10.15.07
How do You Manage Your Specialty Beverage ongoing Education?
posted by Paul J. Fiske | 7 comments
After many months of inane and “off the wall” responses to many of T Ching’s wonderful commentaries, I felt it was time to get serious. I told a friend of mine several months ago about a very timely article that I read about tea. When I asked if he had read it, the response was very reminiscent of the early days of my last business venture, when I had to know everything NOW! So I subscribed to every publication and newsletter, and found myself . . . overwhelmed! Therefore, like my friend, I just “scratched” the surface of what I received, while trying to balance a 14 to 16 hour day in “down the street” distribution.
Here is a system I devised, that works very well for me. You may want to use it as a template to create your own: First, I canceled all seemingly duplicate informational publications, and narrowed it down to four: U.S. News & World Report, especially the Health and Education section; Tea & Coffee Trade Journal; Fresh Cup Magazine; and Imbibe- which is a new publication, one year old, covering the wine, beer, and coffee specialty industry. From there, I funnel down more intense reading, clinical studies and white papers that may apply. This system works for me. After more than 54 years in the Food Service Institutional Industry, then in the specialty beverage industry as a purveyor, master wholesaler & broker, I’ve found that the amount of information is stunning. Now many of you are probably doing this already, so good for you! For the rest, I hope this helps brings a little bit of sanity to your busy life. Of course this wonderful “blog” is also an enormous resource for tea education. Have a wonderful, relaxing, and tea-filled day.
October 15th, 2007 at 1:14 pm
Your organizational method, tweaked just a bit in the area of the specific publications, works well for the pursuit of knowledge about many subjects. Thanks for sharing, Paul!
October 15th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
My favorite is the “google alerts” option for “health benefits of tea”. The majority of the information is very appropriate and I feel keeps me on track with new information. I always get a kick out of seeing a T Ching post that shows up there.
October 15th, 2007 at 6:45 pm
Paul, you are so right about all of the informational “froth” out there. It’s good to have a couple of reliable journals you are comfortable with that give consistency to your informational sources, and always good to try a new source now and then. The internet is a minefield of sometimes great, sometimes not-so-great information, and it is sometimes hard to tell which is which, especially for a “newbie”!
October 16th, 2007 at 10:35 pm
Thank You Ladies for your kind comments. I hope others found it useful too. Michelle, I’m going to check out that “Google Alert” earmark “health bennies on tea” Thanks….PJF
October 18th, 2007 at 2:34 pm
Here I go again…
If you want to learn anything about TEA (and I don’t mean about clinical studies involving tea), then there are VERY limited choices of print media and a plethora of online resources (a good starting point are the tea links here at T Ching. There are many personal blogs out there that don’t cost you anything to read and that will give you an endless supply of information.
Besides books, the only regular publication I found that contains a large amount of very useful information about tea and its related (Chinese) culture is The Art of Tea magazine, whose editor Aaron Fisher has contributed here in the past.
The two most authoritative online sources for tea information are IMHO the Cha Dao blog and the newsgroup Rec.Food.Drink.Tea.
October 18th, 2007 at 3:58 pm
Jo - Great suggestion about The Art of Tea. What a fabulous magazine. It elevates the culture of tea to a new level.
October 18th, 2007 at 4:15 pm
Thank You Jo, That line up looks terrific. Education, and enjoyment (with a little fun on the side) is what we are all about….PJF