Zhou Xiang
Senior proctor — green and black tea components
Zhou Xiang serves as senior proctor for the green tea and black tea (hóng chá, 红茶) components of the tea academy credentialing programme. She joined the proctor panel in 2019 after thirteen years of full-time work in Hunan's tea sector, including a long apprenticeship under master cupper Liu Zhongqing at the Anhua provincial tea research station, where she completed her advanced sensory training in 2011. Her professional grounding sits in GB/T 23776–2018, the national standard for tea sensory evaluation, which she applies daily when calibrating candidate cupping scores against the academy's reference panel. She is also a registered evaluator under the Hunan provincial bureau and has contributed to inter-laboratory ring tests for *Lóngjǐng* (龙井) authentication since 2017. Within the academy, Zhou Xiang's remit covers the blind identification stations for *lǜ chá* (绿茶) and *hóng chá* (红茶) at Foundation and Specialist tiers, the dry-leaf and infusion grading exercises at Master tier, and the standardised brewing protocol used across all green-tea practical examinations. She does not currently chair a full examination, but she co-signs every green and black tea practical mark sheet issued from the Kunming examination centre and reviews appeals submitted to the board on those components. Her specialist range — *Jūnshān Yínzhēn* (君山银针), Anhua *hēi chá* adjacent reference materials, *Gāoqiáo Yínfēng* (高桥银峰), and the *gōngfū* black teas of the Xiang river basin — informs the academy's regional question bank for Hunan. Candidates preparing for Specialist-tier regional electives frequently encounter cupping sets she has assembled from her network of growers around Yiyang and Changsha; the same growers are profiled on shop.thetea.app and discussed in long-form on thetea.app's regional notes. Zhou Xiang lectures occasionally on Hunan green and yellow tea processing for the sister teaching programme at tea.school, and she contributes calibration data to the broader Teamotea research archive. She holds the academy's internal Educator-tier recognition, awarded 2022, and sits on the recertification review committee that adjudicates Foundation and Specialist annual renewals. Her examination style is exacting on procedure — water temperature within ±1°C of the published protocol, infusion timing to the second, vessel pre-warming verified — and equally exacting on language: candidates are required to describe *Mí Lán Xiāng* (蜜兰香) notes and Hunan high-fired finishes using the academy's controlled vocabulary rather than informal market terms. Appeals against her scoring are rare and seldom upheld.
Specialties
- *lǜ chá* (绿茶) — green tea
- *hóng chá* (红茶) — black tea
- *huáng chá* (黄茶) — yellow tea
- Hunan regional teas
- *Lóngjǐng* (龙井)
- *Jūnshān Yínzhēn* (君山银针)
Zhou Xiang serves as senior proctor for the green tea and black tea (hóng chá, 红茶) components of the tea academy credentialing programme. She joined the proctor panel in 2019 after thirteen years of full-time work in Hunan’s tea sector, including a long apprenticeship under master cupper Liu Zhongqing at the Anhua provincial tea research station, where she completed her advanced sensory training in 2011.
Her professional grounding sits in GB/T 23776–2018, the national standard for tea sensory evaluation, which she applies daily when calibrating candidate cupping scores against the academy’s reference panel. She is also a registered evaluator under the Hunan provincial bureau and has contributed to inter-laboratory ring tests for Lóngjǐng (龙井) authentication since 2017.
Within the academy, Zhou Xiang’s remit covers the blind identification stations for lǜ chá (绿茶) and hóng chá (红茶) at Foundation and Specialist tiers, the dry-leaf and infusion grading exercises at Master tier, and the standardised brewing protocol used across all green-tea practical examinations. She does not currently chair a full examination, but she co-signs every green and black tea practical mark sheet issued from the Kunming examination centre and reviews appeals submitted to the board on those components.
Her specialist range — Jūnshān Yínzhēn (君山银针), Anhua hēi chá adjacent reference materials, Gāoqiáo Yínfēng (高桥银峰), and the gōngfū black teas of the Xiang river basin — informs the academy’s regional question bank for Hunan. Candidates preparing for Specialist-tier regional electives frequently encounter cupping sets she has assembled from her network of growers around Yiyang and Changsha; the same growers are profiled on shop.thetea.app and discussed in long-form on thetea.app’s regional notes.
Zhou Xiang lectures occasionally on Hunan green and yellow tea processing for the sister teaching programme at tea.school, and she contributes calibration data to the broader Teamotea research archive. She holds the academy’s internal Educator-tier recognition, awarded 2022, and sits on the recertification review committee that adjudicates Foundation and Specialist annual renewals.
Her examination style is exacting on procedure — water temperature within ±1°C of the published protocol, infusion timing to the second, vessel pre-warming verified — and equally exacting on language: candidates are required to describe Mí Lán Xiāng (蜜兰香) notes and Hunan high-fired finishes using the academy’s controlled vocabulary rather than informal market terms. Appeals against her scoring are rare and seldom upheld.