Murmurs have begun to spread through the British beverage trade about the possibility of a new contest for tea, along the lines of the well-known coffee barista championships, following the holding of a ‘world’ event in America in which no British contestants appeared… indeed, in which only one European country was represented.

The snappily-titled Tea Infusionist Champion Challenge was held at the World Tea Expo at the end of June, and featured only four contestants. Three were American, and the fourth was Dutch.

The contest itself turned out to be rather similar to the coffee trade’s new Brewer’s Cup, in which contestants cannot choose what they are going to brew, but are handed it ‘blind’.  In this case, the four entrants were challenged to get the best out of an aged oolong from Taiwan, a first-flush Darjeeling, a five-year-old cooked pu-erh from Yunnan, and a green matcha.

They had to brew each of these teas, and their work was judged on the quality of infusion, colour, taste, volume, and presentation.

The winner was one of the three Americans, Steven Downer of Alaska, and coffee baristas will be interested to know that he was the contestant who used a thermometer to get his temperatures right, not relying on his own estimation.  The one European entrant was from Holland, where they too were ahead of us, by holding their first tea championship in May.

Steven Downer said after his win: “Whether you have a hundred-dollar tea or ten-dollar tea, the point is to do the best you can to get the taste out. An instant culture wants everything in a hurry – we have to pay attention to the art of tea and still keep in mind that we live in a fast-paced society.”