High tea the Chinese way

Katarina is now keen to promote Chinese tea and its ceremony in England, accepting a role as an ambassador for the project.

"We need to have good Chinese tea shops (in England)," she says. "We also need good Chinese tea ceremonies."

Katarina was born in London in 1959, the daughter of Prince Tomislav of Yugoslavia and Princess Margarita of Baden. On both her parents' sides, she is distantly related to the British royal family.

Like many royals, Katarina has busied herself with charity activities, but she also runs her own etiquette class in an attempt to share the good manners she gained from her upbringing with members of the general public.

With her business partner, Grant Harrold, who was once a butler to the Prince of Wales and the Duchess of Cornwall, Katarina holds her classes over traditional afternoon tea and tells her students about how she learned the Chinese way of drinking tea.

Katarina says she has always loved drinking tea, but during her childhood there was no choice but the typical British way of adding milk and sugar to it.

But a few years ago, she presented an award to the founder of the UK China Culture Association, and through this event became friends with him.

The friend introduced Katarina to the world of Chinese tea, and it was at a tea-drinking ceremony at Kensington Palace in London that Katarina tasted Dianhong tea and met representatives from the Yunnan Dianhong Group.

Dianhong, founded in 1939 in Yunnan, produces more than 100 types of tea products, including black, pu'er, green and jasmine tea. The company has had a long connection with the United Kingdom, as its tea was presented as a national gift to Queen Elizabeth II in 1986.

Katarina says she did not know what to expect on her first visit to China, but once in Yunnan she was amazed by the hospitality of her hosts. "They just wanted to make sure you've absolutely got everything," she says.

Although she believes it is unfair to compare etiquette in Eastern and Western cultures, she says Chinese coming to the UK would benefit from etiquette training.

Tea with heart	Jiaotong Tea House in Chongqing