Welcome to Tea Course.  This page is About Us!  Our contact information is listed with the FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions - section of our site.  If you have questions about membership or need more details about Tea Course, please be sure to click on the headings for Group Details and Member Benefits.  Also, watch the home page video and listen to the audio introduction at the end of the home page description.

Below you will read an interview between Tea Course and its producer, The Tea House Times. Hopefully this will give you some more insight into why we started this site and how it can be beneficial to you personally or professionally.  If you have any questions, please email: admin@teacourse.com 

AN INTERVIEW WITH TEA COURSE

Tea Course is a member only, educational and networking site for connecting tea businesses and consumers through tea.  The site will educate consumers and professionals on tea and traditions, offer opportunity for business education, and provide continuing education for years to come.  Networking is achieved through member forums and presentations, live online broadcasts, as well as in-person (face to face) events.  

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES: Tea Course is produced by The Tea House Times with support from Tea Bureau and Tea Speakers Bureau members and other experts within the tea industry.  While the current trend is for publishers to re-produce their print publication - digitally - for online access, The Tea House Times decided there is a more immediate need to focus its efforts and bring the Tea Bureau and Tea Speakers Bureau to the next level.  To achieve this, we need to support stronger connections among consumers and all aspects of tea industry businesses, such as tea room owners, tea speakers and more.  Enter Tea Course.  The behind the scenes administrator will help answer some questions you must be having about our new site.  What is Tea Course?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  Tea Course is a membership site.  Membership sites ARE the future.  Asking an individual consumer or business owner to search through over 100 million websites to find what they need is wasteful of that person's time and effort.  Membership sites have evolved to allow easier and quicker access to quality information and networking opportunities. 

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  What are some of the functions of the Tea Course site that our readers will be interested in?  I have said before, “Tea Industry growth is thanks to positive media, education, and the health benefits of tea.” Not to mention the power of word of mouth and consumer relations.  How does this all come into play?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  The Tea Course site offers very impressive applications empowering businesses and consumers to really connect, communicate, and educate.  Most importantly, Tea Course is educational and provides easy access to subject content, audio, videos, handouts and other tools needed for learning, personal enrichment, and business success.  Businesses may create a web page to promote their business and showcase their expertise.  Businesses may create a blog within Tea Course so that all members can see what they do and learn more about that business through comments and articles they post to their webpage or blog.  The communication application is a collection of forums on tea specific topics, traditions, a virtual book club, and so much more - offering a safe environment for cross communication among consumers and tea industry experts.  The site also allows for audio/visual presentations with business members, live broadcasts from Tea Course Administration, and more.  For lack of better description - Tea Course can also be a sort of facebook for tea - uniquely interacting with people who really care about the same interests as you and your business.

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  Sounds like a lot of bells and whistles - expensive ones at that.  What is the value to businesses and consumers?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  The value to consumers and professionals is an exciting, safe environment - really a community - to connect with others sharing their passion for tea.  It also offers them easy access to educational materials and a calendar of events to quickly and easily find other - in person - tea related presentations or events to further enrich their experience.  Tea Course will educate the public on the basics of tea.  It will offer more in-depth information about tea and traditions, thus serving as one means of continuing education for industry professionals.  Some business education will also be introduced for tea room owners and tea industry professionals.  The value of the combined functioning applications of Tea Course would cost an individual person or business thousands of dollars per year.  By building a community within the Tea Course membership site - everyone saves money - everyone learns more - and the resulting value of the experience becomes priceless.   

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  What is unique about Tea Course? Why should I enroll there rather than trying to find information on my own?  What is special about it?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  Tea Course materials are presented in a variety of ways to really enhance the learning experience.  Subject matter is presented through photography, targeted points of interest, videos for further clarity, and more descript text for learning even more.  The experience is further elevated through audio and visual presentations prepared by members, content provided via TeaCourseAdmin, and the communication forums for connecting on a personal or business level.

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  Why enroll or become a member?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  Wasted time is wasted money.  Tea Course connects everyone, screens content offered by members, and offers a safer environment for communications - members may see who other members are and feel comfortable.  Tea Businesses can share their expertise, demonstrating their knowledge and commitment to the industry - and they can even participate in the Tea Course affiliate program.

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  How does the affiliate program work?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  Well, there are two access levels for membership to the Tea Course site. Limited Access members will be students of tea and traditions.  Full Access members will be professionals in the industry - tea business owners or tea speakers or educators.  Full access members have access to more at the site than limited access.  Full Access members are rewarded for sharing their expertise when they refer others to our site.  Further, it is a means of promoting their business inexpensively - or with earnings, it could be free - or with earnings, it could be profitable!  Simple instructions and a referral link code is available to the members within their account.

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  What Special Offer/BONUS does Tea Course offer to businesses and educators or speakers?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  Businesses and Speakers will be offered a BOGO (buy one, get one free) program for a limited time.  This means that if a business is a paid member of Tea Bureau - tea business directory, then they may also choose to be a member of Tea Course.  If not already a member (listed business) of Tea Bureau, new members will join through Tea Course and be awarded the bonus of Tea Bureau listings and benefits including news distribution through The Tea House Times connections, etc.  For Educators, their bonus in the BOGO program is a combination of Tea Course and Tea Speakers Bureau where speakers are promoted in a variety of ways.  To take advantage of this program, a business should go to www.teacourse.com and JOIN as a full access member.  Then send email to teabureau@theteahousetimes.com along with their Tea Course nickname.  Tea Bureau listings are screened, so you will need to also include your business name, address, phone number, website, email, number of years in business and a description of your business when contacting Tea Bureau.  See Also www.teabureau.com and www.teaspeakersbureau.com

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  How did the Tea Course site come together?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  We are fortunate to be working with a team of experts who have put together the most impressive array of software to create all the functioning applications of Tea Course.  Membership, core content information, forums, blogs, video, audio, photo galleries, conferencing, calendar events, the affiliate program and more - all work together to seamlessly provide a professional, high quality environment for everyone involved.  Of course, it is produced by The Tea House Times - to ensure quality content.  It is my responsibility to connect it all together for you.

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  What about photos? Since this is the first thing we asked from our contacts to help aid in building a quality educational base.

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  The photos will aid tremendously in a visual learning experience.  The photos sent in by THT readers and businesses are already providing the basis for a quality photo gallery.  The early birds - who sent in photos a while ago - caught the worm - and their photos have been featured in the Tea Course - THIS IS TEA - video presentation on the home page of www.teacourse.com   More photos will be needed on a regular basis to further represent a variety of specialty teas (fresh, dried, brewed-to represent a journey of tea), tea ceremonies, culture, tradition, and more.  All photo contributors will receive credit with a link to their business.  Photos are also used for handouts.

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  Yes, the handouts! One of the main reasons for starting Tea Course in the first place!  Tea Room owners and tea speakers/educators have asked us for quality, consistent materials - to freely copy and distribute to their customers, event attendees, etc.  This is so important for businesses to share and educate their customers.  How will this work at Tea Course?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  Tea Course has a file sharing application.  It is only accessible to Full Access Members.  The members can download handouts and other materials, photos, even full Power Point type presentations or videos (in the making) - to use at their place of business!  Any business offering photos for educational use - with permission to reproduce - will be given credit on any handout shared through this application - imagine the number of people to be seeing this!  The handouts will be consistent in presentation and format.  Content references will be provided on the handouts.  There will also be a space for filling in your own information - such as - This handout was presented to you by _________ (name of business or educator) and our contact information is ________.

Customers are thankful for the information and businesses and educators love the ease of use.

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  One of the other very important reasons for beginning Tea Course is that since The Tea House Times publication does have subscribers in other countries - they usually read about the variety of educational functions and trade shows available to us in the USA, but if they cannot travel so far, they have no access to quality education for personal enrichment or for beginning a tea business.  How will Tea Course meet this need?

TEA COURSE ADMIN:  Tea Course is fully accessible online - with the exception of the in person calendar events with speakers, at tea rooms, etc.  Tea Course will help fulfill the need for education about tea and traditions and further aid in continuing education and connections to experts for years to come - anywhere in the world where there is an internet connection!

GAIL/THE TEA HOUSE TIMES:  This is probably about as much as anyone wants to read at one time for an interview, so we will close now.  If you have any interest in tea at all, Join Tea Course.  If you have an interest in furthering your business, demonstrating your expertise, Join Tea Course as a Full Access member.  Simply go to www.teacourse.com and click Join Now.   See limited time offer below.

A video presentation is currently accessible via the home page of Tea Course to everyone - even non members.  There is also an audio introduction to why we began Tea Course under the home page description of what Tea Course is.  Enjoy these presentations, and click on headings for Group Details and Member Benefits to learn more.  Then JOIN NOW.

LIMITED TIME OFFER  -  As with any new website - it has a beginning (October, 2008).  As we work to build membership and set an even pace for course material introductions, everyone is encouraged to become a member, load your profile photo and a bit about yourself or your business, get some conversations started in the forums, and familiarize yourself with all available Tea Course applications to begin your tea journey. 

FOR NOW - If you join Tea Course and immediately enter your member profile with a little info about yourself - and begin to explore the site - and make a commitment to get involved - share - and have fun - then you will be joining at reduced rate - initiation fee waived.   The Tea Course New member (initiation fee) is equal to one payment at the monthly payment level for joining. So, normally you would be paying one payment plus your initial monthly fee to join.  But, join now, and the initiation/application fee is waived!