Wenzhuo Liu In 2021, the East Frisian Tea Museum in northern Germany welcomed a new director, Mirjana Ćulibrk, she was born in Wilhelmshaven, northern Germany. After graduating with a master’s degree in archaeology and museum management, she has been working in related fields. The Tea Museum not only showcases the tea culture of the local East Read more about New Director of the German East Frisian Tea Museum[…]
Liu Rui, who started modeling at the age of 16, had a very successful modeling career and won numerous awards. Since falling in love with drinking tea, she has opened up a new direction in her life. During her study abroad in London, she worked part-time as a model and accidentally brought tea and tea culture from her hometown of Guizhou into the international fashion circle. Every Thursday, the alcohol frenzy at the “Thursday Club” in London was also influenced by her, and tea parties were held instead. In 2016, Liu Rui founded the tea brand Grass People Tree in London, specializing in Guizhou tea and currently developing steadily.
Thomas Langnickel-Stiegler, a German, is a freelance advertising writer who, due to his love of drinking tea, has done a lot of advertising planning for several well-known German companies regarding tea. He advocates that brands should not create an image without ground, but should be customer-oriented, tell the brand story well, and actively engage with customers. He believes that in Europe, at least in Germany, drinking tea will become a positive attitude and healthy lifestyle in the near future, and Europeans will be willing to spend more money on drinking better tea. Thomas also hopes to put forward some personal opinions and suggestions to Chinese tea brands that want to enter the German market, and discuss with me whether Chinese tea should bravely show its characteristics and take the initiative to define itself, as well as the international status of Chinese tea culture history.
Katja Hellkötter and Jan Siefke, the Germans who have lived in Hong Kong and Shanghai for many years, are international cooperation expert and photographer respectively. Katja won the Shanghai City Silver Magnolia Award in 2012. In 2015, they opened a co-working creative project workspace C*Space in Berlin, Germany. Freelancers, artists, companies or associations can rent this space to organize corresponding activities. It is worth noting that C*Space have been always setting tea stations in the activities, encourage guests to drink more tea. From 2020, a POP-UP teahouse has been built in the space at a fixed time every Friday, mainly managed by Jan and Lavia Lin, a Shanghai girl. How can this space be inextricably bound up with China, establish more folk cultural exchanges between Germany and China, and promote Chinese tea and tea culture in activities?
Dylan Rothenberg, a doctoral student at South China Agricultural University in Guangzhou, is from the United States and studies soil health and microorganisms in organic tea plantations. 2023-2024 is already his last academic year as a doctoral student. After graduation, he plans to continue his beloved research work. In his spare time, Dylan is also a social media tea expert, Wu Mountain Tea, teaching Chinese tea and tea culture in English. He obtained the qualification of an intermediate tea evaluator and also translated the terms of sensory evaluation of tea by himself. He hopes that more people in the world will understand the system for evaluating tea and promote its internationalization.
There are three outdoor tea festivals every year in the Czech Republic. In February 2023, a new winter tea festival was added to Prague. Agha Mithra is the curator of this tea festival, Prague Tea Fest. Aga is an Iranian who settled in Prague after graduating from university. She used to be a vegetarian chef and switched to the tea industry she has always loved. She organized the first winter tea festival in Prague and plans to hold tea festivals in other European cities in the future.
Martin Bohacik, born in Slovakia, was once the product manager of the British advertising company. After moving to Portugal, he started his own tea “marathon”. As editor-in-chief, Martin, with the help of writers, illustrators, photographers and other personnel, officially released a paper tea magazine named “Eighty Degree” in November 2018, and became famous at once. The response was enthusiastic in the “tea circle” in Europe. I also bought several copies after hearing the news. Martin acknowledged that the magazine seems to have successfully filled a gap in the tea world in Europe and even the world. Over the years, this magazine is still hot. At the beginning of 2023, the ninth issue of the magazine will be released soon. International popular tea readings are very ideal media for the promotion of Chinese tea and tea culture. I can’t help but wonder, there are so many interesting and knowledgeable tea reading materials in the Chinese market, whether they should take the initiative to “positioning” themselves internationally, translate or publish more tea readings in English or other languages?
The Chinese Lunar New Year (Spring Festival) is coming again. What are the interesting New Year tea customs around China? In the south of the Yangtze River, people will entertain guests with Gold Ingots Tea during the Spring Festival, implying the blessing of wealth. The new year tea custom in Zhejiang Province is from the first day to the third day of the first month, and a bowl of Four Ingredients Soup is offered to the guests. Hunan Province serves brown sugar tea first, and then salty tea Six Ingredients Tea, cup after cup until the guests are full. Fujian Province has a tradition of drinking tea in the New Year as a blessing activity during the Spring Festival. Drink a bowl of Sugar Tea, people can have peace, happiness and good luck.