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!

Mighty Leaf's Chocolate Mint Truffle

I just tried Mighty Leaf's new blend, Chocolate Mint Truffle. It's pretty good and I'm glad to see that they've added it to their line. Right now, it's only available at World Market and online at MightyLeaf.com, but I hope that they will add it to their food service offerings, as so many restaurants only do bagged teas and Mighty Leaf's silken pouches are amongst the best.

However, I've noticed that chocolate-mint rooibos has become quite a popular blend lately, and I think it has been done better before. For example, Tay Tea's Better Than Sex blend made waves as the 2007 and 2008 NYC Coffee & Tea Festivals, and not just because of its name. It has Belgian dark chocolate bits, peppermint, vanilla and marigold petals, plus a fantastic aroma. Yum! I recently sampled a chocolate-mint rooibos Urbana Teas and Tonics is about to add to its offerings that was pretty impressive, too.

I never thought I would say this about a flavored tisane, but I think that Mighty Leaf's new rooibos is not flavored enough. Wait, wait... Hear me out. Hot cocoa (when done well) is rich, satisfying and (some may say) divine. (It was literally considered to be divine by ancient Aztecs.) So why flavor a tea or tisane with chocolate unless you can compete with such a decadent beverage? Lightly flavoring rooibos with chocolate and mint won't cut it for cocoa lovers, especially when you put "Truffle" in the name. You need depth and complexity. It doesn't have to come from the chocolate itself -- it could be from mint, floral elements (like Tay's marigold petals), vanilla or other flavors -- but it needs to be in there for the beverage to be as satisfying as a cup of cocoa.

For all you future chocolate-rooibos blenders out there -- Need inspiration? Check out Vosges' Drinking Chocolates, MarieBelle's Spicy Hot Chocolate or Jaques Torres' Wicked Hot Chocolate for starters. There are lots of flavors that go well with chocolate... I promise.

Photo Day!

I've been accumulating a lot of tea photos lately, so I think I'll start posting a few each week. Some warrant their own posts (a series of photos on how to make chagra sachets, for example), but some are basic enough to share posts with other semi-related photos. Here are a few for now, mostly from local tearooms. Enjoy!


Amai's matcha cupcake, which, I'm sure, helped them win Best New Tearoom in Time Out NYC's Eat Out Awards. (You may remember I posted a quick tearoom review of their tea house last Friday.)





A glimpse of T Salon, which I also reviewed recently.







Two of Sanctuary T's famed tea cocktails.







Sanctuary T's cheese plate. (Oh, how I am a sucker for a good cheese plate!)







Houjicha, freshly roasted by TAFU's tea master at the Coffee and Tea Festival. Yum!

Coffee & Tea Festival: Misc.

Today's post: Coffee & Tea Festival miscellanea I haven't covered already.

Cup for Education is doing some great not-for-profit work in coffee-producting regions. It reminded me of a tiny, independent version of The CHAI Project in India. Starbucks' Tazo and Mercy Corp. joined up for the CHAI Project in India, and it is currently the largest not-for-profit agency in the country. I wonder when this type of program will spread to other tea-producing regions.

Ceylon Treasures had some cool handmade elephant-covered metal tea caddies from Sri Lanka. (Due to a very strange experience with a Ganesh statue in San Francisco and my visit to India last summer, elephants are one of my very favorite animals.)

There were Himalayan Salt Crystal Lights at the Festival. They don't directly relate to coffee or tea, but I found it interesting that they were there because Urbana Cityspa & Teabar (where I used to manage the teabar and still hold events sometimes) carried them.

The Hudson Healing Wisdom School had a long line for tea leaf readings the whole time. I wish I hadn't waited for the line to die down, as I missed my chance for a reading. Oh, well. Maybe next year!

Harshita Designs had some lovely block- and screen-printed textiles with tea motifs (leaves, pots, etc.). The georgette and charmeuse were very good quality and the colors were very vibrant. (My textiles background leaves me thinking it was dyed with acid dye.)

Tay Tea's "Better than Sex" rooibos blend was a big hit again this year. With a name like that, everyone made sure to stop by and try it. Although I don't usually sweeten my tea, I was a big fan of Tay's saffron rock candy. Yum!

Tea and alcohol seemed to be matched often. Between the Coffee & Tea Infused Cocktails, Chris Cason's remarks on the future of tea drinks, and Zen Green Tea Liquor (by the Japanese company that makes Midori), it was well-represented. I'm looking forward to seeing where this trend takes us.

Tea Classics/Hancha Tea focused on Korean tea, which is much bigger on the West coast than it is here in NYC. They also put on several demos of the Korean tea ceremony. Although traditional Korean "teas" are usually tisanes (herbal), there are some fantastic Korean green teas produced in Korea. It is my hope that they will be more readily available in the US soon.

Georgia's Bakeshop (located here in NYC) had some fantastic sweets (French macaroons, mini walnut souffles, etc.). I took a few home with me, and I can't wait to visit their shop!


Harrisons & Crossfield had a variety of types of tea in both pyramid and flat bags. I was saddened to see that they are one of the (way too) many companies carrying pomegranate white tea. I am so over this trend. When will it end?!?!

SerendipiTea carried a variety of tea blends (City Harvest was a favorite, and a portion of the proceeds go to City Harvest), tea soaps, Bodum pots (I love their designs), and Amai cookies (Amai's tea/bake house just won Time Out's "Best New Tearoom" award!). Cool.

Don't forget to celebrate Earth Day over the weekend and on the 22nd. Do something more sustainable--plant something, buy organic/local, try an alternate means of transit, or . . .

Coffee & Tea Festival: More Lectures

Today I'll run through two more lectures of note that I caught at the Coffee and Tea Festival, Green Tea 101 and The Future of Tea.

Green Tea 101--Tafu Tea (NYC staff and visiting Japanese teamaster)

Although this presentation was a bit heavy on the advertising of Tafu, it was interesting to attend. Most of the information was a very basic rundown on Japanese tea. Chinese tea and other green teas were not addressed. However, the teamaster clearly knew his tea extremely well and there were a few gems doled out in the lecture. My favorites:

Notes on brewing sencha included the saying, "If you are sweet to it, then it will be sweet to you."

An emphasis on the aroma of houjicha and genmaicha (Americans are rarely taught to focus on the aromas of their foods and drinks)

Information on cooking with tea and pairing foods (especially desserts) and teas from Kyotofu... yum!


The Future of Tea--Chris Cason (Tavalon)

Somehow, I had never been to an event by NYC's Chris Cason before. I was glad to see he lived up to his reputation of delivering lively and fun lectures. After covering some of the basics of tea, he discussed ways in which tea can be integrated into mainstream American culture. These methods of "making tea accessible" included:

Educating peole about tea (Obviously, I'm a big advocate of that!)
Baking and making candy with tea
Cooking with tea, and doing so in unusual ways, like poaching halibut with brewed chai in lieu of water, or using lapsang souchong leaves with wood chips to smoke foods
Making tea cocktails (which I talked about yesterday)
Incorporating tea into the spa (I used to manage a teabar at a spa, so this is an area of interest for me, too)

Chris is working on a book about his ideas on new approaches to tea and tea trends in the US. Exciting! Maybe you'll get to see an interview or book review on Vee Tea before it comes out.


Tomorrow, I'll be wrapping up a few loose ends with the Festival. Don't forget that it's Earth Day this weekend! Do something to make your life a little greener, and enjoy your tea!

Coffee & Tea Festival: Lectures

Here are some notes on a few of the lectures and demos I caught at the Coffee & Tea Festival this year. I won't be giving away TOO much, as I'd hate to see my many hours of work distrubited on someone else's website without my consent. However, this should give you a "taste" of the tea events at the Festival.

Coffee & Tea Infused Cocktails--Kara Newman (food and drink writer and lecturer) and Beniot Cornett (of Sanctuary T, NYC)

Obviously, both of these lecturers know their stuff when it comes to making tea cocktails. They discussed the trends of "extreme cocktails" (those with Red Bull and other energy drinks), sweet/savory blends, super-fresh ingredients, and pairing cocktails with desserts. They listed some major considerations in creating your own tea cocktails: whether it should be hot or cold, what its caffeine and tannin levels will be, and how to balance the flavors. They went on to please the crowd by mixing (and distributing) several tea and coffee cocktails. Unfortunately, there were only enough samples for those who REALLY wanted them (which a lot of people did!), so I didn't get to try them. However, my bartending experience, previous experiments with tea cocktails, and reading of The Art of the Bar by Absinthe's fantastic bar chef Johnathan Raglin told me that they were solid recipes. A few more hints they gave and I stand by: vodka and gin infuse well with tea, and homemade flavored symple syrups are one of your best allies at the bar.

Afternoon Tea for Fun and Profit--Ellen Easton (Afternoon Tea Consultant)

Ellen Easton's approach to tea is VERY different from mine, however, I have the utmost respect for her expertise in the tradition of afternoon tea. She delivered a fascinating lecture on afternoon tea from its rules of ettiquite to balancing a tea menu to tea's relationship to the suffragette movement and, finally, the "fun and profit" aspect of afternoon tea. She dispelled myths (The most controversial: "A raised pinkie is a sign of arrogance." Not true!) and even dipped into the oft-overlooked realm of the politics of tea. I'll be reviewing her book some time in the next few months. Look out for it.

Tea Blending: An Elusive Art--Nini Ordoubadi (Tay Tea, NYC)

Nini is a professional tea blender and I can tell that she is one of the rare few who loves her job. (We can sense our own!) She discussed the art of tea blending as an almost spiritual endeavor. "Think of it as a meditation," she advised. The basic steps (examining the dry elements, adding hot water, watching the elements infuse, "drinking the tea with your nose," decanting into a clear container, tasting the isolated flavors, blending, tasting, and evaluating) are simple enough, but it is an understanding of the essence of the tea that is complex. She maintains that it is something that everyone can do, provided they do three things: be completely honest in your evaluation of each blend, be patient, and keep a notebook. I have the feeling that at least a few members of her audience will be following her advice in the near future.

Tomorrow, I'll continue this train of thought with a post about two more lectures, Green Tea 101 and The Future of Tea. Right now I'm off to brew some tea and write some tea descriptions!

Coffee & Tea Festival: Ito En & Tafu

Two major Japanese tea companies were represented at the 2008 NYC Coffee and Tea Festival: Ito En and Tafu.

Ito En was unveiling two new products, Mint Green in their Teas Tea line and Oi Ocha, which is the #1 selling RTD (Ready-to-Drink, a.k.a. "bottled" or "canned," depending on the packaging method) tea in Japan and was only available in specialty stores in the US until now. The Mint Green seems like a good tea for soothing the stomach or for a new tea drinker. The Oi Ocha is a robust tea, best-suited for more serious tea drinkers. It is double brewed for maximum catechins and a strong umami (astringent) taste.
Oishi! <--Japanese for "delicious."

Tafu was promoting their NYC tearoom, which serves a variety of teas and tea sweets. Their tea sweets are made by Kyotofu, which (of course) serves their tea and uses their tea to make delicious tea sweets (think white chocolate matcha cupcakes, black sesame sweet tofu with houjicha green tea sauce). They also flew in their 7th generation tea master, who spoke at several events and freshly roasted houjicha especially for the event. (I bought some. It's fantastic.)


Matcha cupcake with lecture notes and some sequins on one of my salwar kameez (tunic, pants, and scarf outfits) from India





Tafu's 7th generation tea master roasting houjicha





Tomorrow, I'll talk about some of the lectures at the Coffee and Tea Festival. Until then, drink up!

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!

Coffee & Tea Festival, Day 2

Sadly, the 2008 Coffee & Tea Festival has ended. Over the next week, I'll be filling in the details of this year's Festival. That way, if you didn't make it there this year, you can still know what to expect next year. For now, here's a quick rundown on today.

There was a bigger crowd here than yesterday. And, of course, there were lots of people to meet and products to taste, smell, and see. Here are my personal highlights of the day:

Hearing Tafu's "Green Tea 101", complete with matcha white chocolate cupcakes and chilled sencha
Tasting BiscotTea's Earl Grey biscotti, which was made with Makaibari Estate's Tea
Listening to Chris Cason's (Tavalon) "The Future of Tea" to learn more about one of my current fascinations--tea trends
Buying "From the Ground Up" and talking with filmmaker Su Freidrich (I'll be reviewing the DVD in a few weeks, and interviewing her soon thereafter.)
Sampling SerindipiTea's teas (my friends adored the City Harvest Black Tea with vanilla and orchid) and talking with their manager (Sonam) about Tibetan clothing (I was wearing a Tibetan/Nepalese chupa/boku yesterday.)

More tomorrow! Check back soon!

Coffee and Tea Festival, Day 1, Post 2

Day one has ended, and it was wonderful. I'll be filling in more details over the next week, but in the meantime here are some more highlights from today:

Tea Blending (and the infamous "Better Than Sex" rooibos) by Nina Ordoubodi of Tay Tea
Tafu Tea's freshly master-roasted houjicha and house-made matcha cupcakes
Tea Classics' Korean gourd strainers and Korean Tea Ceremony (They showed great poise despite audio issues--very admirable!)
Georgia Bakeshop's incredible French macaroons and mini souffles
Talking with Yoshie Yano-Pennings of Ito En about the company history and the Umami Festival
Talking with Elin Headrick (whose writing you've probably seen in TeaMuse) about tea, Chicago, and NYC

Tomorrow I'll check out SerendipiTea, Tafu's presentations, Chris Cason's "The Future of Tea," and the short film "From the Ground Up." Exciting! If you see me there, come say hello!

NYC Coffee and Tea Festival, Day 1, Post 1

The Coffee and Tea Festival is off to a great start! There's
a big crowd and there are plenty of vendors and events to keep them entertained. A few highlights from my visit so far:

Ito En's new teas, Mint Green and Oi Ocha (the latter was available in Japan and in Asian specialty stores in the US, and is now available in mainstream US stores)
Meeting the lovely owners of Harshita Designs, a tea-themed textile line (my background is in textile design) and members of the family who owns Chamong, a fair trade estate in Darjeeling
Coffee & Tea Infused Cocktails presentation (with fantastic creations from Sanctuary T) and Zen Green Tea Liqueur (made by the same company, more astringent and less sweet than their Japanese-market version)Catching up with Chris Cason of Tavalon (and formerly of Adagio) on Tavalon, tea liqueurs, and (random) hot peppers
Learning a few new things about afternoon tea from Ellen Easton
Chatting with Christine Rillo of Adagio


More soon!

Umami

Umami, the Japanese "fifth taste" (after salty, sweet, sour, and bitter), is a term often used in tea tasting. It is roughly translated as "astringency," and it creates a feeling of the tongue's surface shrinking when you experience it.

This week, there is an Umami Festival in NYC to celebrate food and art. Tonight there will be a salt tasting. Tomorrow's focus is on food and art. Next week, there will be several chef's panel discussions and a wine tasting. Perhaps next year, it will include tea.

Don't forget that the NYC Coffee and Tea Festival is this weekend! Congrats to those who won tickets through my blog! For everyone else, don't forget that you can get half-price tickets with the promo code "VEETEA." Perhaps I'll see you there!

Two NYT Tea Articles

Here are two articles from last year that I've been meaning to link for some time. They are both from The New York Times and they cover very different aspects of tea. The first is similar to my recent Tea Muse article on tea in Austin. Its focus is Portland and it is written by the talented Ceil Miller Bouchet. The second is about the owners of a specialty foods store who, like me, love to teach tea and who, unlike me, recently published the wonderful book “The Story of Tea: A Cultural History and Drinking Guide."

Excerpt from Beyond Tea and Crumpets in Portland:

"... that's why I came to Portland: to connect with this moist metropolis through my favorite brew. Building on the success of established Portland tea businesses like Tazo Tea, Stash and Oregon Chai, the city is host to one of the most distinctive tea scenes in the country. Locally owned tea spots have sprouted throughout the city, supported by an epicurean population that travels miles for the perfect cup. From mushroom tea to tea paired with sake, these citizens of the Pacific Rim are thinking way beyond tea and crumpets. And no tea bags allowed."

Excerpt from Lessons From the Professors of Tea:

"In Shanghai they visited a bustling regional wholesale tea market that was featuring first-of-the-season teas from the eastern provinces of Zhejiang, Jiangsu and Anhui. (Cramped in the back of a van full of Chinese passengers, no officials saw them as they rode through the checkpoint into a Chinese-only wholesale section of the city.)

On a boat ride on the Lake of a Thousand Islands, in Zhejiang Province, a woman named Wei Cui Lan, one of China’s leading tea authorities and one of the last women to graduate from tea school before the Cultural Revolution, showed them the methods required to brew at least 30 different varieties of green and oolong tea."

PS--I still have two free tickets left for the Coffee and Tea Festival. Email me with your name and a comment or suggestion for Vee Tea to win them.

NYC Coffee & Tea Festival

Exciting news! The NYC Coffee & Tea Festival is this weekend! Don't forget that you can get half-price tickets with the promo code VEETEA. Also, the first four people to email me their full name and a comment about Vee Tea (it could be a post idea, a comment I can add to the testimonials on my site, or a suggestion of some kind) get a free pair of tickets to the Festival!

PS--I recently got to interview the Coffee & Tea Festival's organizer, Lynda Calimano. You can read the full interview on Vee Tea.

NYC Coffee & Tea Festival Interview and World Tea Expo Press

I recently had the pleasure of interviewing Lynda Calimano of The NYC Coffee & Tea Festival. Here's the full tea interview. Excerpt:

"We could have easily designed a show around either coffee or tea but found that there is a tremendous cross over between coffee and tea lovers. Sure, you have some purists that love either coffee or tea, but we’ve seen many sophisticated consumers who really appreciate the quality of specialty coffees and teas. We design the show, and its programming, to appeal to both."

Read more about the festival's history, this year's festivities, and Lynda's love of tea on VeeTea, or learn more about The Coffee & Tea Festival on their site. Don't forget that you can get half-price tickets by entering the promo code "VEETEA" at checkout!

Also, while I was away at SXSW enjoying music and tea, I received some mail of note. The World Tea Expo included my photo in their new press release. I'm the one in red. What a nice thing to come home to!

NYC Coffee and Tea Festival

Now that the weather's warming up, I'm reminded that the annual NYC Coffee and Tea Festival is fast approaching. This year has an exciting line-up that includes:

A traditional Japanese tea ceremony demonstration
Tea Blending
Coffee and Tea Cocktails
Green Tea 101
Tea Leaf Reading
Coffee and Tea Exhibitors

Learn more on the Coffee and Tea Festival site, and remember: you can get half-off tickets with the promo code "VEETEA."