TEA BUSINESS ADVISORY

Consultancy

Doing tea business: Work with a real tea expert and consultant.

Whether you are a tea grower looking to get the best prices for your tea, or tea trader after first-rate strategic buying and stockholding, we can help. If you are a packer seeking sourcing solutions, or the optimised mix of blends for your customers, speak to us.

Are you a hospitality provider focused on delivering memorable tea experiences? Or a startup taking the first steps on the tea journey?

You are at the right place.

Whether you are a multinational tea company or SME brand looking to grow — Cambridge Tea Consultancy can help you.

Investing in tea business? Let us talk.

My “Bush-To-Brand-To-Cup” experience is unique in the trade and my tea consultancy will work with you, or your clients to unlock solutions, and create effective strategies for the future!

TEA SUPPLY CHAIN ADVISORY

We provide authoritative tea supply chain advice. We can guide you on processing, sourcing, supplier management, and help build sustainability capability into the heart of your tea business. We work with tea growers, packers, traders and other stakeholders looking to future-proof tea supply.

TEA OPERATIONS ADVISORY

Our wide hands-on experience working with the entire tea value chain from growing to market with multinational companies means we can provide practical expertise for both value creation and carve out. We cover strategic buying and blending, tea tasting, NPD and even provide  quality evaluation and  arbitration. If you are starting  a tea business, venturing into tea business or want to improve your existing tea business we can help.

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TEA EXPERTISE GUIDANCE

Expertise is our strength. Experience, skill and knowledge is our way. We give you authentic product and market guidance based on 30+ years of real hands-on industry presence. You know your business will be in good hands.

From competitor mapping and market landscaping to new product development I provide invaluable tea industry expertise to help you create the perfect tea experience – on shelf or in hospitality.

TEA EDUCATION

Tea Academy

 Learning tea: Get trained by The International Tea Expert.

eLEARNING

We believe in evolving with the times! You can now learn at your pace, at your own place. Select from our suite of self-paced courses, book it then fit it around your work-life balance. Learn tea in a flexible and accessible way.

Courses Available

Basics of Tea – Let’s start from scratch!

If you are coming into tea not knowing much about it, then this is your crash course in tea. Learn the basics in the shortest time possible. Then you can start to engage knowledgeably, and interact with tea and tea business, as you build your knowledge through more modules, tea garden visits and other material available.

Starting Your Own Tea Business

Tailored for those moving from tea enthusiast to small tea business owner. This is a class to introduce you to the must-knows in tea business. Learn about product and market selection as well as all the basics you need to know as you prepare to start your tea business. I also share some tips on doing tea business post the COVID19 impact.

Blending & Herbal Teas Masterclass

Herbal Tea Infusions is an exciting and growing area in the tea category. Consumers seek not only the benefits (from sleep, digestion and energy to mental wellbeing) but the wonderful variety of tastes they offer too. Come and learn about herbal teas – the different types, how to blend and work with them. Find out how to taste and source them too.

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Discovering African Teas

Offer your clients teas with a difference. From taste to provenance and product story, there is so much more you can do with African teas – and what a variety there is!

Come and journey with me through Africa with tea. Find out what these teas are, and where  to source clean, ethically produced and flavourful teas from.

Do tea differently, do different teas.

BESPOKE TRAINING

For all our eLearning classes, you can opt to have the invaluable experience of 1:1 teaching from The Tea Expert, Joyce on webinar. You get to ask questions, taste teas together and pick the expert’s brains on those tea issues close to your project.

You can also book a completely bespoke class tailored specifically to your needs – I know all businesses are different, and you may have very specific training requirements. I will be happy to work with you to create material specifically for you!

On-site training is available for businesses. This can be for your tea team junior/middle level tasters, or your sales and marketing team to know the product.

Email to arrange.

TASTER CERTIFICATION

My Certified Taster training is aimed at those who are, or working to become professional tasters as Tea Sommelier, Buyer or Blender. I offer intensive taster training to help you build and sharpen your tasting and evaluation skills.

Whether you are a beginner, intermediate taster or wanting to become a global taster – get trained by the International Tea Expert.

  • Training covers both CTC and orthodox commercial tea tasting.
  • Speciality tea tasting : The Cambridge 5S System is a bespoke grading and categorisation system developed by Joyce Maina, and covers speciality teas of all 6 types, as well as purple teas. This work was facilitated by the International Trade Centre to bridge the gap created by the lack of a universal tea grading system for quality assessment and articulation. The system is currently in use with speciality producers from Kenya and Myanmar.

I would like to draw particular ttention to her unique insight into the UK tea industry – Having worked with Unilever, Tata,Tetley, Twinings Taylor’s and Yorkshire tea. As a result, she knows the workings of the UK tea industry far more that any other tea guru”

Tony Laurent ,
Owner, Bespoke Tea Company

“I just wanted to reiterate how much I enjoyed the webinar yesterday, it was so useful, so insightful and I’m now buzzing with ideas for the second line especially now that I understand the fundamentals of how to build a tea, it has just made everything so much clearer going forward. I’m still buzzing from the training last week! So many ideas!

I’m so glad we met – you have no idea how much!”.      

                                 Kheyla,
Mother Nature’s Recipes,
UK

TEA GARDEN VISIT

Take me there!

In my long tea career, this stands out as the most exhilarating part of the job. Nothing compares to being on a tea garden, smelling the fresh leaf as it is plucked from the bushes, looking into the smiling faces of tea farmers and pluckers, marked by the rain and sun of the tea growing areas, doing what they absolutely love – make tea! You have never tasted or smelt tea like freshly made leaves, still warm from the drier, brewed in the local way.

Ah, take me to a tea garden now!

Sound like something you would like to do?

Well, you can.

We partner with small speciality tea producers and arrange for you to visit, learn and enjoy the tea garden experience.

tea garden in Kenya

Kenya

Tanzania

Tea farm in China

China

Tea farm in Tanzania

THE EXPERIENCE

Learn the art of teamaking on a tea garden

Pluck your own leaves

Handmake your different tea types

Learn about the farmer and their terroir

Sharpen your tasting skills

Bring back your very own tea caddy
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Interested ?

FOR THE LOVE OF TEA

Oh My, Tea!

 Talking tea: There is a whole world of tea largely undiscovered by drinkers and non-drinkers alike. It’s an exciting world featuring history, colours, flavours, aromas and origins. Not only do consumers want to understand their cup of tea better, but people young and old are looking for new experiences – that’s where Cambridge Tea Consultancy step in.

CONVENTIONS & EVENTS

From tea expos to trade association conventions, I am an experienced and engaging public speaker on the subject of tea. I have spoken at a wide range of events including tea conferences in the UK, Kenya, Burundi and China.

Some examples of recent events:

  • GTI’s 8th Annual Colloquium, Tea and Value –  January 2023
  • Anxi College of Tea Science, European Tea Culture & Marketing  December, 2022
  • 5th African Tea Convention, Marketing Dynamics of Specialty Teas
    & Diversification – Aug 2022

If you are looking for a speaker, let’s talk.

Why Cambridge Tea Consultancy

OTHER TEA ACTIVITIES

Team activities

Inspire your team creativity using tea tasting, tea and food pairing or tea mocktails making.

Product tasting

“I’m a taste expert – let me help you create exciting products whatever they might be!”

Tea and Beverages Judging

“I bring objective assessment with great experience gained judging internationally.”

 

Other activities include women groups fun tea tasting and schools/college groups – learn about tea tasting as a career option!

MEDIA PR

TEA STORY TELLING

As a tea expert, I provide tea expertise and elevate the profile of tea. Some of my features can be found  in Harper’s Bazaar, Red Online and The Stylist.

I can also help you build your product storytelling for impact.

  • Pack copy
  • Online product descriptions
  • Media material build