The TeaMaster® Program of the Frankfurter tea house Ronnefeldt has been in operation for over seven years. Service personnel from the best hotels in Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Russia, Dubai and the United Arab Emirates, Singapore, Japan, Korea and Australia have been awarded the qualification of TeaMaster® Silver or Gold in this multi-level program. The training to TeaMaster® Silver in Frankfurt includes the theoretical exploration of the most important tea cultivation areas and their harvesting and processing methods. The practical component of the course includes learning different tasting techniques and various methods of preparation and presentation. The training to TeaMaster Gold® is real on-the-job training and takes place on location in the tea-growing areas of Sri Lanka.

 

 

“The tea service in hotels is a profitable but complex business since in addition to a flair for consultation, it also demands extensive knowledge of the product and its presentation”, Frank Holzapfel, senior owner of J.T. Ronnefeldt KG, explains his motive for institutionalising the training program. The trained TeaMasters® bridge the gap between the expectations one has of a first class hotel and the everyday service in the hotel on location: They pass their tea expertise on to the guests, employees and colleagues. They stage afternoon teas, conduct seminars and advise their hotel or restaurant on the choice of teas for their individual collections. They give impulse to the F&B departments for the expansion of the tea value creation chain in areas such as more original cocktails, summer ice-tea creations and the trendy “Cooking with Tea”.

There are currently more than 220 Ronnefeldt trained TeaMasters®  working in the best and most prestigious hotels throughout the world.

Prerequisite to applying to the TeaMaster® Program is participation in a one-day Ronnefeldt Basic Seminar and submission of a curriculum vitae accompanied by an expression of interest. Applicants should be interested in tea, be engaged in the hotel service area, have managerial responsibility and have the freedom to realise their own ideas. Acceptance into the program is through a personal interview. This is followed by individual preparation for the course using tea samples and printed materials that are sent to the participants in advance.

 

Bearers of the title TeaMaster® Gold include employees of prestigious hotels such as the Capella Group, Fairmont Hotels & Resorts, Four Seasons, the InterContinental Hotel Group, Jumeirah Hotels & Resorts, Kempinski Hotels & Resorts, Marriott, the Rezidor Hotel Group, Shangri-La, Starwood and Ritz-Carlton Hotels & Resorts.