Thua Thien Hue (VNA) — Tea sommeliers fromaround the world are competing in a skill competition in the city of Hue in thecentral province of Thua Thien - Hue from November 23-26.

The Tea Masters Cup International sees the participation oftop sommeliers in tea service representing 15 countries with tea traditions,including Republic of Korea, Poland and Ukraine.

According to the organisers, the sommeliers were selectedfrom domestic competitions to represent their nations at this global challenge,which requires skills in not only brewing tea but also the decoration of anaesthetic tea set.

The sommeliers will compete in four categories to win thecup: tea brewing, serving tea with snacks, tea mixology and tea tasting.

In tea brewing, the competitors have to show off their skillin brewing a type of tea chosen by them and another type given by the judges.

In the competitions of snack service and tea mixology, thesommeliers prepare two sets of tea and snacks and two types of drinks that mixtea with another beverage.

Traditionally, tea is served on its own. But later on inhistory, honey, milk and other beverages were added to create differentflavours.

The sommeliers will also taste different types of tea toshow off their capacity in recognising the tea varieties grown in severalcountries around the world.

Besides, tea specialists will sit down in a seminar to havea closer look at the royal tea and food tradition once popular in the formerimperial city of Hue.

The host city will take the participants to villages thatare involved with the tea industry as a sideline activity.

This will be the fourth Tea Masters Cup International. Theearlier editions were held in Turkey in 2015, the Republic of Korea in 2016 andChina in 2017. The Vietnam Tea Association, local Department of Tourism and TeaMasters Cup Vietnam are the organisers.

Vietnam is the seventh top tea producer in the world, andthe fifth biggest exporter of the product, with popular export trademarks ofThai Nguyen, Tay Bac in the northwest region and Bao Loc in the CentralHighlands.

The tea served for the kings under the NguyenDynasty (1802-1945) in Hue was as diverse and complicated as those served inJapan, Republic of Korea and China’s feudal time. Today, the quintessence oftea service is preserved in cities with long histories like Hanoi and Hue.-VNA