We will be hearing from 5 more of UKTA’s students and friends about tea rituals in China, Estonia, Kuwait, Nepal and Russia and one more to be confirmed imminently.
Saturday 29th March 2025
12pm – 1.45pm London time – online
Join us for our second Extra event on World Tea Rituals.
During this event, we will hear about tea rituals in China, Estonia, Kuwait, Nepal and Russia
The timing of this gathering has been set to accommodate students and friends of the UK Tea Academy, some of whom are several hours ahead of us here in the UK and some are behind. So we hope that as many people as possible will be able join us for this second fascinating event at midday on 29th March.
Here is some background to four of the five generous people who will share their tea rituals with us. The 5th will be added very soon.
Min Hua, China
Min Hua lives in Shanghai and, before she started working in the world of tea, she worked for 18 years as an Asia-Pacific regional operation & project manager in a US-owned multinational IT company. Today, she is an independent tea professional and organises basic tea training and sharing of knowledge with tea enthusiasts – and she plans, designs and hosts tea events and rituals for businesses, public institutions and individuals. Sometimes she collaborates with other tea experts to fulfil big events with multinational companies.
Min Hua says she was influenced in her love of tea by her father, who drank green tea on a daily basis, and she also started drinking green tea when she was just a child. Then, beginning in 2017, she started to learn more and more about tea and she found herself being more deeply attracted to all aspects of tea. As she reached a higher level of knowledge she realised that it was time for her to put her knowledge to use. And so she started to deliver training & to organize tea events in order to share her knowledge with more and more tea beginners. She says that she wants to act as a bridge between China and abroad, to introduce Chinese tea all over the world and give tea lovers in China a broader view of the world of tea outside China.
Min Hua is also responsible for having organised the upcoming study tour to China during which 11 UKTA students will meet 3 UNESCO listed tea masters and learn more about the UNESCO-listed heritage teas that they make – Keemun black tea from Anhui Province, Song Luo green tea from Song Luo Mountain in Anhui Province and Guzhu Zi Sun (Guzhu Purple Bamboo) green tea from Zhejiang Province. UKTA is extremely grateful to her for organising what is going to be an amazing experience.
During our event, Min Hua will introduce to us another tea professional who will give a live demonstration of the very traditional Chao Zhou Congfou Tea Ritual, which lasts for 5 – 7 minutes and which Min Hua was present at in the Jing Shan Zen Temple in Zhejiang Province a couple of weeks ago. She will explain what is happening during the performance of this Zen ritual.
Jelena Kazennova, Estonia
Jelena is a linguist and philologist by profession, and used to be a teacher of English and an editor in an Estonian publishing house. Her tea traditions take roots from Russia where she and her family drank tea every day and for hours, but were very much expanded and enriched by knowledge from the UKTA and the Estonian love of herbals. In 2010 she moved from Russia to Estonia because of her husband’s business and fell in love with this tiny country with all its traditions and culture.
Today she has a young tea company (an online shop) called The Varietea Shop, which was launched in October 2024. Gaining her UKTA Tea Sommelier certification, and gathering knowledge from numerous other resources, travelling the world in search of the best teas, communicating with tea masters, and visiting tea festivals and exhibitions led her to start up her own tea company. The main reason was to share her love and knowledge about tea. Estonia is not a tea country like Great Britain, and coffee is more popular there. People really don’t know much about this drink and so she started ‘Tea Sessions’. These events combine the presentation and practical aspects of tea – learning how to choose, brew, and develop a relationship with teas. And the topics are all very different.
Sara AlMajed, Kuwait
More information coming imminently
Nishchal Banskota, Nepal
Nish is the founder of Nepal Tea Collective and is a 2nd generation tea producer with a family lineage of 40 years in the tea industry. His entrepreneurial journey began when he was 17 and his aim is to get one million farmers out of poverty within their generation and within his lifetime. He says, “We’re not just bringing you the freshest and the most delicious teas but positively transforming communities while doing so.” Nepal produces some of the finest teas in the world but more than 80% of its teas are sold unbranded by numerous foreign middlemen all over the world. This not only hinders Nepal to ever make its own geographical identity but also severely depresses the income for the agricultural farmers as they see no way out of this. While traders make millions, these farmers are left with pennies. We’re a Public Benefit Corporation and pay fair prices to our farmers and make them partners in our overall business. In order to do so, 1% of our revenue goes back to the farming communities to be used in helping them make better products and increasing their earning capacity in the longer run.
Nepal Tea Collective has won a number of important awards. One of its teas won the Bronze medal in the Global Tea Championships, making it the third-best white tea in the world among more than 200 tea producers. And their teas have also won 24 international tea awards, including the most prestigious Leafies award and global tea championships in the USA, AVPA France and Golden Leaf awards, Australia.
Natalia Hazeldine, Russia
Natalia was raised in Russia, a country where tea is loved by everybody. From an early age, she found tea to be both comforting and refreshing. She explained that, “Back then, it was common to simply knock on a friend’s door for a visit, and the first thing you’d be offered was a warm cup of tea before any conversation began.” Interestingly, after trying various occupations, she eventually found herself involved in the family business of selling tea. During this time, she came to appreciate the long and complex journey that tea undertakes before it ends up in your cup — a fascinating and labour-intensive process that involves the effort of many skilled individuals.
