the program
Hosting a Chinese-tea event asks more of you than knowing your leaf. It demands a sense of pace, an eye for teaware placement, and the confidence to hold a room through silence. This six-week cohort, led by senior tea expert Chen Hui Yi, is designed for tea lovers who want to move from drinking to hosting — whether for small tasting groups, community gatherings, or repeatable public sessions.
Chen brings decades of experience in white, green, and yellow teas, particularly from Guangdong’s tea culture. His mentorship will guide you through the practical, human, and logistic layers of event-making. The cohort is deliberately intimate — only 16 seats — ensuring each participant receives individual attention and can develop an event plan that reflects their own taste and local context.
We begin with the foundation: tea selection. You will taste and learn to evaluate leaves for an event. Not every tea performs well in a public setting. Some require too much patience; others lose structure after multiple infusions. Chen will introduce you to the nuances of teas like Bái Mǔdān (白牡丹) white tea, Mí Lán Xiāng (蜜兰香) dancong, and Shēng Pǔ’ěr (生普洱) — each a reliable backbone for successful gatherings. You’ll also explore sourcing considerations, with the option to procure tea through our partner shop shop.puerh.app, which specialises in aged and curated selections.
From leaf, we move to teaware and setup. You will learn the essentials of a gongfu service — what a host needs, what can be borrowed, and how to adapt to less-than-ideal settings. The cohort will cover how to arrange a room so that every guest can see, smell, and participate without crowding. This spatial awareness transforms a tasting into an experience. Members of tea.community often share photos and critiques of their own setup, and you’ll have access to this library of real-world layouts as part of your study.
Week three dives into the hardest part: the middle hour. A tea session typically spans sixty to ninety minutes. The opening pours are energetic, and the final cool-down can be gracious. But the middle — that stretch after everyone has settled and before the conversation deepens — is where many hosts lose their way. Chen teaches a set of simple rituals to hold attention: how to narrate the tea’s story, how to use silence as a bridge, and how to read the room’s energy so you know when to pour faster or slow right down. This is not theory; you’ll practice during live online sessions and with your own guests between cohorts.
Pricing and communication follow. A private event for eight friends has a different financial logic from a public event for twenty strangers. We’ll talk about fixed costs, per-head pricing, honour-based donation, and how to frame your event so it feels welcoming without cheapening the tea. The cohort draws on case studies from events listed on tea.events, and you will draft your own event page as a final project. Chen and your peers will give structured feedback.
By week five, you will have prototyped an event — from leaf choice to room layout to invitation wording. You’ll run a dress rehearsal with a small group (friends, family) and bring your observations back for the final session. Here, the emphasis shifts to refinement: how to adjust for different guest counts, how to handle the unexpected, and how to build a name as a trusted host in your city.
Graduates of this cohort often go on to list their first events on tea.events and to join the wider host network on tea.community, where they can connect with fellow hosts from Saint Petersburg to Yunnan. Many also deepen their tea knowledge through courses at tea.school, extending their expertise into areas like aged puerh, regional oolongs, or the prānāyāma-informed tea meditations offered at tea.yoga.
The cohort includes a tasting kit of six teas (shipped worldwide), a digital workbook, and ongoing access to a private alumni channel. There are no exams, only the imperative of creating something real. By the end of six weeks, you’ll have hosted at least one small event and be equipped to shape many more.
This is not a lecture series. It is a shared practice, built around the premise that tea tastes better when someone takes the time to create a space that honours it — and that every host starts exactly where you are now.
Week by week
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Week 1 — Bái Mǔdān (白牡丹) — white tea. Foundations of tea selection for events — tasting, evaluating leaf, and understanding what makes a tea crowd-ready.
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Week 2 — Mí Lán Xiāng (蜜兰香) — Fenghuang dancong oolong. Teaware and gongfu setup — arranging a functional and beautiful service for groups of six to twelve.
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Week 3 — Shēng Pǔ’ěr (生普洱) — raw puerh. Room layout and the flow of a tea session — guiding eyes, hands, and attention from first pour to last.
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Week 4 — Diān Hóng (滇红) — Yunnan black tea. Pricing, communication, and building an invitation that sets the right tone for your community.
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Week 5 — Lóngjǐng (龙井) — green tea. The middle hour — holding space through silence, pacing infusions, and reading the room.
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Week 6 — Bái Hóu Yínzhēn (白毫银针) — silver needle white tea. Dress rehearsal — host a micro-event, gather feedback, and refine your event plan for launch.
What’s included
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Six live interactive sessions with Chen Hui Yi (two hours each)
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Curated tasting kit of six Chinese teas (50 g each, shipped worldwide)
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Event design workbook and checklist
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Private channel on tea.community for cohort discussion and alumni networking
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Personalised feedback on your event plan
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Certificate of completion from tea.events
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One-year priority listing for your hosted events on tea.events
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Access to tea.school’s introductory tea courses at member rate