leaf the group is discussing.

alongside the weekly sessions, participants have access to the full digital library on tea.school, including archived lectures, processing videos, and the Level II mock examination suite. we also include two in-person weekends — one in early autumn and one before the exam — held in the tea.equipment tasting room in Saint Petersburg, where you will handle classic gaiwans, yí xīng (宜兴) clay pots, and glass pitchers to feel the difference in heat retention and pour behaviour. if travel is impossible, a remote equivalent with guided video and a loaner kit is available.

by the end of the twenty-six weeks, you will have tasted, written about, and cooked with more than eighty Chinese teas. more importantly, you will have the quiet confidence to stand in front of a guest, or an exam panel, and speak about mèng dǐng gān lù (蒙顶甘露) with the same nuance you bring to a grand cru.

Week by week

• Week 1 — Xī Hú Lóng Jǐng (西湖龙井). leaf morphology and plucking standard — how a flat-pressed, one-bud-one-leaf green sets the benchmark for shape recognition

• Week 2 — Bì Luó Chūn (碧螺春). the relationship between downy bud-sets and infusion body — developing the vocabulary for texture in Chinese green tea

• Week 3 — Huáng Shān Máo Fēng (黄山毛峰). altitude, mist, and the concept of yá (芽) — reading the bud-to-leaf ratio in high-mountain greens

• Week 4 — Lù’ān Guā Piàn (六安瓜片). the only green tea made solely from mature leaves — processing without buds and the effect on astringency and aftertaste

• Week 5 — Tài Píng Hóu Kuí (太平猴魁). extra-large leaf architecture — how leaf size, shape, and pressing influence steep time and theanine delivery

• Week 6 — Ān Jí Bái Chá (安吉白茶). the paradox of white-phenotype green tea — low chlorophyll, high theanine, and the umami window in early spring

• Week 7 — Méng Dǐng Gān Lù (蒙顶甘露). ancient mountain traditions — how Meng Ding’s mist-shrouded gardens set a prototype for sweet, curly greens

• Week 8 — Jūn Shān Yín Zhēn (君山银针). introduction to yellow tea — the sealed yellowing step and how micro-fermentation softens the grassy note

• Week 9 — Huò Shān Huáng Yá (霍山黄芽). comparative yellow teas — regional differences between Jun Shan island and Huo Shan mountain yellow buds

• Week 10 — Bái Háo Yín Zhēn (白毫银针). pure-bud white tea — withering time, oxidation management, and the flavour spectrum from hay to honey

• Week 11 — Bái Mǔ Dān (白牡丹). one-bud-two-leaf white — building the full white-tea matrix and introducing melon and herbaceous notes

• Week 12 — Shòu Méi (寿眉). mature-leaf white tea — how autumn-picked Shoumei shifts the profile toward dried fruit and wood, and why aging matters

• Week 13 — Gōng Méi (贡眉). the lesser-known middle white — comparing Gongmei to Shoumei and learning to articulate subtle grade distinctions

• Week 14 — Zhèng Shān Xiǎo Zhǒng (正山小种). origin of lapsang — pine-smoked black tea from Tongmu, the phenol map, and the bridge to non-smoked hóng chá

• Week 15 — Jīn Jùn Méi (金骏眉). all-bud black tea from Wuyi — fine-plucking luxury hóng chá and the vocabulary of malt, chocolate, and dried rose

• Week 16 — Qí Mén Hóng Chá (祁门红茶). Keemun as a benchmark — the qí mén xiāng compound and how an Anhui black builds complexity through slow withering

• Week 17 — Diān Hóng (滇红). Yunnan black — large-leaf assamica cultivar, golden tips, and the bold, sweet, peppery signature of high-altitude hóng chá

• Week 18 — Dà Hóng Páo (大红袍). the legend and the rock — mineral-heavy Wuyi yán chá and the concept of yán yùn (岩韵) as a tasting criterion

• Week 19 — Tiě Guān Yīn (铁观音). Anxi oolong — traditional charcoal-fired versus modern light-oxidation styles and the orchid-cream axis

• Week 20 — Fèng Huáng Dān Cōng — Mí Lán Xiāng (凤凰单丛 — 蜜兰香). single-bush dancong — the honey-orchid aroma family and how Chaozhou gōng fū chá (工夫茶) technique unlocks the nose

• Week 21 — Dòng Dǐng Wū Lóng (冻顶乌龙). Taiwan’s mountain oolong — ball-rolled leaves, re-roasting, and the creamy-butter texture prized in competition sets

• Week 22 — Bāo Zhǒng (包种). the lightest oolong — minimal oxidation, floral-citrus high notes, and how strip-style leaf behaves in a porcelain gaiwan

• Week 23 — Shēng Pǔ’ěr (生普洱), young. raw pu’er fundamentals — sun-drying, stone-pressing, and the living bitterness that predicts aging trajectory

• Week 24 — Shú Pǔ’ěr (熟普洱). ripe pu’er — the wò duī (渥堆) fermentation process, microbial poetry, and how to describe the earthy sweetness without cliché

• Week 25 — Liù Bǎo (六堡). dark tea beyond pu’er — the Guangxi basket-aged tradition, betel-nut nuance, and the role of humidity in post-fermentation

• Week 26 — composite blind flight — one green, one oolong, one black, one pu’er. exam simulation — timed blind tasting, defect detection, and constructing a coherent tea list from an unknown flight

What’s included

• 26 live weekly cupping and theory sessions with Chen Hui Yi, recorded for review

• curated shipment of 18 benchmark Chinese teas, each matching a key module on the syllabus

• full access to the tea.school digital library — video lectures, processing documentaries, and the Level II mock exam suite

• two in-person weekends in Saint Petersburg (remote equivalent available) with hands-on teaware practice using tea.equipment’s gaiwans, clay pots, and glass pitchers

• printed tasting journal and aroma wheel designed for the Level II examination

• one-on-one mentorship sessions every four weeks to calibrate your palate and exam readiness

• registration in the tea.academy Level II certification examination, including the exam fee

• digital certificate of completion from tea.restaurant, suitable for your restaurant’s credentials wall