Post-Coffee & Tea Festival: General Notes

Today: General Notes. Upcoming: More specifics on booths and presentations, plus a few photos.

The 2008 Coffee & Tea Festival was a success. There was a solid turnout and an interesting and varied representation of tea in the booths. The lectures were informative and entertaining and the industry turnout (outside of the booths) was decent. The partons I saw and spoke with seemed pleased with the event, and my friends who attended loved some of the products they sampled (and bought). My only complaints were the noise interference during the lectures and demos and the fact that a large number of the booths had little to do with tea, coffee, and their usual accompaniments (bottled water, beer, olive oil, etc.). Lynda Calimano assures me that the sound issues will be resolved next year and I have the feeling that the booths will get filled with more and more coffee and tea people as the festival grows. Although the Coffee and Tea Festival is nowhere near as large as the World Tea Expo, it is well worth checking out if you are in NYC or the surrounding areas (or if you just dislike Vegas!). I'm looking forward to attending (and maybe even speaking) next year!