Maria was born and raised in Montevideo, Uruguay. She is a descendant of a European family that immigrated to South America in the 19th century and has European ancestry from France, Spain, Italy, and England. Maria started drinking tea since she was young. Her grandmother came from England and was once a well-known tailor. Maria recalled that she often went to her grandmother’s studio after school, where there were always British porcelain teapots waiting for her. After reaching adulthood, Maria went to Bordeaux, France to study and work in digital communication, even establishing her own company. During this period, she was exposed to tea and tea utensils from China and Japan, initially as a hobby during her leisure time. At the age of 38, she decided to close her agency, leave Bordeaux, and return to South America to open a tea house.
Maria has decided to enter the tea industry and her tea network is gradually expanding through various job opportunities. At first, due to various reasons, her first tea house project in Argentina failed. Setbacks actually strengthened her belief and sense of mission towards tea. In the past few years, she has visited tea gardens in Sri Lanka, India, Georgia, Türkiye and Argentina, and received tea sommelier training in Argentina to accumulate experience. She said that Argentina was one of the first countries outside the United Kingdom to provide such training. After returning to Europe, she joined Cape and Cape South African Tea House, specializing in South African national treasure tea rooibos tea and African tea, thus gaining an understanding of the South African tea industry.
Through work practice, Maria’s knowledge in the tea industry has gradually expanded to include procurement, product development, and organic certification audit processes. She served as a member of the technical jury for the World Tea Competition of Agency for the Valorization of Agricultural Products (AVPA) in Paris, France. She is also a co-founder of the Brussels Tea Circle and hosted the first Brussels Tea Festival. In 2019, Maria settled in Brussels and worked as a consultant and tea sommelier for French tea brands L’Autre Thé, Unami Maison de thé, and Conservatoire des hémisphères. On International Tea Day 2022, Maria invited 10 brands to organize an informal small-scale exchange celebration in Belgium. In 2024, Maria and her team held the first Brussels Tea Festival in Brussels, Belgium, with 30 tea exhibitors and 4 porcelain merchants participating. The one-day event attracted over 7000 visitors, mainly from nearby countries, including a large number of professionals, enthusiasts, and tea drinkers.
Maria mentioned that Paris is a big city with a rich historical background, developed catering and beauty industries, tea shops and teahouses with various tea brands, and a wide range of tea products for people to taste. It can be regarded as the tea capital of Europe, with rich tea culture and infinite possibilities. And the newly developed tea plantations around Paris are available for visitors to visit and experience. Maria, who recently moved to Paris, plans to have her own tea space. She does not intend to create new tea brands, but rather runs tea events, establishes tea communities, and brings new tea experiences to participants. The first Paris Tea Festival will be held in June 2025, and it will last for two days. The main event will be held on Sunday at Maison Internationale. Compared to the Brussels Tea Festival, the Paris Tea Festival will have more tea brand exhibitors participating, offering more activities such as symposiums and tea tasting events, as well as thoughtful children’s entertainment programs. On Saturday, they can organize visits to French tea gardens and tea tasting around Paris, France.
European tea culture activities are showing a growing trend, and in recent years, many cities in Europe have held tea festivals. Maria believes that each city in Europe has its own unique tea culture and is full of vitality. For example, the Berlin Tea Festival emphasizes healthy traditions and organic products, the Prague Tea Festival emphasizes Eastern beauty and spiritual enjoyment, and the Brussels Tea Festival is more youthful and fun. Maria said that she is not very familiar with Chinese tea brands. Chinese tea is rich in variety and is also the origin of tea, so she definitely has many brands. There are many Japanese brands in the international tea market, but unfortunately Chinese brands are not common. She hopes to have the opportunity to learn more about Chinese brands in the future and provide some help herself. Maria suggests that brands can communicate more with European customers, who will want to know the relevant history and production activities of tea products, as well as who produced these teas. Maria emphasized that transparency is crucial, and establishing connections is the first step in building trust.