Moving to Portland

As a foodie and as a person, I am thrilled to be moving to Portland. Here are some of the things I'm looking forward to most:

Urban planning done right
Bicycling (especially after living in the not-so-bike-friendly cities of NYC and Charlotte, NC)
Eating at awesome restaurants (and the availability of great veggie/vegan food at most of them)
Exploring the thriving food cart scene
Enjoying locally grown food and the riverside market
Partaking in Portland's love affair with beverages -- Imbibe Magazine, Stumptown Coffee and Tao of Tea are all based there; there's an abundance of local breweries; many California wines are readily available there
Checking out all the tea places Elin recommended on Teafolio.com
Utilizing Portland's proximity to San Francisco (my favorite U.S. city for tea)

Have you lived there/visited? What do you love the most?

NYC Coffee & Tea Fest

If you (unlike me) are in NYC next weekend (I'll be speaking at a wellness conference in AZ), visit the NYC Coffee & Tea Festival! You can check out cool tea companies like Tavalon (say hi to Chris for me!), Tay Tea (say hi to Nini for me!), SerendipiTea (ditto Linda), Harney & Sons, Biscottea (and Laurance), Adagio (Christine), Zen Green Tea Liqueur, Hancha Tea, Srina, Tea Classics and Te Light. Tea writer Ellen Easton will also be there (hi, Ellen!), as will my favorite beverage magazine, Imbibe. As a thank you for being my personal messenger, here's a promo code for $10 off admission -- enter "VEETEA" (without the quotation marks) during online checkout. Enjoy the show!

Vote for Vee Tea

I've entered the Top Tea Cocktail competition for the World Tea Expo. You can help me become a finalist and concoct one of my three cocktails (Oolong Champagne, Bad Monkey or Las Vegas Iced Tea) at the Expo -- with the chance to be published in Imbibe Magazine (one of my FAVORITES). Please vote here and help me become a finalist! If you also pass it on to your interested friends, that would be even more awesome of you! Voting ends on Monday. Thanks, and Happy St. Patrick's Day!