Last Weekend (October 4th and 5th) Seattle had an annual happening which brought together tea lover from all over the King County and even from other states located further than Oregon. NorthWest Tea Festival, just like three years before that, was a hit. In this post I'll share pictures I took during it and will try to highlight the most fun and dynamic parts of the event.
At 10am in front of Fisher Pavillion there was already a huge line of people waiting for festival to open its doors. Being a volunteer at two last festivals, this was the longest line I witnessed so far. Hope, next year it will reach the fountain.
This year we, as usual, were selling tea plants, but due to the fact that our regular supplier got his greenhouses flooded, we had to get it from a different source. Hundred young tea trees, Russian Sochi varietal, 25$ each.
Make sure, that if you gonna drink tea from those plants, you drink it the RIGHT way! Yes, you can use beer or spirit which suits your taste better than Heineken. I recommend cognac.
It is a proven (via experience) fact, that if you drink enough of such tea, you might start seeing tea fairies.
The most busy booth this year was the one presented by the Sa' tea company ( www.sugimotousa.com ). It presented all aspects of Japanese tea culture: Tea itself, Tea ware, Tea sweets, and Tea ceremony. The effect was truly impressive: while the very first tea ceremony on Sunday was not too busy, the second and third one attracted so many people that it was hard to pass between booths (and they had good four yards in between).
I would like particularly compliment Sugimoto Company on supporting small local businesses and craftspeople.
Wagashi Sweets this year were handcrafted by Chef Tokara (tokaragashi.com/index.html). As those wagashi were one of two sources of tea sweets available this year at the Festival, we all hope that Tokara-san will bring more of her culinary art next year to be consumed alongside with tea.
Handcrafted Japanese matcha bowls were made (and presented) by local artist Mika Sullivan (no website, but if you would like to purchase some of her artworks next year, I would recommend to go and meet her at Tokara-san's open house Sunday).
The tea ceremony was done by the local tea master; doing such an elaborate art performance in a room full of walking/talking/laughing/slurping people was definitely a sign of high skill.
The other tea sweets vendor was Gena Renaud (www.yumeconfections.com) who presented her baked manju cakes and sea glass confections. Even though Jasmine Pearl is always giving Gena a display space kin'da at the very-very corner of their booth, I don't remember when there was no people next to those boxes of manju.
Smacha (www.smacha.com), as always, showed a great quality of service and performance. It seems that this time for them it was even busier then last year - at some point there were five people operating their double booth. The Oriental Beauty oolong provided by them for "floating teapot carriers" was one of my favorite through the entire Festival.
And thank you for supporting Mother Russia by buying those tea plants!If you need more, we can always drop more of them from a plain wherever you need them.
Friday Afternoon teas company (www.facebook.com/FridayTea) - teas for geeks of all kinds. Are you looking for that very special blend to share with your Princess Leia? They have it. They have it even if you are dreaming about Darth Vader instead of Princess Leia.
Attic Secrets tea room (www.atticsecrets.com). I really want to say "at last" - being one of the oldest English-style tea rooms in the state and trying to hide from public is not fair!
Another tea business I really liked to see at the festival (even though I've never had a chance to talk to any of people at the booth) was the Crimson Lotus (crimsonlotustea.com ). As my friend, who visited the festival, stated: "They are one of three booths which are selling real Chinese tea".
Bringing the table for the Gongfu tea ceremony was a great idea!
At 10am in front of Fisher Pavillion there was already a huge line of people waiting for festival to open its doors. Being a volunteer at two last festivals, this was the longest line I witnessed so far. Hope, next year it will reach the fountain.
The most busy booth this year was the one presented by the Sa' tea company ( www.sugimotousa.com ). It presented all aspects of Japanese tea culture: Tea itself, Tea ware, Tea sweets, and Tea ceremony. The effect was truly impressive: while the very first tea ceremony on Sunday was not too busy, the second and third one attracted so many people that it was hard to pass between booths (and they had good four yards in between).
I would like particularly compliment Sugimoto Company on supporting small local businesses and craftspeople.
Wagashi Sweets this year were handcrafted by Chef Tokara (tokaragashi.com/index.html). As those wagashi were one of two sources of tea sweets available this year at the Festival, we all hope that Tokara-san will bring more of her culinary art next year to be consumed alongside with tea.
And thank you for supporting Mother Russia by buying those tea plants!If you need more, we can always drop more of them from a plain wherever you need them.
This year there were lots of new faces at the Festival!
Bringing the table for the Gongfu tea ceremony was a great idea!
The unexpected (or rather "it was worth to wait for") guest and a presenter at the Festival was Shiuwen Tai (www.floatingleaves.com) with her lecture about Taiwanese Oolongs.
I can only say that it would be great if she could visit the Festival at least with lectures, because this one was probably the most informative one (not to mention the accompaniment of tea tastings as you listen to presenter).
I'll probably make one more post to cover other vendors which were presented at the Festival, but I'll do it tomorrow.
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