January’s featured World Tea Academy course, ADV.02 Understanding the Organoleptic Experience, is being offered with a $40 discount for a limited time. The organoleptic experience is the sensory experience of tea. The course was designed to teach tea professionals about how people experience flavors.
Virginia Utermohlen-Lovelace MD created the course at therequest of former World Tea Academy Director, Donna Fellman. Utermohlen-Lovelace,a Board-certified pediatrician, was on the faculty of Cornell University’sDivision of Nutritional Sciences in Ithaca, New York for more than 40 years andhas extensively studied the variables involved in how people experience flavors.
“There is so much conversation about tea as a health-givingdrink, but it’s very clear that what matters about tea from the day-to-dayexperience of tea is what it tastes like, what its flavors are and how youexperience those flavors” said Utermohlen-Lovelace. “So I created this coursein order to give people an understanding of what they’re experiencing and whythese experiences come about.”
The course examines the anatomy of the human organolepticsystem, how the nervous system interprets the tea experience, and how teasinteract with the nose, mouth and brain.
It also delves into the chemistry of tea and the principlesof flavor—including astringency, bitterness and sweetness—as well as therelationships between five different teas’ chemical compositions and the humanexperiences of those teas.
Utermohlen-Lovelace feels this course is valuable for a few reasons.First of all, it is important for anyone in the tea industry to understand whatthey are experiencing when they sip their cup of tea, she said. Secondly,drinking tea leads to a certain mindfulness and this course encourages peopleto adopt is a mindful attitude towards tea as they are sipping it. “When youhave a mindful approach you gain so much more from the actual experience of thetea,” said Utermohlen-Lovelace. She hopes students will gain an appreciationand understanding of tea beyond its cultivation. Furthermore, understanding theorganoleptic experience brought forth from the variety of teas the coursecovers will give tea professionals a foundation for understanding individualpreferences and be better prepared to talk about the teas they sell and explainthe experience of each tea to clients.
ADV.02 is a prerequisite for World Tea Academy’s new course,ADV.15 Aromas of Tea Part 1: The Basics, which will launch for the first timein March 2020 and was also co-authored by Dr. Virginia Utermohlen-Lovelace. Additionally,ADV.02 a good foundation for the World Tea Academy courses that cover the flavoring,blending scenting and of teas: ADV.11, ADV 13, and ADV.14.
Clickhere to register for ADV.02 Understanding the Organoleptic Experience.Enter the code ADV240 when registering in orderto receive the $40 discount.