NW Tea Festival

 The Northwest Tea Festival moved to another part of the Seattle Center.

It was much larger and more conducive to workshops and wide aisles.

The yellow teapot still greeted us.

See what I mean about wide aisles?

It was great!!

 There were vendors tasting teas from Colombia, Viet Nam,

plus the regulars from China, Taiwan, India and

oh so much more.

Then there were blended teas from company's like

Harney & Sons and Market Spice.

 There was a hug and greetings from James Norwood Pratt and

his lovely wife, Valerie; but no picture was taken.

His tea books are the best.

 One of my favorites is Floating Leaves and 

I came home with a package of their Alishan Black tea.

I loved watching them steep the tea.

 And checking out their teaware display.

 Each year this table is usually full of people tasting,

I tasted one puerh here.

 The Jasmine Pearl is now selling flavored tea concentrates for cold drinks.

There was quite a crowd around their table and the kombucha table too.

 I just love watching people taking tea seriously and tasting new teas.

These canisters were so tempting, but I resisted.

 At the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas in June this purple tea was a hit.

I did try some.  It was OK, but not tempting to buy.

Purple tea has a slight blue cast, but when you add lemon juice it 

turns purple.

 I always love seeing Chado at the tea festival.

There were several booths with turmeric teas,

but I thought theirs was the best.

I brought home their Turmeric Zest, with some citrus to it.

 My WuWo Tea Ceremony group from Portland always has a demonstration.

Since the sun was shining, we took it outdoors.

 There was a lot of favorable response to our demonstration.

 Then back inside to say hello to Jeffrey at Teabook.

He has the best puerh teas.

 And hello to Thomas Shu.

And finally out of curiosity, I sat in on a forum with tea bloggers.

These bloggers mainly write evaluating teas that are sent to them

from different companies.  

Since I write mainly on the experience of tea time

and what delights me;

I rarely get teas to review.

After listening to them I decided I am just happy doing what I do.

It was a very quick trip to Seattle (3 hour drive), but I enjoy it

every year.  If you live in the northwest, I highly recommend attending

next year.  It will be the last weekend in September next year.