AESTHESYS

CONTEMPORARY TEA PRACTICE RETREAT
NOVEMBER 1-8, 2026
CAPPADOCIA, TURKEY
Join Ask
A week-long immersion into tea practice - held among the volcanic valleys, cave houses and wide autumn skies of Cappadocia.

Over one week, we will move through three essential dimensions of tea culture: tasting and distinction, precision and ritual, presence and inspiration.

You will leave Cappadocia with a personal tea set, selected teas and enough practical knowledge to begin your own tea table at home.
What you will learn
A real tea practice:
precise, beautiful and grounded in lived experience
  • Tea Map
    Areas of cultivation
    Tea begins with place. Explore the main families of Chinese tea, the regions where they grow and the processes that shape their character. By the end, unfamiliar names become a map you can navigate.
  • Taste and perception
    Evaluation standards
    Learn to notice tea beyond flavour: aroma, texture, sweetness, bitterness and aftertaste. Through guided tasting, you will develop a more precise sensory language and a deeper relationship with each cup.
  • Objects & Space
    Organising a ritual
    Discover how teaware, light, texture and the room itself shape the experience of tea. You will learn to create a simple, attentive setting where every object supports presence and hospitality.
  • Cha Yi
    Precision of form
    Learn the refined art of tea performance, where precision, rhythm and beauty come together. Through simple gestures and careful attention, you will discover how serving tea can become a quiet form of hospitality.
  • Aesthesys Tea Practice
    Embodied protocol
    Experience tea as a practice of embodied attention. By bringing taste, touch, sound and presence into one shared rhythm, you will learn to turn a simple tea table into a space for connection.
  • Cha Dao
    The essence
    Touch the deeper levels of tea practice, where technique becomes intuitive and the tea table opens into a state of quiet inspiration. Here, precision gives way to presence, and each gesture begins to carry its own meaning.
Aesthesys
Aesthesys Tea Practice is a contemporary embodiment protocol that gathers sight, sound, touch, scent, taste, proprioception, and the sense of time
into a unified state of embodied presence.


Move slowly

Know your strengths and limits

Touch lighter

Breathe from the depths

Feel the taste of the water

Look at the light

Listen to your heart
Who this is for?

This retreat is for you if:

  • you have long been drawn to tea but never knew how to begin

  • you want to learn tea practice properly, through your own hands

  • you are interested in taste, beauty, hospitality and the culture of attention

  • you work with yoga, meditation, bodywork, art, design or education and want to expand your sensory language

  • you want a meaningful week away from noise, rushing and passive tourism

  • you want to return home with a real skill, not only memories

No prior experience with tea, qigong or somatic practice is required.
What it will be like?
  • Cave hotel
    An intimate group of just 12 people, staying in a welcoming cave hotel with sweeping views over Cappadocia.
    Delicious local meals, a choice of single, double, or twin accommodation, and all practice materials are included.
  • Photograph
    We won’t turn the retreat into an endless photo shoot, but everyone will leave with vivid, beautiful memories: the atmosphere of the week, shared moments, and a personal portrait.
  • Balloon Flight
    This is one of Cappadocia’s most breathtaking experiences. On one morning of the retreat, we will rise before dawn and share this unforgettable moment together - floating above the valleys as the landscape opens beneath us in the first light.
  • Author's Book
    Each participant will receive a signed copy of the author’s tea book — a thoughtful companion to the retreat and a lasting invitation to continue exploring tea at home.
  • Personal Tea Set
    Each participant will receive a personal tea set to use throughout the retreat and take home afterwards — everything needed to continue the practice, create small rituals of attention, and share tea with others.
  • Tea Circle
    This retreat brings together an emerging international circle of tea practitioners who share a love for beauty, attention, hospitality, and the art of tea. Keep in touch and let it grow.
Week agenda
Rich yet relaxed
Morning
Qi Gong & Tai Chi, Aesthesys tea ceremony
Noon
Theory and practice of tea
Afternoon
Aesthesys practice
Evening
Breathwork, bodywork, sound bath, nidra, chill
Day off
Balloon flight and chill day
What is included
Included

  • seven nights of accommodation;
  • three meals a day
  • all tea practice sessions and teaching;
  • tea tastings and selected rare teas;
  • your personal tea set;
  • curated tea selection;
  • author’s book;
  • one cultural excursion in Cappadocia;
  • preparation support before the trip
  • balloon flight
Excluded
  • flights;
  • travel insurance;
  • personal expenses.
Where is it?

Our retreat takes place in Cappadocia, in central Türkiye - a landscape shaped by volcanic stone, ancient cave dwellings, quiet valleys, and wide open skies.

We will stay in the heart of the region, surrounded by its distinctive rock formations and within easy reach of its villages, walking trails, and timeless landscapes.
Home
We will stay in an intimate cave guesthouse in the old heart of Uçhisar, beneath the castle and overlooking Cappadocia’s wide, otherworldly valleys.

A place of warm hospitality, stone rooms, quiet terraces, and long breakfasts with a view - a beautiful home for our week together.
Retreat host
Yu Gen
Founder
Yu Gen is the founder of Aesthesys and a tea practitioner with more than twenty years of experience.

His work brings together traditional Chinese tea culture, contemporary embodiment practice, aesthetic education and the art of hosting.

Over the years, he has taught and organised retreats, workshops and gatherings across Europe, the Caucasus and Asia.

This retreat is an invitation into the practice he has spent decades developing: tea as a lived form of attention.
COSTS
Including accommodation, food, program, all materials, tea set, book and balloon flight.


Twin accommodation - two people in a room, separate beds

Early bird 1500 €
Regular price 1700 €

Single accommodation one person in a private room

Early bird 1900 €
Regular price2200 €


Early bird till August 15


A €750 deposit confirms your place. It is fully refundable until September 1, 2026.
The remaining balance is due by October 10, 2026.


Once your deposit is confirmed, we will help you find the most convenient flights, answer all practical questions, and support you through every stage of preparing for the journey.
Apply
It is important for us to get to know each other a little before confirming participation. Please complete a short form, and we will get in touch, answer your questions, and help you choose the format of participation that feels right for you.
Accommodation?
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Contacts
Whatsapp/Telegram: +38 050 287 86 10
Email: yugenteamail@gmail.com