World Tea Academy Goes Global

And we're off....earlier this month, we launched our new online tea certification program, World Tea Academy.  We were very excited to see this inaugural session of nearly 40 people engage into a new form of learning using technology. 10711603_s We all know tea is a global beverage, and so are our online tea classes.  We had students from Australia, Canada, Chile, Columbia, Taiwan, and the United Arab Emirates enroll.  (P.S. starting in September we will be charging a surcharge to internationally ship the Cupping Lab Starter Kits!) I love that we can facilitate these global connections and new friendships though our online course. We have been getting an overwhelming amount of questions and inquiries on the program.   Thank you all for your interest. We expect a dedicated website for World Tea Academy in the next 30 days that will provide far greater details and updates on the program. Many of you have asked if you can transfer your credits from another program into World Tea Academy.  The answer is yes.  We expect to offer options for testing into World Tea Academy mid-August to allow you to port over any progress made elsewhere.  We also want to provide the means for someone who has gathered a strong knowledge base independently to test in regardless if they have gone through a formal training program. Group discounts?  We are working on creating an enterprise solution for those who inquired about using the program to train your staff.  Our goal is to finalize both an affiliate program and group discount program by mid-October. Next up?  Registration is open for our August sessions as we roll out our CORE.02 Tea Enhancements and Grading Systems as well as a repeat offering of our CORE.01 Essentials of Camellia sinensis.   Registration CLOSES July 24th so we can ship you the teas and course materials required.  In September, we will add CORE.03 Tea Terrior Part I with its focus on China, Taiwan, and Japan.  Each month we will add new classes to the program (until done). One key area that is not currently published is the long list of exceptional industry luminaries who serve as our Strategic Technical Advisers.  I would like to thank them for the help.  They are specifically; Roy Fong (Imperial Tea Court), Kevin Gascoyne (Camellia Sinensis),  Suzette Hammond,(Rishi Tea), Austin Hodge (Seven Cups), Frank Jaksch (Chromadex), Manik Jayakumar (Qtrade Teas), Beth Johnston (Teas Etc.), Eliot Jordan (Peet's Coffee & Tea), Joshua Kaiser (Rishi Tea), Peter Martino (Capital Teas), Brian Keating (Sage Group Networks), Nigel Melican (TeaCraft), Dan Robertson (The Tea House/World Tea Tours), Ken Rudee, Mo Sardella (G.S. Haly & Co), Devan Shah (International Tea Importers), Den Shirataka (Den's Tea), Thomas Shu (ABC Tea), Scott Svihula (China Mist), Rona Tison (Ito En), Aaron Vick (G.S. Haly & Co), Bill Waddington (TeaSource), and Sanje Widyarante (Walters Bay).