The following are few recommendations of presentations or educational opportunities that you may want to take advantage of. There are also a wide range of tasting opportunities throughout both days, including one that I am presenting, which is a comparison tasting of two white teas, one from China and one from Kenya.

SATURDAY

The Common Wealth: Tea in Community Life
James Norwood Pratt
“Humans drink more tea than any other beverage. It is humanity’s favorite habit and a treasure of the world: nothing has contributed more to our enjoyment of leisure, friendship, sociability and conversation, which is why mankind’s love affair with tea has now lasted 5000 years. The history of that love affair has involved not only agriculture and business but also medicine, religion, finance and fine arts – but always human relations above all. Treat yourself to a trip into the mind of America’s foremost tea historian and storyteller and you will never think of tea quite the same way again.”

Tea Chemistry: Reactions in Leaf and Cup
Michael J. Coffey
“All of the amazing flavors, colors, and aromas in a cup of pure tea are the result of chemical reactions–in the tea plant, during the preparation of the leaf, or during the process of brewing and drinking a cup. We will look at some of the major reactions and what they mean to your tea drinking experience. This is not a beginner’s class; participants should at least know what basic processing differences lead to green, wulong, and black teas.All of the amazing flavors, colors, and aromas in a cup of pure tea are the result of chemical reactions–in the tea plant, during the preparation of the leaf, or during the process of brewing and drinking a cup.”

Learning Professional Tea Terms in Chinese
Becky Li & Issac Dumiel
“This is a 2-part workshop presentation. In the first section, Ms. Li will explain a selection of professional terms in Chinese used to describe and evaluate tea in mainland China and Taiwan, with a focus on concepts that have no exact analogs in English. In the second section, Mr. Dumiel will present a small selection of traditional Chinese texts on tea preparation, tasting and etiquette, introducing some of the fundamental concepts in Chinese tea culture. This presentation is intended for persons who are already familiar with Chinese teas, but not fluent in Chinese. Attendees will learn key concepts Chinese people use to understand and discuss tea and how these ideas differ from both the professional terms and general culture associated with tea in the West. You will also learn how to appreciate Chinese tea following the concepts indigenous to its tradition.”

SUNDAY

Tea Roasting Class
Shiuwen Tai
“Are you a tea drinker who is just excited by a lot of teas and tend to buy more than what you can drink? In this class, Shiuwen will show you how to refresh a stale tea and you will get to practice it. She will also cover some different ways that you can refresh or roast your tea at home. Participants will get to taste a stale tea, the same tea that has been worked on in the class, and the same tea that has been roasted from a tea roaster.”

Japanese Tea Ceremony
Ako Yoshino & Pearl Dexter
“Presented by Ms. Ako Yoshino, a senior instructor of Japanese tea ceremony academy and tea lecturer at Shizuoka university, this special presentation will invite you to the world of traditional Japanese tea ceremony.”

Consult the festival schedule for details. There are a lot of additional events and happenings. Some of the events require sign-ups ahead of time, so you’ll do well to plan ahead. If you come to the festival – and you should – be sure to stop by the Phoenix Tea booth and say “hello” to me. I’ll be the one who isn’t Brett.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Chado: The Way of Tea, at ArtXchange
• World Tea Expo 2011
• Phoenix rising
• The art of tea art: Infusions at SLAB Art
• Infusions: an exhibit of teaware by local Pacific Northwest artists

One highlight among the vast sea of exhibitors on the Expo floor was the Taiwan Pavilion, where Thomas Shu and his wife Josephine Pan [of ABC Tea] hosted tastings and demonstrations. They were aided by their compatriots in the Taiwanese tea industry and at one of the tastings I attended, by Bill Waddington of Tea Source, who waxed poetically about the special Taiwanese varietal developed in Taiwan in the ’80s named Ruby18. A few lucky visitors to the booth were also given the rare opportunity to hear Thomas Shu sing Hakka songs during the course of his presentations, one of which was about Baozhong (Pouchong).

The photo below shows Sunny Tang brewing oolong at the Taiwan Pavilion during this year’s Expo.

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But I never really wanted to tackle this project single-handedly. I wanted someone to work with me to build the business and help define what it would grow into.

A little over a month ago I saw a glimmer of an opportunity when Brett Boynton of Black Dragon Tea Bar announced that after nearly a decade as manager of The Teacup, he was unemployed. So I approached him with the idea of partnering with me in the tea business. We met, we plotted, we schemed – and now I am very pleased to announce that Brett is co-owner of Phoenix Tea.

We have a lot of very exciting ideas in the works, and you’ll be hearing more about them as things progress (although I will continue to ensure that commerce does not interfere with Gongfu Girl blog content, so don’t worry about that). If you want to keep up with us, follow the Phoenix Tea House blog, which is where we’ll put all of the business related news and information. You can also keep up with us on our Facebook page.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Chado: The Way of Tea, at ArtXchange
• Come to the Northwest Tea Festival!
• World Tea Expo 2011
• The art of tea art: Infusions at SLAB Art
• Infusions: an exhibit of teaware by local Pacific Northwest artists

On Sunday following the show opening there will be tea tastings offered in the gallery space, with traditional teas provided by Floating Leaves Tea and Black Dragon Tea Bar, prepared and served with the exhibiting artists’ teawares.

Artists displaying their works in the show include Richard Brandt, Chris Shaw and Tina Pepa. In addition to the works on display and for sale, there will be some pieces of teaware from my personal collection to show similarities and contrasts with the new and local work.

(Click image to view entire poster.)

from the press release:

Once known as the home of the latté, Seattle is now steeped in the emerging contemporary tea culture. Drawing equally on traditional influences and current social media—tea blogs are burgeoning—this new trend cuts across all demographics and pulls in anyone who wants to savor a tranquil moment with friends. This inaugural show, Infusions, will highlight the leading edge of the Northwest tea culture, featuring contemporary tea sets from local ceramic artists, tea tables crafted from salvaged wood by Slab Art, and tea tastings with artisanal and traditional tea samples brewed in the artists’ creations.

INFUSIONS:
Design, Fine Craft, & Contemporary Tea Culture
Slab Art, 4919 17th Ave NW, Seattle 98107
March 26 – April 9, 2011

Sat, March 26 – Opening Reception (6-10 pm)
Sun, March 27 – Tea Tastings (10 am-2 pm)
Viewing times after opening by appointment

For additional information, contact Chris Shaw, 206.359.0792. Space is limited, so reservations are recommended for Sunday’s tea tastings. Email infusions@contemporaryclay.org to ensure a spot.

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• Reading “A Tea Reader”
• Chado: The Way of Tea, at ArtXchange
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The contest is easy to enter. You just need to either use Twitter to follow Steepster (if you’re not already) and tweet the text from the contest with your preferred tea type filled in, or, if you’re a Steepster member (or want to become one) you can reply to the contest discussion.

For a little more information on the most innovative and unusual of the items in the prize package, the video below is its designer Joey Roth demonstrating how the Sorapot works. I also recommend watching the video that appears on the page with details about the contest of Joey Roth and Kevin Rose discussing the development of the Sorapot and brewing a pot of tea with it.

Sorapot instructions from Joey Roth on Vimeo.

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• Come to the Northwest Tea Festival!
• World Tea Expo 2011
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• Da Hong Pao among the mists

This past August, I alerted readers to the “Steeped in History: The Art of Tea” exhibit that had just opened at the Fowler Museum at UCLA. Beatrice Hohenegger, author of Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, was guest curator for this wonderful and informative exhibit. The closing day of the exhibit is the 29th of November, and based on what I’ve read, I heartily encourage anyone within range to go to the effort to go see it in this final week of its run.

For those of us who are geographically challenged by distance or otherwise unable to visit the show in person, Corax of Cha Dao has provided a wonderfully thorough write-up of his visit to the show. I highly recommend reading it if you have even the least bit of interest in tea culture, which I can probably safely assume includes just about anyone reading this. Excerpted:

“Hohenegger’s arrangement of the exhibit is a triumph. Broadly historical in its strokes, it ranges across space and time, but also across the human arts and crafts — ceramics, metallurgy, cabinetry, textiles, painting, sculpture, even architecture — in order to illustrate how far-reaching has been the impact and the appreciation of tea. A matrix organizing the material of this exhibit would have to be at least three-dimensional: chronological, cultural, categorical. And that would not even begin to organize the types of tea entailed, their methods of preparation and enjoyment, or the ways in which people have reacted to the need for tea (aesthetic, spiritual, dietetic, sociological, political). But all of this is represented in the several exhibition rooms of STEEPED IN TEA. Please join me now, gentle reader, for a virtual stroll through these rooms.”

photo by Corax of Cha Dao, used with permission

While reading the article enhanced my disappointment at not being able to attend the exhibit in person, I appreciated the vicarious tour through the rooms provided by lively and engaging descriptions of their contents, concepts and purposes. And aside from my own interest in finding out what items and information were showcased in the exhibit, I am very glad to see this evidence that there is enough interest in tea scholarship and history to make such an exhibit not only possible, but successful.

Some additional details, from the official press release:

Steeped in History: The Art of Tea is guest curated by Beatrice Hohenegger, author of Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West (St. Martin’s Press, 2007), who also edited the multi-authored volume Steeped in History: The Art of Tea (ISBN: 978-0-9778344-1-9, 2009), published by the Fowler Museum in conjunction with this exhibition and distributed by the University of Washington Press.. Major support for the exhibition and publication is provided by the Henry Luce Foundation.

Presented by Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf.

Mr. Lloyd Cotsen, in memory of Bob Ahmanson, generously funded the publication. Additional support is generously provided by Patsy and Robert Sung and The Edna and Yu-Shan Han Charitable Foundation. The accompanying programs are made possible through the Yvonne Lenart Public Programs Fund, the UCLA Asia Institute and Manus, the support group for the Fowler Museum.

Note: The “Make Tea Not War” poster shown above, which is one of the concluding images of the Fowler exhibit, was designed by an agency called Karmarama for use during the British anti-war protests at the start of the Iraq War. The man under the cup is, of course, Tony Blair.

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“Auction of the World’s Finest Teas” consists of a live auction, which will take place November 18th, from 7:00pm to 9:00pm at Teaism in Washington, DC and an eBay charity auction, which anyone can participate in by placing bids, up until the start of the live auction tomorrow evening. This is an opportunity to purchase some very special teas and also to provide aid to an organization involved in some valuable work.

The full description of the event from HandReach.org’s website:

“HandReach’s first annual tea auction benefits the Children’s Healing Initiative, an international medical project working to develop infrastructure supporting the treatment of young trauma survivors in tea-producing regions of the world.

The event will feature appearances by luminaries from the international tea community, fabulous live music, sampling of some of the world’s finest teas, cocktails and light refreshments, and a chance to network with extraordinary people from all over the world.

All proceeds from the event will support bringing expertise and resources to provide world-class acute, reconstructive, and psychosocial care for child survivors of debilitating trauma injuries for whom needed medical care is out of reach.”

I was alerted to this event by a post on Walker Tea Review.

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Last Sunday a new exhibit opened at the Fowler Museum at UCLA called, Steeped in History: The Art of Tea. The show looks to be quite a fabulous display of all sorts of tea-related objects and information, spanning several centuries and countries. Sadly, I don’t think I’m going to be able to see it myself since I’m a considerable distance away from Los Angeles, but the exhibit promises to provide an exceptional tea-related experience to anyone who attends.

From the press kit:

“Hot or iced, bagged or loose, black or green—whatever form it takes, enjoying a cup of tea is an act performed at least three billion times a day the world over. Indeed, more people drink tea than any other beverage except water. Steeped in History: The Art of Tea—on display at the Fowler Museum at UCLA from Aug 16–Nov 29, 2009—is a wide-ranging survey that brings together art from three continents and many centuries to delve into the history and culture of tea.

Traveling from Asia to the West, tea has played a variety of profound roles on the world scene—as an ancient health remedy, an element of cultural practice, and source of spiritual insight. Historically it was also a catalyst for international conflicts and horrific labor conditions in various countries.

Throughout its history tea has been a prevalent theme in the visual arts—scenes of tea embellish ceramics and textiles and are the subject of paintings and drawings, and all manner of vessels have been fashioned for the preparation and presentation of tea. Steeped in History brings together rare Chinese ceramics and paintings, 18th- and 19th-century Japanese ceramics and prints, extraordinary English and Colonial American paintings, vintage photographs and historical documents, tea-serving paraphernalia and furniture from many countries, and much more —to tell the fascinating history of tea.”

The major themes/sections of the exhibit are:
China, The Cradle of Tea Culture
Chado, The Way of Tea in Japan
Tea Craze in the West

Tea and Empire

Beatrice Hohenegger, author of Liquid Jade: The Story of Tea from East to West, served as guest curator of the exhibit and she also edited the companion book, which is not yet available for online purchase, but you can request notification be sent to you when it is. The show is sponsored by The Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf.

Read the full press release for additional information about the show.

The strangely flat and oddly inexpressive painting shown above – used in a number of the Fowler Museum’s marketing materials for this show – is called Susanna Truax. It was painted in oil on a 16×20 canvas in 1730 by an unknown American artist.

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Last weekend the Northwest Tea Festival was a little sparse, but in its inaugural year it was about the size I expected it to be. Festival attendance looked pretty good on Saturday while I was there and most of the booths were getting a fair amount of attention. We paid the $5 donation to the festival and were given the festival bags, containing a nice white ceramic tasting cup, a few samples of the sponsor’s products and some promotional leaflets. The two films and all of the event programming were centered around tea and worldwide traditional tea cultures, so I was a little surprised to see so many flavored blends and tisanes offered as tasting samples in the booths and in the donor bags. I prefer learning about and drinking pure teas from specific cultural traditions, thus a lot of what was offered held little interest for me.

It was notable that the retailer serving the most samples and selling the most product was SA Japanese Green Teas. I would like to think that this was because theirs were the more traditional and clearly identified teas, although it may just be that Japan and green teas are especially popular right now. I was very impressed by a taste of their award-winning genmaicha, a more wonderfully aromatic and rich brew than any other genmaicha I have tasted. I purchased the last of the loose leaf cans they had available and also bought some of their loose leaf hojicha.

The tasting room – essentially a row of tables with stools behind a curtain – ran explanatory and useful classroom-styled tastings throughout the day. The tasting that I sat in on was hosted by Barnes & Watson Fine Teas and consisted of three different oolongs: a Taiwanese Baojhong, a “Formosa” Oolong (also from Taiwan) and a Rou Gui (Cinnamon) Oolong from Wu Yi Mountain, Fujian Province in China.

The most outstanding experience of the festival was the opportunity to observe a Korean Tea Ceremony demonstration by Tea Master Yoon Hee Kim. Preceding the ceremony itself she gave an incredibly informative talk about the history of tea culture in Korea and its recent re-emergence after periods of suppression under Japanese occupation and near decimation of the tea fields during the Korean War. The ceremony itself, called Panyaro in Korean, is notably different from Chanoyu, the much more well known Japanese tea ceremony. In one of those odd and frequent synchronicities I had been reading about Korean tea culture over the past few weeks so I was particularly fascinated with the lecture and demonstration. Yoon Hee Kim is also a wonderful photographer. Some of her work was on display in one section of the festival’s wall space. A more extensive look at her work can be found on her website.

I hope that the festival organizers were pleased with the turnout and the feedback. I would say that overall they did a pretty good job of assembling and presenting the event. I expect even greater things out of the second annual festival next year.

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• Autumn

This weekend, October 4th and 5th, is the first annual Northwest Tea Festival at Seattle Center. The event looks to be quite interesting, with vendors, exhibits, demonstrations and tastings. There will be showings of the films All In this Tea and The Meaning of Tea. Admission is free, but a donation of $5 per person is suggested. Some of the event areas are restricted to attendees who have made the $5+ donation to the festival. Admission to the films is a separate charge of $10, which is discounted if a donation to the festival has been made.

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