Taiwan's 2026 Global Tea Excellence Awards (GTEA) is shaping up to be a groundbreaking success! Since this year is the inaugural event, the goal was to achieve 300 entries from the international tea community. When the deadline for submissions arrived, there was a total of 441 entries from 12 different tea producing countries!

U Chung, New Taipei City's Agriculture Bureau and Pinglin Young Tea Farmers, in collaboration with Tea Talk Academy combined resources to produce a whole new framework for the evaluation and recognition of specialty tea on the international platform. The purpose of this event is to establish an alternative to Taiwan's previously established standards of tea evaluation and promotion on the domestic market. Taiwan has been the world's leading pioneer of the modern tea industry over the last half-century. The conventional tea competition developed by the Lugu Farmers' Association since the 1970's has set a standard that has been emulated throughout Taiwan and internationally. This methodology has established quality standards for each tea growing region and the type of tea that it represents. This has provided a platform for regional tea types to be clearly defined and promoted. It has raised the quality standards and market values for tea producing regions all over Taiwan and beyond.

The Global Tea Excellence Awards aims to bridge the gap between this highly specialized industry method of tea evaluation and the sensory evaluation of food and beverage appreciation at large. The GTEA approach is not based on any specific quality standards of regional tea types. Rather, it evaluates a given tea sample based on its aromatic and flavor profiles, along with its finish, balance and overall composition. This is designed to make quality assessment more accessible for the consumer. Instead of ranking samples of a certain type of tea against each other, the ranking is based on a star attribution. One, Two or Three stars are awarded to the teas that achieve an approved ranking. This is a much more open evaluation system that does not require an understanding of a particular tea name or tea region.

A panel of 20 judges was comprised of ten tea industry professionals of varied orientations, and ten professionals from a wide range food and beverage industries including chocolate, coffee, sake, baked goods, gastronomy, beer and spirits, and more. This eclectic board of evaluators is the embodiment of GTEA's method of evaluation. The assessment was done using innovative software specifically designed for this event that integrates the sensory evaluation provided by each individual.

Among this eclectic group of professionals were world-class recipients of international awards. This was not a casual collection of foodies and hobbyists, this was a highly qualified group of people who each brought their own skill set to the table.

The carefully chosen lineup of judges not only included highly qualified professionals in their respective fields, but also iconic individuals that brought inspiration and added mojo to the vibe of this arduous three day process of tea evaluation. Shown above is a modest and humble guy who has become a cultural icon of self-made success. We didn't know the background story of Wu Bao Chun until after we chatted casually in a taxi ride to the group dinner on the first night of the tea evaluation. We only knew of him because his student opened a bakery in our rural town that we have appreciated greatly because they make the best baguette we've had in Taiwan! Meeting him was a highlight, but only one of several that we were offered in our overall experience of this historic occasion!

The panel of 20 tea judges was divided up into four teams of five people each. Each team of five people evaluated a round of 20 tea samples within a 50 minute session. Tasting, assessing, and recording a five-part evaluation for each tea within this time span was a demanding chore, and it was repeated for at least eight rounds a day for three days! Nevertheless, standing side-by-side with this team of dedicated professionals was both meaningful and educational. The guy in the blue shirt to the left in the photo above impressed us with his methods of assessment, and his responses to all of the questions that we carefully chose to ask for his input on. Hsu Wei-Ting is a highly qualified tea professional in Taiwan that happens to live less than an hour away from us, and we will definitely be visiting him in the future to learn more from his extensive industry knowledge and experience!

We also had the pleasure of getting to know Isaline Lannoy who came all the way from Belgium to participate. While we were all very occupied with our work at hand, we nevertheless were working side-by-side and doing what we could to support each other throughout the process. Isaline is clearly an experienced and talented tea sommelier, not to mention a genuinely kind and present individual. We two were the only non-Taiwanese on the panel, and it was a very much appreciated sense of camaraderie that was felt.

We could continue to write pages about all the super cool and accomplished individuals we got to meet at this event. But for now, we will wrap it up here, but not before we give a big shout out to the production team that made it all happen!