The weather was beautiful and everyone was in good spirits. Before the festival opened, people in the will call line received their commemorative bags with tasting cups and wrist bands and were allowed to queue at the festival entrance which helped shorten the check-in lines.
The outdoor vendor layout was a huge improvement over last year with good flow and no bottlenecks. There were also many more vendors both indoor and outdoor with an impressive range of tea and teaware. The workshop and tea tasting spaces had expanded, most notably with the addition of a British Tea Tent. The meal options also expanded slightly with a food truck near the festival entrance and I learned that the Cascade Grill at the Oregon Zoo was a reasonably short walk away (and doesn't require zoo admission).
Since I would be attending workshops and tastings the latter half of the day, I spent much of the morning visiting vendors, tasting tea, and enjoying the live music performances. This year's festival was a veritable Who's Who of the West Coast tea scene, so I also got to catch up with quite a few tea friends.
Phoenix Tea serving Jani Dhahabu, a Kenyan oolong
Fly Awake's The Lunatic, a night-plucked tea from Yunnan
Zuo Wang Tea preparing a 2017 Ripe Puerh
Floating Leaves teaware
Stages of tea processing at the Minto Island Tea Growers booth
Dressed in style for the Dressing the Regency Lady for Tea workshop presented by Nora Azevedo (A Baronets Daughter Designs)
Musical performances throughout the day included taiko, nyckelharpa, acoustic guitar, and erhu.
Morning Cream Tea Time hosted by Marilyn Miller (Delights of the Heart)
One of the welcome new additions to Tea Fest PDX was the British Tea Tent. There were two Cream Teas during the festival and I attended the morning tea time which was accompanied beautifully with music by Celtic harpist Jini O'Flynn.
Our tea was served by Michele who created the stunning reproduction of an 1885 Victorian gown that she wore for the event.
Guests at the Cream Tea had the options of Chai Rooibos and Earl Grey tea (my choice) served with delicious scones from Newberg Bakery.
Dong Ding Documentary Clip Premiere + Tasting with Shiuwen Tai (Floating Leaves)
This event was held as part of an ongoing fundraiser for the filming of a documentary about Taiwanese tea, specifically the tea growers and producers of Dong Ding Mountain. There is more filming to be done, thus the fundraising, but the 8 minute clip we viewed was very engaging. I'm definitely looking forward to seeing the full documentary!
Following the viewing, attendees had the opportunity to taste multiple infusions of two teas produced by the people in the clip, Mr. Su's Dong Ding Traditional and Charcoal Master Zhan's Dong Ding 3 Roast (which are both fantastic). During the tasting, Shiuwen explained how to notice throat sensation, the spread of warmth in the throat and downward, to add to our appreciation of the tea.
Visit the Tea Documentary Project page for more information and opportunities to provide support.
Esoteric Teas with Charles & Laurie Dawson (Whatcom Tea Enthusiasts Association)
The Dawson's have a formidable (in the best way) collection of tea and tea knowledge and are generous with both. If you have the opportunity to sit in on one of their tasting sessions, do it.
2010 Ten Tael Heicha from Hunan Province
Also known as Huajuan cha or "flower rolling tea", this type of heicha is compressed into 10, 100, or 1000 tael logs. This 10 tael log weighs approximately 500 grams.
Xinhui citrus-aged Gongting Pu'erh from Yunnan (tea) and Guangdong (citrus)
Gongting or ripe pu'erh is packed into citrus and aged. The resulting steeped tea has prominent citrus notes.
Cha Gao Pu'erh from Yunnan Province
Liquid is extracted from tea leaves and then solidified in a highly concentrated tea gel, ready to be dissolve into water (~500ml water for a tiny piece like this). We learned that tea gel resembles a certain illicit substance, so it would be wise to avoid putting it in your carry-on luggage.
Chanoyu - Japanese Tea Ceremony Demonstration with Marjorie Yap (Issoan Tea School)
Marjorie Soya Yap has been studying chado for over thirty years and has been teaching for over twenty years.
Japanese tea ceremony originated during the time of samurai when warriors studied warrior arts as well as cultural arts to balance yin and yang.
There are hundreds of tea ceremony forms which can vary with guests, time of day, season, and occasion (graduation, first snowfall, flowers in bloom, etc). A full tea gathering can take four and a half hours and include a nine-course meal, three servings of sake, and two servings of matcha (koicha/thick tea and usucha/thin tea) with a ten minute break, all while sitting on tatami. There are five forbidden topics within the tea room: politics, gossip, religion, money, and sons-in law (no bragging, no complaining).
All elements of the tea room are intended to put you in the mood to receive the tea. The Shokyaku (first guest) generally has the most experience and will do most of the talking with the other guests passing their questions for the host through the Shokyaku to keep the flow of the tea ceremony uninterrupted. The quiet of the tea room is filled with the sounds of rainfall, footsteps on tatami, water splashing into the bowl, and the tea being whisked. The weave of the tatami is 1 centimeter apart and this measure is used for mindful placement of tea implements. The fukusa (silk tea cloth) used for purification by the host can be folded in about thirty five different ways, exposing different surfaces. Within traditional tea ceremony schools, women will use a fukusa in a yang color (orange/red) and men will use a fukusa in a yin color (purple).
Tea ceremony consists of three "acts".
Act 1: Purify tea utensils
Act 2: Making and drinking tea
Act 3: Closing
For this demonstration, the scroll reads "Seifu" or "pure breeze" which can also mean the teachings of Buddha among other things. The bamboo kekkai in front of the furo (brazier) is used to create a separation between the real world (the audience) and the tea room.
The host (Teishu) for this demonstration was Gabi Blau and the guest (Kyaku) was a member of the audience.
Thanks and congratulations to everyone who worked so hard to make Tea Fest PDX a success in its second year! I'm looking forward to 2019!
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