webinars - 2021

The webinar was delivered by Dr Ali Amidi and Dr Qian Janice Wang and covered the following topics:

1) The neuroscience of flavour perception;

2) A multi-sensory approach

3) The practice and culture of tea  

Dr. Ali Amidi is an assistant professor in behavioural neuroscience at the Department of Psychology and Behavioural Sciences, Aarhus University, Aarhus, Denmark. His research has been dedicated to the investigation of the onset, development, prevention, and treatment of various disease-related symptoms such as neurocognitive impairment, sleep disturbances and circadian disruption in various populations. He is the co-founder of The Sleep and Circadian Psychology Research Group at Aarhus University and the Principial Investigator on various research projects about the role of chronobiology and sleep in health and disease.

Dr. Qian Janice Wang is an assistant professor of food science at Aarhus University. Her interdisciplinary research focuses on the role of the brain sensory system and its connection to flavour perception and eating behaviour, in order to gain a deeper understanding of why people eat and drink what they do, and to encourage behaviour change for a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle. To achieve this goal, she works to develop new ways to evaluate the consumer experience - from opinion mining to virtual reality to biometric measurements.

Tea grower from Scotland and President of the European Tea Growers Association Monica Griesbaum presented on her association and the challenges and opportunities of growing tea in Europe.

Monica Griesbaum is a tea grower and maker in beautiful Perthshire, Scotland. She grows the camellia sinensis plant and some selected tisanes on her 24 acre organic farm. Her focus and special interest is biodiversity growing in the face of climate change. She believes that biodiverse growing spaces (including animals and plants) allow ecosystems to flourish and to be more robust in the face of climate change. Monica is also interested in microclimates and tea growing, she compares tea plants and their development in rock formations with woodland plants and tea grown in grass meadow areas. She makes Black Tea and tea cakes. This year she is proudly leading the European Tea Growers Association as their President 2021.

Anton Louw is the co-founder of Sunbird Rooibos tea. He has previously worked as a winemaker, journalist, and environmental consultant. He discovered what speciality tea is during a year in Nepal - with the help of fellow ESTA member Nishchal Banskota. He found the similarities between speciality tea and wine striking and returned home to look for opportunities in tea.

With a new appreciation for an old staple, and ambitions to export the concept of Sunbird was hatched: a truly high-end and premium Rooibos tea.

While Rooibos past is ancient, its commercial history is still relatively short, and this leaves enormous potential for the product to position itself. Sunbird has taken inspiration from other market leaders but seeks to carve its own path in a wide field. It has been an interesting and testing journey over the past 5 years, and our expansions are just starting.

This webinar was presented by Ketan Patel.

Ketan is a 3rd Generation in the family tea estate which was founded in 1935, Jalinga Tea Estate, Assam. He has converted Jalinga into the single largest Organic & Carbon Neutral certified tea estate in the world. He created in a short span of 10 years, one of the largest Organic tea export companies in the world. He is Founder of T-Tales, a "home grown world brand" to offer world class Sustainable Organic Teas, fresh from Garden to Cup and also SMART FARMER an Organic Food Brand. His brand is available in many 5 star hotels across India. In Feb 2021 he launched the 1st T-Tales Bio Cafe at the Hyatt Raipur and he plans to launch approximately 15 more cafes across India in during the course of this year.

This webinar was held in Russian by Maksym Malyhi

Maksym Malyhin, aged 46, has been in the tea business since 2013.
”The focus of my tea interests is the cultivation of a tea plant in the northern regions of the world and tea history.
I was educated as an analytical chemist. My specialty was water and soil analysis. I am an expert in Quality Management Systems, Project Management, and Business Process Management.
Since 2010 I am part of the informational tea portal and a community TeaTips Project.
I am the project manager of the Zhornina Tea Plantation Project. The project was created in 2013. One of my main tasks in this project is the development of the production technology of unique Ukrainian Trans-Carpathian teas.
In 2019, I was certified as a national judge of the Tea Masters Cup.
Since 2020 I am a Senior research officer at Tea4b - international tea exchange”.

Unfortunately, the video recording for this webinar is not available.

This webinar was presented by Ann-Kathrin Witt and Maximilian Frick.

Ann-Kathrin Witt aged 37 has been in the tea business since 2004

I started my tea career with an apprenticeship at one of the tea companies based in the Old Warehouse District in Hamburg, Germany. After that I spent several years in New York, USA expanding my tea trade experience for the US based daughter company.

After 10 year in the tea business I decided it was time to start something new but the love for tea was still there, so I returned to tea in July 2018.

Since then I am part of the Mount Everest Tea Company and in charge of International sales for various markets, i.e. UK, Denmark, Finland, Japan & the US.

Maximilian Frick, aged 27, has been in the tea business since 2013

At the age of 19 I started my apprenticeship in one of the oldest Tea Trading Companies in Hamburg, Germany. Visiting a unique business school model focusing on foreign trade including a tea related final exam as a Merchant for Wholesale and Foreign trade. I spent nearly 7 years in this Tea Company, learning from the Senior Tea Tasters tasting and trading.

To improve the understanding of tea I have spent time in India, Nepal and several Months in different provinces of China.

Since September 2019 I am part of the Mount Everest Tea Company as a Tea Taster/Buyer.

Since January 2020 I am one of the three General Managers of Mount Everest Tea focusing on our part as a Partner of the Premium Tea Shops and Brands.

This webinar was presented by Will Battle.

Will Battle started his career at the Tetley Group in London in 1997 and trained as a tea taster in India, Sri Lanka, Kenya and Malawi. He spent 10 years with Tetley in tea buying and blending where he created blends for tea drinkers in European, Australasian, American and Asian markets and bought from all major origins. In 2007 he moved to Switzerland to look after tea procurement for Sara Lee’s factories in The Netherlands, Hungary and the USA and performed the same role from Utrecht in The Netherlands from 2013. In 2016 Will returned to the UK to establish Fine Tea Merchants Ltd, a tea wholesaler supplying the UK and European markets. Will’s award-winning book The World Tea Encyclopaedia was published by Troubador Press in January 2017, with a second edition appearing in November 2020. Will is now based in Lincolnshire in the UK where he runs Fine Tea Merchants Ltd and consults on tea-related themes.

This webinar was presented by Nishchal Banskota.

Nishchal Banskota is the founder of Nepal Tea which directly brings certified organic teas from Nepal to the American market. After graduating from Colby-Sawyer in 2015, he moved to his homeland, Nepal for almost a year to venture into opening the very first Tea Bar in Nepal with a vision to educate people more on tea and his unique business model. He believes the tea industry to be a social enterprise focusing on people and planet before profit and his mission is to bridge the ever-widening gap between the producers and the consumers. His ultimate aim is to get one million farmers out of poverty within their generation and within his lifetime.