Tea Sommelier

Position: Tea Sommelier

Reports To: President

Location: Commutable to Milwaukee (including Chicago)

Travel: Up to 60%

Compensation Range: $75,000 - $100,000 annual salary

We are seeking a Tea Sommelier to join our fast-growing team as a charismatic leader in brand and product storytelling and education. Reporting to the President, the Tea Sommelier will spend 70% of their time supporting Rishi’s Away from Home (Hotels, Restaurants, Cafés) training and education needs, emphasizing customer-facing presentations and tastings. The Tea Sommelier will also develop and curate a robust curriculum of internal continuing education materials and conduct ongoing recipe development to bring a beautiful and authentic Rishi tea experience to life. The Tea Sommelier will spend 30% of their time supporting omnichannel marketing efforts, employee onboarding, and other cross-functional product training and education needs.

The ideal candidate is deeply passionate about tea specifically and global gourmet food and beverages more generally. The Tea Sommelier will spend up to 60% of working time to travel across North America to share Rishi's passion for tea with customers. The successful Tea Sommelier candidate will demonstrate an ability to thrive in chaotic training environments at customer locations on site, which may be in a kitchen, behind a service counter, or in a conference room. The Tea Sommelier can captivate audiences both large and small through their charisma, their technical product information delivery, and their flawless drink preparation techniques.

ESSENTIAL DUTIES & RESPONSIBILITIES:

Training & Sales Enablement

• Conduct comprehensive external training sessions for:
• Hotel and hospitality teams during customer presentations to help win new business, and also support training needs during program rollouts and menu refreshes with key AFH customers
• Distributor decision makers and sales reps to product education needs and competitive comparisons
• Grocery Retail product demo teams and brokers
• Key customer brand presentations to showcase the depth and creativity of Rishi’s culinary inspiration
• Conduct comprehensive internal training sessions
• New employee tea onboarding and education
• Sales and marketing teams education for product innovation, reformulations, tasting notes, brand positioning and cuppings of competitor’s products
• Deliver practical instruction in:
• Tea brewing techniques adapted for foodservice and hospitality settings
• Traditional tea brewing techniques for internal education and differentiated customer experiences throughout Away from Home customers
• Tea mixology applications
• Culinary uses of botanicals, herbs, and spices
• Recipe development and execution for cafes, restaurants, hotels

Brand Storytelling

• Bring the Rishi brand to life by sharing our direct trade sourcing practices, engaging origin stories and the histories of celebrated teas to the market
• Tailor storytelling and messaging to diverse audiences—ranging from procurement managers and distributor sales reps to chefs, frontline baristas and direct consumers
• Translate complex sourcing and product information into compelling, customer-ready narratives

Content & Resource Development

• Collaborate with Marketing and cross functional teammates to:
• Develop training materials, product info collateral, and educational presentations that can be delivered effectively by the sales team during their customer visits and sales calls
• Ensure accuracy and authenticity in copywriting and visual assets
• Partner with Customer Service to maintain consistent responses to product inquiries
• Support Social Media efforts with relevant insights, brewing techniques, creative recipe inspiration and educational content
• Build scalable training kits and demo tools for grocery retail demos
• Identify teaware and presentation materials that support strong tea programs in hospitality settings

Event & Activation Support

• Represent Rishi Tea & Botanicals at trade shows, sales events, tastings, and brand activations
• Lead educational workshops and tastings for prospective and current clients at Rishi HQ and during key industry trade shows and events
• Provide pre-event training for sales team to ensure consistent messaging and product preparation
• Support customer visits and tastings at Rishi HQ with strict adherence to Rishi’s detailed SQF and food defense guidelines