2020 Toronto Tea Festival (Day 2) | Event Recap

by Tea in Spoons

Blogger Pass Provided for Review

Last week I recapped Day 1 of the Toronto Tea Festival! This will be the second, and last, day of the event!

Toronto Tea Festival is a yearly tea event that is held in early February in Toronto, Canada. I have been fortunate enough to be able to attend the last few years! There were many talks this year that I wanted to attend! Overall, between the two days, I liked the range of topics. I can’t wait to start the recap.

Let’s go!

Journey to the Land of the Morning Calm: Korean Tea Region & Types – Soo Park

I sadly started Day 2 a bit late and was only able to hear the last section of Soocha Tea’s talk on Korean teas! Thankfully, I attended Soo’s workshop last year. I strongly suggest talking to Soo about Korean tea! She is extremely passionate about it.

Travel to the Heart of Chinese Teas: Stores of a Western Tea Newbie Turned Tea Savvy – Phil Rushworth

Over the years, I have gotten to know Zhen and Phil from Zhen Tea. As far as I remember, Zhen has always presented so I was excited to see it from Phil’s perspective.

It was nice to hear about Phil’s journey as a ‘newbie,’ who was thrown into the tea world, head first. He discusses his first trip to China. Phil has one story where he talked about watching the tea farmers process the tea. They would smell and examine it, so he followed suit. I recall doing the same when I was at Kyoto Obubu Tea Farms. I had no idea why I was doing it, but I copied it anyway in hopes of gleaning some information.

I enjoyed listening to Phil talk about his travels to China, his journey as he learned about tea and even a tip from Zhen:
“forget about tasting notes, let the tea sit with you, drink it every day and give the tea space”. I think that is great advice! I was always very intimidated by tasting notes and feeling like I didn’t taste what everyone else did.

Darjeeling Tea – Kevin Gascoyne

Last year, I attended Kevin Gascoyne‘s showing of his documentary, ‘Champagne of Teas.’ It documents Kevin’s annual quest to travel to the Himalayas to select teas from Darjeeling tea gardens. It is a trip he has done over the last 25 years! The documentary was a great base, so I wanted to see what else Kevin would present!

What I liked about the talk is that Kevin started from the very beginning, how Darjeeling came to be, as well as the gardens themselves and how tea is processed and picked. I thought it was a lovely introduction to Darjeeling! I admit Darjeeling teas is an area I am not very familiar with so, I learned a lot.

Vendors

Whereas the first day, I visited the vendors first, on Day 2 I focused on talks. However, I did have some time to pick up a few things, of course! I bought some daifuku from Natural Japaneats, which uses Momo Tea teas, and a matcha marshmallow from MyTeaBrew!

Last week, I shared a picture of Tea Horse‘s Manoomin Cha – Wild Rice Tea. The rice is Canadian organic wild rice which is directly-sourced by Indigenous harvesters! It is then blended with a bancha to make an iteration of genmicha! I loved how it tasted.

I also bought a chawan (matcha bowl) from Secret Teatime, I couldn’t resist Green Tea: A Quest for Fresh Leaf and Timeless Craft from Camelia Senensis Tea House. So much for not buying anything!

End of the Day

Like last week, I have been omitting one brand since I wanted to talk about them separately, DAVIDsTEA! I was lucky enough to have met some of the staff at their booth and they kindly sent me some of the teas they were showcasing! I thought it would be lovely to share them with everyone. One more post left!

The question of the post: What is your favourite part of a tea event?

Related Posts

Leave a Comment

cropped-b1e9c-2018-tea-in-spoon-logo-wp-long-500-t.png

Tea in Spoons is where I share my love of teas through tea reviews, tea travel, tea tips, information, and more. New tea adventure every Thursday!

COPYRIGHT © 2024 | ALL RIGHTS RESERVED | PRIVACY POLICY