A Master Class ~ Taiwanese Teas With Tillerman

I am quite involved in the tea industry, especially on the promotions and social media side.  Although I don't have a tea shop per se, I have managed social media for tea companies. I organize and handle social media for the Toronto Tea Festival, I've written tea articles, most recently for World Tea News, and currently I am the PR chair for the Tea Guild of Canada. Now, what is the Tea Guild of Canada, you ask?

Tea Guild Of Canada is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to fostering excellence in the world of specialty tea.  The mandate is as follows (from the website):

        We are committed to
            Educating members and the public;
            Exchange of ideas and sharing of resources;
           The creation of programs and events.

Ever since my tea sommelier classes finished, I have missed getting together with other tea sommelier/students and tea lovers to taste teas and advance my tea education. That's where the Tea Guild has filled the gap. 

Members are tea sommeliers, tea sommelier students and ethusiastic tea lovers in and around the Toronto area. We've brought in some awesome guest speakers for our members, e.g. Kevin Gascoyne of Camellia Sinensis, Raelene Gagnon of Tea and All Its Splendour, podcaster/blogger TJ Williamson of the World Tea Podcast and the latest, David Campbell of Tillerman Tea. 

David first contacted me through Facebook to ask for some tea shop recommendations to check out while he was in town from California. A Taiwanese Tea specialist, he's been in the tea business since 2007 and before that was in the wine industry for some 30 years...tea and wine, Taiwanese teas... I put them all together and my mind went bing! We should have him join us for a meeting!  I suggested this and he was game!  

A "Teas of Taiwan" evening was created!

I was there too! That's Linda Gaylard beside me! (Photo:Raelene Gagnon)

Map of Taiwan's Tea Producing Area 

Tea Anyone?

Wenshan Baozhong (a lightly oxidized oolong, heavenly aroma) 

Alishan (Meishan District)

Chinglin Gaoshan (Jade oolong)

Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty) highly oxidized and roasted oolong

Notice the fuzzy white tip

Loved this one! Fruity, malty like darjeeling 

True Bai Hao has this fuzzy pekoe white tip attached the the leaf, look for this when you are buying Bai Hao

David also generously gave the Guild the Powerpoint presentation of his talk, 
you can view it here. Thank you David!

If you'd like a chance to (tea) geek out:

Join us This Thursday, June 1st at 6:30 p.m. 

at The Chef's House (George Brown College).  

Our guest speaker for this coming Tea Guild meeting will be fellow Certified Tea Sommelier, Michelle Pierce Hamilton of the new Tea Lounge and BeTeas of London, Ontario. 

Her topic will be Tea and Health. 

Click here for more details and to RSVP. Hope to see you there!

Entrepreneurship

As mentioned in my last post, I'm expecting big changes and have some new projects.   One new project has to do with exploration of entrepreneurship.  Many Tea Sommelier friends have opened tea shops (brick and mortar types and online varieties), or work as consultants or teachers.  Listening to their experiences and helping them with tea tastings, I often ponder if I could do what they're doing, or where I would fit in the industry.  If I had my own business, what would I do differently?  

I am not totally unfamiliar with the concept of entrepreneurship. My parents were new immigrants with a successful restaurant who put me to work at a young age to help out the family business.  I saw a lot of the hardships and joys that can come with running your own business.  Even now, working in financial services, we have clients who are business owners.  I even have a friend who opened up her own organic bakery.  I watch and give ideas on marketing, finance and social media since graduating with a Certificate in Digital Strategy and Communications Management at the University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies.  

Now that I am expecting, as I prepare to pass on my work duties to my maternity leave replacement, I wonder what else could be on the horizon for me.  Some may see a break in a career and a new baby on the way as a "problem" but why not see it as an opportunity?  

When I received an invitation from the U of T School of Continuing Studies (in collaboration with the MaRS Discovery District), to be a brand ambassador for their Entrepreneurship program, I thought, what marvelous timing!

Toronto's MaRS Discovery District offers workshops, lectures and assistance for entrepreneurs to develop their businesses. 

This, on top of the U.of T. Digital Communications Strategy and Management program I completed last year, sounded very intriguing.  How inspiring, to meet classmates at varying stages of their entrepreneurial journeys and learn about the latest in entrepreneurship in Canada and beyond while exploring my own strengths and weaknesses. 

My first class was last night and it was quite exciting!  My energy level was good despite my ever more noticeable bump.  We have a a diverse and interesting group of classmates.  Some have businesses already, some have ideas and need more structure to see what would work.  Our instructor Keri Damen is informative and engaging. 

                                    

So, as I head back to school again for the next 6 weeks, please join me as I learn more about entrepreneurship and begin my own entrepreneurial journey.  As student ambassador I will be sharing my thoughts and experiences, what I learn from class about some exciting new concepts and potential businesses through my blog and other social media platforms.  These special posts will be denoted by #StartUpEdu.

Follow #StartUpEdu on Twitter to join in on the conversation.  Also feel free to follow @EntrepreneurSCS and the instructor @KeriDamen.

Can I use my Tea Sommelier skills as a consultant for independent tea businesses or cafes? Or a tea sommelier service? Or perhaps an import/export tea company of my own?!  You never know... We shall see!

         

This is a sponsored post on behalf of University of Toronto School of Continuing Studies Certificate in Entrepreneurship program; however, the opinions provided are my own.

#digitaledu, #Tea…#What?!

Just as the first ever Toronto Tea Festival was coming down the home stretch, I started my Foundations in Digital Communications Strategy and Social Media course at the University of Toronto.  I think I first read about this new Certificate in Digital Strategy & Communications Management in the local Metro Daily one morning.  First of its kind!  Social media sounds simple enough, should be fun, right?  I went on the U of T continuing education website to examine it closer.  Looked very interesting, major component was blogging which I had wanted to improve, and learn more about social media, maybe finally open a Twitter account in the process too.

The program was developed and taught by a group of experienced social media and PR experts: Martin Waxman, Marcus Daniels, Diane Begin, Cyrus Mavalwala and Eden Spodek.

Once again I went “back to school”, but this was way more fun, in fact tweeting was encouraged in class.  I opened my Twitter account and started learning the ropes, forcing myself to send my messages out within the required 140 characters and so on. 

Every Wednesday night, classmates and instructors were live tweeting during lectures with #digitaledu. Social media is “social” so interaction in class, online and offline was also encouraged.  There’s a LinkedIn group for the class, a group project to create a wiki, learning new technology, book reports, and class presentations.  Learning about social media advertising and RTB (Real Time Bidding, mind boggling!) 

There were fun and informative nights with guest speakers like Gini Dietrich of Spin Sucks via Skype.  Pro- blogger panel with Alison Garwood-Jones, Andrew Dobson, Zach Bussey, and Kathy Buckworth some of the classmates were very social media savvy and I learned quite a bit from them as well.  We even had a Genie Award-winning documentary film maker, Maureen Judge who spoke in class!

I went in thinking this would be fairly easy, light and fun.  Doable, you know…but when you toss in the minor detail that January to April is THE busiest time for my full time job in the Financial Services, RRSP and tax season, anyone?  But hey, how much work can a class on social media entail?

As it turns out, lots! This course was really intensive, especially if you are new to a lot of the content.  My synapses sizzled during and after Marcus’ class on social media advertising.  I had a mini panic attack while learning how to use the PBWork platform to create our group wiki project.  It was only the next week during class when Martin and Eden took a look, did we all realize it had changed so much that they, yes the teachers, even encouraged us to move to Google platform.  Way easier! Thank you! 

With this much work, we’re talking a whole new level of busy! 

Oh yes, and I agreed to help be a moderator  for a new online forum called Teatalk and help with a local tea organization with their Facebook page! 

And to top it off, as the class is winding down, I am preparing for a trip to China!  We’re off to visit the land of TEA in a couple of days!  Whoa, couple of days!  I still need to pack, finish my group wiki, finish up my required blog postings for class, and, oh yeah, work… whew!  Tired just thinking of this, hmm, need some good strong tea to keep me going through the home stretch, actually maybe something stronger like yerba mate or… perhaps…coffee?!  Nah, tea’s better, don’t need more jitters…  

Photo: Jennifer Hamill