Before we begin to make our own blends, we will first journey through the history of tea. In this module we provide you with a snapshot of tea history, following its journey through China, Japan, Europe, and Britain. We also examine the popularity of tea, its historical medicinal uses, English tea service, the tea merchant trade, the appearance of tea connoisseurs, and tea as it is enjoyed today.

Grading is a crucial skill for all blenders. We will begin by examining the techniques typically utilised to create the different grades of tea, and then will study how grading is properly conducted. This includes how the leaves are checked, both in class as beginners, and industrially by experts.

This module is designed to impart the skills necessary to evaluate both individual and combined ingredients. This includes any ingredients you may be utilising for one of your blends, or the definition of aromas and flavours found within a mystery blend. We achieve this through the training of the senses, including sight, smell, and taste.

In this module you will undergo your first sensory training exercises with the aid of the Tea Flavour Wheel, which will help you to identify the different aromas and flavours found in tea.

Learn how to perform a visual analysis on any given tea or ingredient, and then make your very first custom blend. This is a hands-on module in which you will be creating a breakfast-style tea and familiarising yourself with the blending process.

Module Content

Follow tea as it travelled the world, and discover the countries who made it their own with the addition of special ingredients. This module particularly focuses on how tea blending evolved in Russia, Europe, and China, and the types of infusions that were popular among their peoples. These traditional blends became important cultural icons, and in some cases remain popular to this day.

Cultural blending involves the creation of blends that have been influenced by the principles of culturally important beliefs and practices from around the world. This module serves as an introduction to some of these beliefs and practices, and challenges you to perform a basic blend deconstruction. This is designed to sharpen your skills in harmonious blend creation and ingredient identification.

This module explores the ancient Indian and Nepalese cultural practice of Ayurveda, and will teach you to blend using Ayurvedic principles. This is achieved through a thorough examination of the goals and theory of Ayurveda, and understanding its relationship with nature and the environment.

The module concludes with a hands-on exercise in which you will utilise your knowledge of Ayurveda to create your own Ayurvedic blend.

In this module we examine the principles of energetic tea blending, an ancient Chinese cultural practice based on the principles of Cha Dao. We cover a breadth of material, including the concepts of chi energy, yin and yang, the philosophy of nature, and Materia Medica, and how these concepts ultimately relate to taste, flavour, and function.

Throughout the module you will partake in a number of exercises based on different energetic blending principles, creating a variety of stylistically unique blends.

Describe how flavoured blends are created.

This module covers the ideal setup for your blending room to maintain a high standard of efficiency and cleanliness. This includes the tools required and the best way to make use of the available space, as well as an overview of the appearance and functions of any of the machinery you may require. This will help you to create the best environment possible for blend development.

Module Content

This module introduces some of the most common and useful blending ingredients in the market, rated for their exceptional qualities and taste. Each ingredient is explored in depth with in-class samples, broadening your ingredient knowledge base and deepening your understanding of what’s possible in a blend.

The module concludes with an exciting blending exercise that will test your skills with the knowledge you have acquired throughout the course and your ability to blend with these new ingredients.

At the conclusion of in-person training, you will be tasked with the creation of your own range of 6 unique market-ready blends.

You must construct the range individually (not as a group), however you will have the benefit of full assistance and professional advice available from Australian Tea Masters via correspondence as you perfect your formulas.

Our goal is to see each of the blends of our students flourish. The blends you submit will be wholly owned by you and we welcome you to distribute and sell them as a part of your business endeavours at the conclusion of the course.

Upon acceptance of your finished final project, you will have completed the course, and we will proudly present you with your Certified Tea Blender certificate.