The two-part ITMA Certified Tea Sommelier Course™ via Skype by Appointment, a two-month program, contains all the educational requirements an individual needs for achieving the ITMA Certified Tea Sommelier™ designation, a prestigious title in the tea industry representing a significant level of tea knowledge and expertise. Registrants completing the training will be able to serve as a tea sommelier at a distinguished restaurant, hotel, or tea business, or start one’s own successful enterprise. Review the course Curriculum to gain a full understanding.

• 2-day – ITMA COMPREHENSIVE TEA SOMMELIER COURSE™ (on-site)
• 8-week – ITMA TEA SOMMELIER TASTING COURSE™ (home study)

Each course is open to 10-12 registrants. The first 2-days is in-person at a training location at a hotel, while the next 8 weeks involves home study and periodic  online group teleconferencing.

The program is designed for and will benefit: Restaurant and tea business owners and managers, chefs and caterers,  tea aficionados, industry suppliers, and others who wish to incorporate tea mastery skills into their daily lives or current profession, as well as anyone seriously interested in a career as a tea sommelier or tea master.

The beauty of the program is that you can be operating as a tea sommelier following the first 2-days of training with all the tools, confidence, and support needed. The program has been designed to make sure that your experience as a new tea sommelier is filled with all the information, knowledge, and support needed to start serving in your role immediately.

The following 8-weeks are focused on integrating and expanding what you learned during the initial 2-day training as you learn to consciously create your expanding practice as a tea sommelier.

The program consists of two parts:

Part 1. 2-day ITMA COMPREHENSIVE TEA SOMMELIER COURSE™

Once the course begins, you will be totally immersed in a unique and intense environment of accelerated learning and training, along with real-life practice sessions preparing and serving many different teas. See Schedule for training locations, dates, and details.

This is a great way to get started serving as a tea sommelier. You receive all the core skills, structures, tasting protocols, philosophy, and first-hand experience, all at one time.

Part 2. 8-week – ITMA TEA SOMMELIER TASTING COURSE™

The 8-week ITMA Tea Sommelier Tasting Course™ begins a week after the conclusion of the 2-Day ITMA Comprehensive Tea Sommelier Course™. This part of the training is focused on integrating and expanding what was learned during the first part. Registrants will be working at home from the ITMA Tea Sommelier Tasting Course Training Manual™ with 9 departments, each on a separate variety of tea. They will be provided with two different tea samples corresponding to each department (i.e., 2 types of Japanese Green Tea, Chinese Green Tea, etc.). They will be assigned a different chapter each week and asked to taste and evaluate the two corresponding tea samples according to the protocol learned in the first part of the course, and then asked to submit their evaluations in a special online form created for this purpose.

Registrants are provided a copy of the ITMA Comprehensive Tea Sommelier Training Manual™ on the first day of class, and a copy of the ITMA Tea Sommelier Tasting Course Training Manual™ will be distributed on the last day of class in preparation for the start of the ITMA Tea Sommelier Tasting Course™.  Following the completion of the teas in the ITMA Tea Sommelier Tasting Course Training Manual™, registrants will taste and evaluate a Mystery Tea, followed by a Dissertation, and Final Examination

Upon course completion, graduates will receive an ITMA Certificate of Completion.