茶人五事 Five Foundations for a Life & Practice in Tea

知 · 修 · 益 · 业 · 承

Knowledge · Cultivation · Service · Livelihood · Stewardship

A five-month live online training in tea, self-cultivation and serving others, leading to immersive study in Guizhou

Register your interest here

If tea has already become an important part of your personal life, you may be beginning to ask what comes next: how to deepen your practice, serve others through tea, or bring tea into the work you already do.

Taking that step requires more than knowing tea well. It raises deeper questions: how do we cultivate ourselves and translate what we know into something others can receive? How do we serve skilfully without running ourselves empty, build a sustainable livelihood around the work, and carry the knowledge and traditions we have received responsibly?

The Five Foundations for a Life & Practice in Tea (茶人五事 / chá rén wǔ shì /) brings these questions together through five consecutive months of live teaching, practice, practical application, and personal mentorship with Rui. Limited to 8–12 participants, the training develops five interconnected foundations—Knowledge, Cultivation, Service, Livelihood and Stewardship—before leading to the opportunity for further immersive study in Guizhou.

There, participants can deepen and integrate what they have learnt directly with tea masters and wisdom holders, and through the land, tea trees, communities and cultures from which this knowledge comes.

The Five Foundations

For many tea practitioners, the challenge is no longer simply learning more, but knowing how to take what they have learnt further. The five foundations are designed to develop together: what we know, how we cultivate ourselves, how we serve others, how we sustain the work, and how we carry what we have received responsibly.

知 /zhī/ — Knowledge

Knowing your sources and developing your own discernment.

There is no shortage of tea and wellbeing teaching today. What is harder is tracing knowledge to its roots, examining its authenticity, and distinguishing knowledge grounded in living traditions from teachings assembled across different cultures and contexts.

Building upon The Roots of Tea, we will deepen your knowledge of provenance, quality, craftsmanship, brewing, water, teaware, and sensory experience, while taking a deeper dive into subjects such as Gong Fu Cha, Tea Ceremony, and tea ritual—their origins, distinctions, and development. The aim is to develop the discernment to assess tea and provenance critically, make confident choices in how you select, prepare and serve tea, and navigate different teachings and traditions with greater clarity.

修 /xiū/ — Cultivation

Strengthening the person behind the practice.

Those drawn to serving others care deeply about what they do. That same commitment can lead us to over-give, over-sacrifice and eventually run ourselves empty.

Through consistent personal tea practices and learning the time-tested principles that support them, we will work with attention, awareness, habitual patterns, confidence, boundaries and inner capacity. Self-cultivation is not separate from learning to serve others; it allows us to do so with greater stability, sensitivity and wisdom.

益 / yì / — Service

Turning what you know into something another person can benefit from.

Many practitioners reach a point where they have accumulated substantial knowledge and experience, yet still wonder whether they know enough to serve or teach others.

Knowing something internally and communicating it skilfully are different abilities. Through real-world tea-serving practice, feedback, and mentorship, you will learn how to choose and serve tea for different people and situations, communicate complex knowledge without flattening it, and develop the confidence that comes from practice rather than performance.

业 /yè/ — Livelihood

Giving meaningful work the financial means to thrive.

Bringing tea into your professional life requires practical decisions: what you offer, who it serves, how you value and price it, where the tea comes from, and which partnerships or ways of working make sense. Drawing on Rui’s ten years of building Grass People Tree, we will work with your own circumstances to develop viable offerings and a model that allows both the work and the person behind it to thrive.

承 /chéng/ — Stewardship

From learning about a tradition to developing a genuine relationship with it.

For many practitioners, the tricky part is to share a culture that is not their own with both confidence and respect. Cultural understanding matters, but responsible stewardship goes beyond knowing the correct terminology or what we should and should not say. It grows through sincerity, deeper knowledge and genuine connection with the people, tea trees, land and living cultures from which the practice comes.

Through the training and ultimately immersive study in Guizhou, we explore how to embody what we have learnt rather than simply represent it: developing the discernment to communicate with accuracy, the sensitivity to recognise our boundaries, and real relationships with the land, tea trees, people and culture. It is through these lived connections that knowledge gradually becomes embodied—no longer something observed from the outside, but something deeply owned mutually through experience and relationship.

Course at a Glance

Prerequisite
Completion of The Roots of Tea online course.

Dates (Tentative)
Cohort Orientation: 26/27 September 2026
Training begins: 10 October 2026
Duration: 5 consecutive months
Cohort: 8–12 participants

Monthly Commitment

Allow approximately 5–7 hours per week for teaching, practice and assignments.

• 2 × 3.5-hour live teachings per month (Weekend)

• Minimum 30 minutes of personal practice daily

• 1–2 hours of group practice per month

• Practical assignments between sessions

• Assessment and feedback at key milestones

• One-to-one mentorship with Rui 

Format
 Live online, practice-based training. Active participation and attendance are expected. Separate regional cohorts may be formed for different time zones. 

Assessment
Progress will be assessed at key milestones across tea knowledge and discernment, personal cultivation, serving practice, professional application and stewardship. The emphasis is on what you can apply and embody, not simply what you can remember.

Course Fee (Indicative)
£550 / US$750 per month for 5 months
Longer instalment plans are also available.

Includes five months of live training, group practice, assessment, feedback, personal mentorship, as well as all teas needed for personal practice and tea-serving practices (value £250 / USD 3340). Guizhou study and travel are separate.

Register your interest here

Guizhou Immersive Study
 Indicative fee: £2,300 (excluding flight) 
 Dates and final inclusions TBC. Likely to be May- July 2027 for 7- 10 days. 

The Guizhou Study is not a standalone travel programme. Completion of the training is required, with progression also based on engagement and readiness.

Participants who continue will study directly with tea masters and wisdom holders, experience traditional tea-making, and deepen their relationship with the land, tea trees, people, and cultures of Guizhou.