giving a talk on tea , any suggestions

[teacups4god]

I am addressing a small group of professional women, I am discussing following topics. 1) history of tea
2)kinds of tea white, green, oolong, black, yellow, red and tisanes
3)grades of tea
4) medicinal tea usage and warnings
5) doing a blooming tea demo, and a teabag demo
6) having olive tea, rooibos and honeybush tea
7) how to properly brew tea

Any other suggestions

[Proinsias]

tasting tea? or is that included in the demo?

[wyardley]

I
6) having olive tea, rooibos and honeybush tea

So you're going to give them 3 tisanes which *all* aren't tea? How about at least one or two whole leaf caffeinated teas that are actually from c. sinensis?

[teacups4god]

after reviewing how to brew tea, water temps etc. , making those 3 tisanes mentioned as well as black and a green, and white tea, those are 3 of the blooming teas. sorry,

[teacups4god]

well, gave my talk, seemed to go well, I added a loose black and oolong so other than a loose white think I covered everything I hope it went well, all the comment sheets were positive. thanks for all your imput

[hooksie]

Glad to hear.

[gingkoseto]

I
6) having olive tea, rooibos and honeybush tea

So you're going to give them 3 tisanes which *all* aren't tea? How about at least one or two whole leaf caffeinated teas that are actually from c. sinensis?

I feel the same way. Besides, the blooming tea and teabag demos are not the best representative of tea, if not two of the poorest representatives of "real" tea. I would suggest you either focus on the real tea or focus on the herbal tea, either is good. But it will be really confusing putting them together with unequal demo of each.

If the purpose of the talk is to sell certain tea-related product, then it's better to focus on that specific category of tea or herbal tea. If it's for promotion of tea knowledge, focusing on one area may still be better than covering all.

(oops, misread the date and skipped reading posts. my mind got really blank these days )

[Intuit]

The good stuff is all you need:

1) history of tea - brief does it best, handout with pictures to pass around or slides
2)kinds of tea white, green, oolong, black - simple is better
3)grades of tea - pictures plus simple words
7) how to properly brew tea - handout, plus have teaware examples (photos and the real deal).

Touch on health benefits, very briefly. Your sell should be on the enjoyment of this beverage first and foremost.

The bad: Too much shit-filler in this talk! Cut this part out completely.

4) medicinal tea usage and warnings not an intro topic
5) doing a blooming tea demo, and a teabag demo - bad choice of demo material
6) having olive tea, rooibos and honeybush tea - bad choice of demo material

Pairing the formal presentation down to a 30 mins, using lots of photos (available on the web, if you include source citation in your slides), and using "show and tell" material (various grades of teas in cupcake liners, on a tray with tags, pass it around to see, touch and smell) will keep your audience's attention without swamping them in details.

Allow 30 min for sampling teas (made in urns, except the matcha, which can be made in a larger batch and ladled out in small sample cups). You babble knowledgeably about flavor nuances for each type tea while your audience is slurping down tea.

Tea Samples: Green, black, oolong or matcha. They can try two cups or just a few sips of 3 or 4 types, if small paper cups are used. Consider supplying a carafe of water to clean the palate between tea samples.

Ten minutes for Q and A.

Have brochures (tea vendor printed material can be had for the asking), to hand out (you can sweetly ask for both brochures and samples to provide to your audience from a couple of vendors, who will probably be happy to oblige).

...and you are good to go.


Late post because this question arises about once every 6 months on this forum.

[teacups4god]

intuit thanks for the info, my first speech on just tea, usually talk to church groups about my teacups ministry or about my collection of teacups. But I will definitely use these suggestions for my next talk,,,, thanks to all that responded. I love this site, learning a lot, thought I knew about teas, I knew about teabag teas. Love the loose stuff and my ingenunity teapot