TO BE A TEA SOMMELIER IN ITALY

About the author



• Gabriella Scarpa

She was born in Venice on 16th August 1965 to a Venetian father and an English mother. After studying History of Art at the Ca’ Foscari University in Venice, she lived between Venice and London. It was her love for art that led her to learn the secrets of Raku ceramics, and subsequently to open an art workshop, followed by the Vainart Art gallery.

In 2014 she founded Ar-tea, her tea room in the city of Treviso, with the aim of divulging the culture of tea in all its forms. There she spread the knowledge through themed tea tasting events for four years.

In 2019 Ar-tea became Ar-Tea Academy, based in Venice, on wfor the training and certification of Tea Sommeliers in collaboratiith the London UK Tea Academy.

She is a Level 2 UKTA Tea Sommelier with a 100/100 score, and a UK Tea Academy Tea Educator in Italy (in Italian) under the tutelage of Tea Expert Jane Pettigrew. She is also a certified LEVEL 1 and LEVEL 2 “Tea Evaluator” for the Chinese Government.

She organises special “tea- based” events for Italian companies in the fashion, design, and gastronomy fields. She works as a consultant for Italian companies in the hospitality sector, setting up their “tea services” and providing staff training. She offers branding services and is currently working on setting up an on-line Tea shop to supply high grade tea to the companies she collaborates with. She is an “English-style Tea Party” expert and liaises with Italian hotels organising traditional “Afternoon Tea” events.

She has travelled to better her knowledge of the tea world, and during the trip to Japan in 2018, she encountered the many beautiful realities of tea culture, production, and commercialisation, such as the “World Green Tea Association”.