Tea School, of Tea Fest PDX

The Portland Tea Festival is launching an online Tea School!  The classes are really awesome and really affordable! I hope you'll take a look. I'm teaching a class on Bowl-Style Brewing this Wednesday, 4/29 at 1 pm PDT.  It's a brew-along, and will be lots of fun! 

Tea Fest PDX 2018

The highly anticipated Year 2 for Tea Fest PDX was a success! The organizing team worked hard to bring not only the best from last year, but also improvements and new surprises.  An extra building allowed more space so that everyone could stretch out. Add to that mild summer weather, and amazing teas, and you've got a great day!

Photo by Mitra Farrokhzad Dunn

I taught the class, The Art and Etiquette of the British Afternoon Tea, and had the chance to partner with Marilyn who coordinated the British Tea Tent. Michelle, shown below, helped in the tent for much of the day and made many people jealous for her dress (which she sewed herself).

Many vendors offered tastings and sold tea and tea ware. This photo was from Minto Island Tea, a company growing and processing tea in Oregon. The photo highlights the steps of production and shows the leaf along the way.

Minto Island also had baby tea plants for sale.

I had the chance to attend three fabulous tastings, including this one with Tealet, sampling gyokuro tea. 

Pulling off an event of this size and scope takes a team of many. The dedicated volunteers work through the great ideas, the difference of opinions, the surprises and even when  cups don't clear customs!  Thank you to this team from the bottom of my teacup!

Tea Fest PDX: A Great Celebration for Us All

Wow - last weekend's Tea Fest PDX was amazing!  Raising my teacup to the core planning team that worked for over a year to bring this to fruition.  So many invisible tasks and challenges to meet. We are grateful! To the people who kept this dream alive over the years, thank you! To the volunteers who ensured the event ran well, you are awesome! To the NW Tea Fest team that not only loaned us equipment, but also came down to offer guidance and cheers, we are in your debt. 

Here are some photos.  Can't wait for next year!

The Vendor Showcase

Such an interesting mix of vendors!

Jennifer Petersen, local author and tea mentor

Richard Brandt, Portland potter who specializes in teaware

Babette Donaldson, promoting her endearing books and Sip for Peace coming in January, 2018

Reps from Brew Dr. Kombucha

Classes

Pearl Zhuo Zhang, Red Rob Teahouse and Cafe, Gong Fu tea ceremony

Marjorie Yap, Chado demonstration

Yoga, meditation and tea on the lawn, taught by Anja Sofia Churchill

Tea Tastings

David Galli, PDX Tea

Laurie and Charles Dawson, amazing tasting tea! 

Steven Odell in his custom tea van, Rabbit Moon Tea Arts

The Crowd and Staff

Jennifer Brenner (Tea Fest PDX leader) along with NW Tea Fest coaches,

and other friends

I loved seeing these women dressed in their beautiful Regency costumes

Friends dressed in Japanese kimono

These last two photos bring me to my final thoughts. Tea is a friend to all of us. Such diversity represented at this conference - in age, gender, clothing choice, ethnicity, tea preference, and much more. Tea brings us to commonality across these differences. What a truly beautiful thing.