This is coverage of Day 1 of the 2011 World Tea Expo. Please also check out coverage of Day 2 and Day 3.

While the World Tea Expo remains an industry only event, there’s much going on here which is indicative of progress and growth beyond the tea industry itself. My trip out this year was for more than just keeping you and I up to date on the happenings within the tea industry.

From news and concern of radiation seepage in Japanese teas to judging the quality of this year’s first flush Darjeeling’s after a labor crises led to later than normal picks, there’s much to understand for this year’s crop. Floods AND droughts in China have impacted crops there as well.

Mix in a little business with my blogging pleasure. I’m working on a tea related startup I’ve been needing to drum up some support for. I’m very excited for its future and overwhelmingly positive feedback from the market I feel will continue to lead to great things to share with you in the future.

But enough about me, let’s move on to Day 1 of the 2011 World Tea Expo!

Day 1

A trip down Aisle 1 instantly yielded a chat with the girls from The Tea Spot. Last year they’d provided me with a sample unit of a little steeping tool called a Tuffy Steeper. This year they’ve a little gadget called Brewlux which is supposed to be used for brewing loose leaves in a cardboard/paper cup you may get from a coffee shop or some such. This little item is actually really neat. Biodegradable and compostable it reacts to bacteria or chemical breakdown assistants. Without those assistants though, this item can be used, reused, re-reused, placed in a dishwasher for cleaning (top rack only) and used again. If you drink loose on the go and often find yourself in need of a method to keep the loose leave separated from the water while drinking on the go from an average vessel… this little diddy is for you!

The Tea Spot

A trip slightly further down the aisle led me to an interesting booth from… Portugal? Gorreana has grown tea for mass consumption in Portugal for more than a century. Now they’re looking to expand into the US market. The tea provided appears primarily CTC style black in different grades of fineness. The flavor is there, but seems like it doesn’t quite match with what I’ve come to expect from more notable growers.

Further down Aisle 1 I paid a visit to my buddy Ankit Lochan from Lochan Tea Estates. Ankit is from Darjeeling India and produces some very wonderful teas. You won’t find Ankit’s teas on the shelves though, he sells to companies and wholesalers, not to retailers. Look for products from Teas Etc., Tea Source, Adagio and others to try teas produced by the Lochan plantations.

Ankit Lochan of Lochan Tea and I.

The back end of Aisle 1 was primarily filled with companies producing products used to manufacture tea bags )not the tea inside). I skipped this part because I didn’t see it as added value for the blog coverage. (If you’d like me to cover these companies and their equipment next year, let me know.

Aisle 2 held a collection of Sri Lankan and Indian tea growers. A number of American firms too. Some of my usual friends weren’t present this year which I found unfortunate, but new companies took their place nonetheless as the expo expanded its exhibitor list.

The heart of Aisle 2 held Adagio Teas. Adagio remains one of the best selling online tea brands in the United States. During the past year though, they’ve opened two brand new sparkling pretty new stores I hope to drop in on one of these days. Ilya, Cynthia and Charles have all become great contacts these past few tea filled years! I remain excited to see what Adagio has in store!

Ilya, Cynthia and Charles of Adagio Teas posing for a shot with me.

Day 1 coverage was fairly light. I have much more for Day 2 and Day 3. Come back tomorrow for more!

A pretty tea display.

A pretty tea display from QTrade Teas & Herbs.

Thomas Shu Sings Hakka Tea Song!

Thomas Shu Teaches Taiwan Hakka Tea Song!

I first encountered Thomas’ penchant and talent for singing these Taiwanese Hakka tea songs at the 2010 World Tea Expo while waiting in the Las Vegas Hilton lobby with a group of individuals coming down from the pool where an expo related networking event was being held.

If you search for Tea Hakka on YouTube you’re sure to find other videos of Thomas singing!

Last week I wrote my first installment in this three part series relating my experiences on a trip to Boulder and Denver back in March of 2010. This is the second of three parts.

There’s something intrinsically wondrous about the Denver and Boulder area in Colorado. The air is clean and clear. The wildlife diverse, and the nature beautiful in so many ways.

There’s another side to this metro area in the mountains though. An extreme diversity of tea and tea companies makes this area one of several real escapes for passionate tea drinkers in the US.

As a self-proclaimed avid tea drinker I have to say I was impressed by my trip.

This is a three part series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

The first stop Saturday morning was to The Tattered Cover located in downtown Denver. About a ten minute bus ride from the Capitol Hill neighborhood I was staying in. This bookstore quickly made me feel at home. With three floors of awesome, plenty of comfortable and relaxing seating and one helluva food bar I was one happy visitor!

One of the first things I looked for was whether this bookstore served teas in addition to the now traditional coffee (quixotically a flip-flop from the old tradition of tea). They did! Not only that, but they had a comfortably varied selection.

I chose to have both a hot chai and a rather ripe lapsang souchong. The chai was sadly distilled not fresh brewed – but it almost never is when you’re out & about, so no complaints there. It was a pretty decent chai, though I think the brew could have used more milk and less chai mix.

Embrace Tea

The lapsang souchong on the other hand was perfect!  brisk and ripe with the pungent aroma of tobacco or smoke given the best of these teas with the deep smoked flavors I’ve come to expect from this staple of strong Chinese teas. I was pleasantly surprised by my experience here!

Leaving The Tattered Cover our adventure took us to the Capitol building where Colorado’s legislature meets to pound the paper into supposedly meaningful law. Whatever your opinion on that may be, the view of mountains beyond is quite breathtaking.

Ten Commandments

View from Colorado Capitol Building

My companion and I moved on to the Denver Art Museum where we met an exhibiting artist, constructed our own contributions to his piece and toured the museum to find some truly beautiful displays. I can’t relay how excited I was for this. I should show you instead! Here’s some pictures:

Blue Art

Share Tea

Share Tea

For lunch we headed off to City-O-City, a Cafe in Capitol Hill. Here I had a delicious salad, some Oogave soda and some Kombucha. The Oogave was suprisingly pleasant. I’d not had Oogave prior to this and wasn’t sure what to expect… but obviously I liked it!

Kombucha is a fermented tea created by adding sugars and cultures to a black or green tea. In this case it was a black tea. This was another first try for me. One I did not like. Don’t get me wrong, I know this brew has its fans, some of whome homebrew… I’m just apparently not one of them. It tasted and smelled of rancid, bitter vinegar. Blech!

From City-O-City we made our way to Dazzle, a Jazz club a couple blocks away. Here we enjoyed a couple daytime cocktails while listening to rather adequate Jazz. The Jazz may not have been great… but the company, conversation and drinks were.

Once out of Dazzle we needed a little down time. For most this would already have been a long day. For us we were just getting toward the halfway point! After some music based R&R, a walk to a nearby park where everything appeared to be under construction my companion proposed a trip to a Kadampa Buddhist facility two blocks up.

Here we ended up in a post-prayer mingling session with local practitioners and other interesting people. Much talk of tea abounded and I was gifted a sizeable bottle of Tejava iced tea which I will review in the future. All in all I’d say I had a positive experience here and learned a bit about the Kadampa Buddhist way of life.

Tejava

Post meditation we met one of my companion’s friends and headed out to My Brother’s Bar. I have to admit… this has nothing to do with tea. However the bison burger I had was stellar with add-it-yourself toppings and condiments. What I liked best, besides the company and nervousness caused by a table of three Police officers drinking it up in uniform, was the establishment’s keystone feature. The music. All classical all the time. No words, never overly loud and wonderfully conducive to talking with friends! Beautiful!

That’s it for Part 2. Feel free to go back and read Part 1, or visit next week for Part 3.

There’s something intrinsically wondrous about the Denver and Boulder area in Colorado. The air is clean and clear. The wildlife diverse, and the nature beautiful in so many ways.

There’s another side to this metro area in the mountains though. An extreme diversity of tea and tea companies makes this area one of several real escapes for passionate tea drinkers in the US.

As a self-proclaimed avid tea drinker I have to say I was impressed by my trip.

This is a three part series: Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3

Upon arriving in the area on a Friday morning, and after having been disappointed by the Peet’s Tea I’d been left to drink before takeoff in Cincinnati, I immediately went to PekOe Sip House. PekOe is a nice, modernist take on a simple tea house. It’s clean and bright inside with nearly 100 teas to select from.

I chose a simple Yunnan Pu’erh and did enjoy it. I savoured it’s mossy flavours and rough textures. There’s something about Pu’erhs which comforts me, and this was a mighty fine example of this type of tea. I did not ask, but I presumed it to be artificially aged.

My friend Susan in front of the PekOe Sip House

While at PekOe my companion and I shared tea and conversation with a number of locals. There was a father and his young boy whom we had a great time speaking to. I had overheard the father ordering something not on the menu and was curious about this “Uncle Andrew’s Wellness Blend.”

On my way out I bought some of this blend and will have a review of it at some point in the future. I was also invited to a tea tasting ceremony on Sunday by one of the staffers!

Me sipping some tea inside the PekOe Sip House

After PekOe Sip House a few things about Boulder were apparent to me. The local culture is fantastic! The mountain views were stunning! And the tea was good!

Stop back next week for my Saturday recap, including The Tattered Cover Bookstore, The Denver Art Museum, City-O-City Cafe, My Brother’s Bar and more!

A third instalment will cover the happenings on Sunday, including the tea ceremony, a visit to the Boulder Dushanbe Tea House (a gift from the nation of Tajikistan), the mountain sunset views and more!

Don’t get me wrong… I love technology! It’s been the real mainstay in my life for fifteen years or so now! But my real deep passion is for people and what makes us all who we are and passionate about the things we care for.

Adagio’s Roots campaign looks to bring us closer to our teas by providing insightful looks into the cultivars of or favorite Camelia Sinensis derivatives! Each month they’ll highlight a particular cultivar and one of the teas which they grow. Insights into their history and culture and what it takes to bring us such delicious brews will keep my eyes peeled for the first of each month.

A combination of interesting questions and a 10% stipend from each purchase of that month’s cultivar’s tea going back to the grower makes for a uniquely appealing addition to Adagio’s already innovative appeal. I for one intend to purchase each of the next twelve months of “Roots” teas.

Look for the first installment to pop up sometime tomorrow on Adagio’s website. This is a feature worth participating in and one which I not only suggest, but urge you to explore. The people, communities and cultures which help to bring us our most delicious of beverages deserve whatever we can give back for their continued enthusiasm and dedication to this most aged of enterprises.

See Adagio.com starting on September 1st for more details.

From an Adagio release:

Starting on September 1st, we will be launching the “Roots Campaign” on our site. A chance for our customers to meet the individual farmers who produce our teas and to gain an insight on the process of growing and making tea. Each month we will be highlighting a different tea from our product line and featuring the tea artisans that grew and crafted this tea. Users will be able to read about who that farmer is, view photos of their land and family, & read their answers to select questions that we have chosen. To show our deep appreciation, 10% of the sales from the featured tea will be donated back to the farmer it was sourced from.

The project is slated to run for 12 months and will feature 12 farmers from different tea-growing regions around the world. We would be thrilled if you were to inform your readers about the campaign before its release in order to help make these contributions as meaningful as possible. At the end of the campaign, we will be conducting followup interviews to find out just how the farmers were able to benefit from the donations.

Update:

Here is a link to the first Roots Campaign from Adagio! It’s a great read!

Help a good cause: CharityWater.org