After ten years since the beginning of our journey, first as tea travelers and then as producers, we want to offer a solid structure to our words, and pave the path for all tea enthusiasts. We designed an educational program to enrich the knowledge and awareness on tea and to train future tea professionals, with the purpose to form skilled, conscious and critical tea drinkers, ready to keep improving and take an active part in the growing global industry of fine tea.

Vivian Zhang is a tea master who graduated at the highest level from the Chinese Tea Academy, after attending courses in Beijing and completing her specialization in Kunming. In 2014 she became a tea producer after founding her company, Eastern Leaves, on mount Nannuo in Yunnan. Over the years, she has added the various degrees of the official training on tea - from the ceremony to the cultivation - to her liberal education in Ancient Chinese Literature. In 2016 she graduated with a Master degree in Food and Beverage Management, at Bocconi University in Milan. Together with Eastern Leaves, she divides her life between the mountains in Yunnan and her international travels, where she shares her experiences and the tea leaves she brings from her native land.

Upon passing the exam at the end of the Daye // Big-leaf level, students receive an official certificate issued by the All China Federation of Supply and Marketing Cooperatives (China Co-op) — a national, ministerial-level organization under China's State Council, present in every province of the country. It is one of the highest levels of official recognition available to international tea students in China today.

This certificate goes beyond tea tasting and evaluation. It confirms that its holder is able to judge and accurately describe teas with respect to their own terroir, to brew tea as a professional, to trace production techniques, to understand and actively participate in market quotations — and to speak with authority on the culture surrounding Chinese tea, from its history and philosophy to the traditional arts historically practiced alongside it.

For many of our students, this certificate marks the beginning of a new path: teaching, hosting, and representing Chinese tea culture in their own countries — whether through their own tea school, cultural events, or professional work in the tea trade.