In my former life as an IT trainer, I remember the first few days of training to become a certified Microsoft Applications trainer.  Every class started with KISS: Keep It Simple Stupid.  The premise behind the acronym is when delivering a training course to ensure that you speak in layman’s terms: speak in a language that the audience can understand.  Travelling around the world with my IT role forced me to do that in countries where English was the second language.

Who’d have thought that my training skills would come in handy when talking about tea?  With so many acronyms and tea terminology, it’s ever so easy to become daunted by them when you see them on paper, or online, but if explained with KISS, hopefully the audience can understand it better.  Here are just a few Tea Terms you may come across.

In my Tea Appreciation classes, I have broken the class down into 6 simple modules:

1. What is Tea? (In order to differentiate between tea and herbal infusions)
2. Loose Tea Guideline – outlining the best way to store loose tea and tips for making tea
3. Recognising Good Tea – This is probably self explanatory.
4. Tea Processing Basics – explaining the journey of tea leaf: from the bush to the cup
5. Tea Tasting Basics – how to fully appreciate tea in a similar vein to how wine or cheese is appreciated.
6. Health Benefits of Tea – the most popular topic and one in which I separate fiction from fact.  My favourite myth about caffeine is beau-tea-fully explained by the tea-lightful Stephen Fry.

The best part of a Tea Appreciation Class though, has got to be the tasting. 😮

So tea lovers: when explaining tea terminology to someone new to tea.  Remember to explain with a smile, but more importantly educate with KISS.

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