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.

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.

“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.

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.

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.

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.

Tucked away in Post Alley next to Kells Restaurant, the Perennial Tea Room is one of the better tea shops in Seattle. In addition to their fairly extensive offerings of teas from all of the major growing regions in the world, they also host themed tea tastings. I attended last week’s tasting, which was an introduction to oolongs. The ironically named Michael J. Coffey, who operates under the name Tea Geek, is host and instructor at Perennial’s tastings.

For this tasting four very different oolongs were chosen from a wide range along the oxidation spectrum. Oolongs, as semi-oxidized teas range dramatically, from the barely ozidized greens to highly oxidized and roasted preparations. The four in the tasting were, in order:

• A fall Baozhong from Taiwan (Note: this was not the Winter Competition Baozhong that is currently available in the store.)
• Bai Hao, a tea known by a million names, including “Oriental Beauty” and “Boasting Tea,” also from Taiwan
• A semi-oxidized Ti Kuanyin, from the Fujian Province of China
• Golden Lily, a roasted oolong from Taiwan

The tasting was a good introduction to the exquisite diversity of the world of oolong teas. Since I tend to be drawn toward the really rich green semi-oxidized oolongs like the Ti Kuanyin, the tasting was a good opportunity for me to round out recent experience with a roasted oolong, which I would have been unlikely to try under other circumstances.

Like the Indian Tea tasting I attended there last month, this event was quite informative and a worthwhile way to spend a summer evening down by Pike Place Market. The tastings are limited to a small number of attendees so the atmosphere is comfortable and interactive, with plenty of allowance for questions and discussion. Perennial Tea Room offers a 10% discount on all purchases made in the store the night of the tastings, which is a nice added incentive. If you are interested in receiving notices of upcoming tasting events, sign up for the email newsletter for either Perennial Tea Room or Tea Geek – or both.