Ottilie fell into the world of tea after picking up a discarded copy of The Times on a train, where she spotted an ad for Trainee Tea Buyer at Twinings. Since then, Ottilie has spent the past 18 years in the tea trade and experienced every part of the tea value chain along the way, from grower to producer to retailer, working for brands such as Twinings, Finlays and Fortnum & Mason. As Tea Buyer at F&M, Ottilie is responsible for selecting the finest and most rare teas from across the globe for the iconic luxury retailer.

Juyan grow up in Zhejiang, China – one of the most important provinces for green tea production and worked with her parents in the family-run tea garden from a young age. In 2002, Juyan came to the UK for study and noticed that there was lack of premium quality teas in the market. So she started The Chinese Tea Company in London in 2010 after finishing the university. Since then she has traveled extensively visiting the tea gardens in China and meeting farmers to purchase the premium teas and learn her tea knowledge from the masters. She leads tea trips to China and hosts courses and private tastings and corporate events in London. She also teaches the Tea Sommelier Chinese tea module and Chinese Tea Masterclass.

Jane Pettigrew is one of the best-known and most highly respected professionals in the tea world. She has worked as a writer and educator for over 35 years and is tirelessly committed to sharing her knowledge of tea and improving the standards of tea service. She teaches tea masterclasses all over the world and has written 17 books on tea.

In 2014 she was voted Best Tea Educator at World Tea Awards, World Tea Expo, and in January 2016 was awarded the British Empire Medal for services to Tea Production and Tea History in the UK’s New Year Honours list.

Jane’s latest book, Jane Pettigrew’s World of Tea was awarded Best New Product (Publications and Books category) at World Tea Expo 2018 and Best Tea Publication at World Tea Awards, World Tea Expo 2019.

Dr Lin teaches our Taiwanese Tea Masterclass. She started Marulin in London to share teas from her family farm in Taiwan – specialists in Taiwanese Oolong tea.

Marulin’s most recent development has been blending oolong teas in tea bags and creating new tea powders that go beyond matcha.

Suranga has had over 20 years’ experience working at the centre of the tea trade in Sri Lanka and possesses an in-depth understanding of the tea and the industry. He worked as a Tea Broker in the Sri Lankan Tea industry for over 20 years. Starting at Forbes and Walker, he then became Vice President of Asia Siyaka Commodity Brokers, before being moving to Ceylon Tea Brokers PLC, where he was appointed COO and then CEO. During this time, he also served on the Sri Lanka Tea Board Tasting Panel representing the Broker community and was a Board Director for the Colombo Brokers Association. He represented the Colombo Brokers Association at the Colombo Tea Traders Association(CTTA) as the Tea Convenor for Tea Brokers and was a member of the initial panel appointed by the Sri Lanka Tea Board to carry out a feasibility study into the E-auction system, which is now in place. Suranga moved to the UK in 2017 and is now a consultant, entrepreneur and tutor on Ceylon tea for the UKTA.

Asako was born and educated in Japan and is a qualified Tea Instructor for both black and green tea in Japan. She lived and worked in London for more than 20 years teaching her own British tea and culture courses and also teaching at UK Tea Academy. From 2018 she has run the Tea Academy Japan in Tokyo and Kyoto as a Director. She is also a Japanese Tea Ambassador and Kakegawa Tea Ambassador, and hosts many seminars and lectures to introduce Japanese tea to U.K. and Europe. Asako has visited many tea gardens in the world and learned about black, green, white, oolong and fermented teas and published 5 books about tea in Japan. She is also a specialist judge for tea at the Great Taste Awards.

Sam has decades of experience as a professional Tea Blender and Buyer and has frequently shared her expertise on TV and radio. She teaches Tea Champion modules.

Thirty years ago while living in Kyoto, Tim became fascinated by tea culture and started to explore the tea traditions of East Asia. This led him to start importing tea in the late 1990s and to found Postcard Teas in 2005 which works exclusively with small farms across Asia. He has also written several books on tea which have been translated into several languages.

I grew up in Sardinia, working in my father’s bar, where I picked up an interest for blending as blended our coffee beans. I moved to London and started working at the Ritz where I grew curious for tea. After a short course and a trip to Sri Lanka, I enrolled for a tea master course and started travelling to different countries where they grew tea.

I have been the Tea Master of the Ritz London for more than 10 years and I’m in charge of choosing the beautiful teas that we serve to our guests in our famous afternoon tea lounge.

Having spent 39 years in the industry, Kurush leads a large global cadre of the company’s specialist tea tasters across 15 countries and is required to protect, nurture, grow and sharpen this skill base. His mantra for his team is to taste, taste, and taste, or as he puts it: ‘Practice makes perfect; so perfect your practice’. He firmly believes that the best way to learn about tea is to taste it. Originally from India, Kurush’s first 20 years there included roles in buying, blending, quality, product development, speciality tea, exports and imports. He then moved to Dubai, spending 8 years in servicing a multitude of regional markets across Africa, Asia and The Middle East in a Tea Procurement, Quality and Supply Chain capacity. The last 10 years have seen him based in the UK, located at the company’s Global Innovation Centre in Bedfordshire where his roles encompass both recipe design and deploy; infusing passion, instilling belief, building capability, and championing a tea culture. As he confesses, ‘Tea is much more than what I do; it is who I am’…..And by a strange quirk of serendipity, even his family name (Bharucha) ends in cha!

Alex trained as a Master Tea Blender at Tetley and now has over 20 years experience as a tasting expert. He started his own company, Blends For Friends in 2006. Alex runs several UKTA Masterclasses on blending and tasting, both online and at the Blends For Friends blendatorium in Kent.

Bryony entered the world of tea after finding a role advertised at Twinings for a Trainee buyer whilst searching for a sales position at the company for a friend. During the past fifteen years, Bryony has experienced all areas of global tea buying, spending considerable time at the origins and understanding the intricacies of the supply chain; from the field through to blend development and retailer interaction.

Bryony has spent the last five years deep diving into herbs buying and is now the lead in sourcing new herbal materials for Twinings globally. She is passionate about spreading tea and herbal knowledge across the business and has been fortunate enough to travel widely to host international Masterclasses as well as helping to train the next generation of Master Tea Buyers.