You love tea. This is where you finally learn it.
For everyone who wants to understand tea but has no idea where to start — we start you at the very beginning.
In three days you go from what is tea to a trained palate — tasting your way through three countries side by side: Korea, Japan and China, each with its own method, its own flavour, its own terroir. No experience needed. Just come curious.
You want to learn about tea. You just don't know where to start.
That's not your fault. Tea is vast — six types, dozens of countries, endless names — and no one ever hands you a place to begin. So most people who love tea never get past the cup in front of them.
This is that place to begin. We start from the very first question — what tea actually is — and build, step by step, into real skill you keep for life: how it's made, why it tastes the way it does, and how to tell one cup from another with confidence.
One plant. Three countries. One clear path.
Every green tea you'll taste comes from the same species — yet Korea, Japan and China each make it their own way, and each cup tells a different story of method, flavour, and the land it grew in.
You'll taste all three side by side and learn to read the difference: the terroir, the craft, the timing. In three days, what once felt like a mystery becomes a map you can follow.
A structured foundation — not a tasting, a training.
Across the three days you build the ground every tea sommelier stands on before they specialise: understand the tea, taste it with method, and brew and serve it to a professional standard.
Understand tea completely — the plant, the process, the place.
Taste and evaluate any tea with method and shared vocabulary.
Brew and serve to a professional standard, every time.
The Green Tea Masterclass — where it begins.
The Basic level opens with a four-hour masterclass: two hours of theory, two hours with a cup in your hand. It sets the palate and the vocabulary the rest of the training builds on.
The theory
- What a tea sommelier actually is
- How terroir — land, soil, altitude — lives in the leaf
- How process turns one plant into many: steaming vs. pan-firing, oxidation, timing
- How to look, smell, and describe a cup with real vocabulary
The tasting
- Six green teas, poured side by side
- Two from Korea, two from Japan, two from China
- Guided tasting notes — what to taste for, in order
- You place each tea by country, by process, by feel
Six greens. Three countries. One table.
Tasted blind and side by side, so the differences you learned in theory land on your own palate.
Korea
Jeju & HadongJeju nokcha, first flush
Bright, mineral, faintly sweet — grown on Jeju's volcanic island soil.
Hadong hand-roasted green
Rounder and nutty — mountain tea from Hadong, gently pan-roasted by hand.
Japan
Uji & KagoshimaSencha
Steamed, not pan-fired — grassy, crisp, oceanic on the finish.
Gyokuro
Shade-grown for weeks — deep, savoury, almost broth-like.
China
Hangzhou & FujianLongjing (Dragon Well)
Pan-fired flat leaves — toasty, chestnut-sweet, smooth.
Jasmine green tea
Green tea scented with fresh jasmine blossom — floral, fragrant, softly sweet.
Eight modules, one foundation.
Tap any module to expand ↓
These same eight modules run through the whole course — learned in theory on Friday, then tasted and practised hands-on across Saturday and Sunday. You learn the idea, then taste it.
The one plant behind all true tea — Camellia sinensis. The six tea types and what separates them. A map of the great tea origins, and a short history of how the leaf travelled the world.
The production chain: plucking, withering, oxidation, fixing, rolling, drying. How each step is dialled up or down to create green, white, yellow, oolong, black, and dark tea.
How soil, altitude, climate, cultivar, and season live in the leaf. Why the same process tastes different across regions — reading origin the way a wine map is read.
A repeatable sequence: dry leaf, warmed aroma, liquor, wet leaf. How to slurp, read retro-nasal aroma, and describe structure — body, texture, and finish.
Professional cupping and scoring. Building a flavour vocabulary and sensory memory. Recognising quality markers and common defects, and evaluating a tea blind.
The four levers: leaf-to-water ratio, temperature, time, and water quality. Vessels and styles, Western and gongfu. How to diagnose and correct a cup that's off.
Standard operating procedures for consistency: station setup, preparation, measuring, timing, and service standards for hospitality and retail settings.
What's actually in the cup — polyphenols and catechins, caffeine and L-theanine, aroma compounds — and the calm-alert state they create. An honest, evidence-based look at tea's health benefits: what the research supports, and what it does not.
Learn it. Taste it. Prove it.
Small cohorts, cups on every table
Each module is a lesson followed immediately by guided tasting and sensory drills, so the theory lands on your own palate. Kept small on purpose, so every student is guided personally.
A foundation you can stand on
The level closes with a blind tasting and a short written evaluation. Pass, and you earn the KTeaShop Foundation certificate — the first credential on the path to Certified Tea Sommelier.
- The Green Tea Masterclass, six guided tastings
- Eight foundation modules, theory + tasting
- A printed workbook & sommelier vocabulary sheet
- All teas and brewing tools provided
One course, taught over three days.
This is a single course — not three separate classes to choose between. You attend all three days, and together they cover the same eight-module foundation. What changes from day to day is the format, not the subject: on Friday we learn the modules in theory, and across Saturday and Sunday we taste and practise those same modules hands-on.
Friday · 21 Aug
We open with the whole picture. The eight modules laid out as ideas — what tea is, how it's made, where flavour comes from, and how a sommelier tastes — so you carry the full map into the weekend before a single cup.
Reserve this day →Saturday · 22 Aug
14:00 – 18:00 · Theory + hands-on (4 hr)
The same eight modules, now with cups on the table. The six-green tasting and guided sensory work — Friday's theory becoming your own palate, one cup at a time.
Reserve this day →Sunday · 23 Aug
The same foundation carried through to fluency — brewing, service and evaluation by hand — closing with a blind tasting and short written assessment for your Foundation certificate.
Reserve this day →One enrolment covers all three days — Friday, Saturday and Sunday together make the complete Basic level.
For the person who wants to understand, not just drink.
- You love tea and want to finally know what you're tasting.
- You're curious about becoming a tea sommelier — and want the real first step.
- You work with food, hospitality, or wellness and want a genuine skill.
- You simply want three unhurried days doing something beautiful with your hands.
Basic is where it begins.
The School is built in levels. Each one deepens the last, from foundation to a full professional credential.
Basic
Foundation — the leaf, the craft, the palate. Green Tea Masterclass + eight modules.
Intermediate
Deep dives by tea type and origin; blending and pairing.
Advanced
Evaluation mastery, sourcing, and the business of tea.
Certified Sommelier
Final assessment and the KTeaShop certification.
Before you apply.
No — it's one course, and you attend all three days together. The same eight-module foundation runs through the whole thing: Friday we learn it in theory, then Saturday and Sunday we taste and practise those same modules hands-on. One enrolment covers all three days.
Not at all — it's built for exactly you. We start from the very first question, “what is tea?”, and assume zero background. Curiosity is the only thing you need to bring.
That's the whole reason this school exists. Instead of drowning you in names, we give you one clear path: from the plant, through three countries and their methods, to a palate that can actually taste the difference.
Yes. Three focused days — theory paired with cups on the table — is enough to build a genuine foundation, earn your certificate, and know exactly how to keep going from here.
Begin your training.
Tea Sommelier School · Basic — CHF300
Fri 21 Aug, 18:00–20:00 · Sat 22 Aug, 09:00–11:00 & 14:00–18:00 · Sun 23 Aug, 14:00–18:00 · Zürich
Questions first? Email info@kteashop.com