I went to the World Tea Expo in Las Vegas at the end of June. I was really hoping that I would have been cupping the amazing teas I bought in India and China by now. But I got so many free samples of tea while at the expo, that I have been trying all of them.
There were many different products available as well. My favorite things to look at are the teapots. There are many new one cup and multi-cup pots. There is no excuse not to drink loose tea with such simple and easy to use pots in such great designs!
I also found a fabulous booth selling American hardwood tea accessories. Typically the tea scoops I have found previously, were bamboo and didn’t really last very long due to cracking. This company was selling mostly tea scoops and tea baskets but each was handcrafted in Pennsylvania with solid wood which had no coatings, glues, plastics, or resins. Here’s the link to their web page which is a landing page only. You’ll still have to email them directly to get more information.
Another item I found is a tea gadget for holding your used tea. This will be perfect for me on long drives. I typically take loose tea with tea filters on road trips. This gadget called “squeezmo”, allows you to squeeze out the moisture (if you so desire). But better than that, it’s a place to store your tea until you drive up to another Starbucks and can get more hot water. They say the items are made of silicone and dishwasher safe. I guess they would also be handy if you happen to use tea bags and re-use them. It seems more efficient than wasting a lot of napkins or paper towels to soak up the moisture from your tea.
My favorite booth to taste tea is always the ITI booth (International Tea Importers). They have some really good teas to sample. Plus the large draw is that James Norwood Pratt does several tea tastings a day. He’s so interesting and has amazing stories and tales to tell while sampling the teas.
This year, I found a booth pouring some wonderful Taiwanese oolongs. They were the American Premium Tea Institute. Both days I was there they had Jade Oolong, Oriental Beauty, Bao Zhong, and Amber Oolongs flowing freely all day. If you stopped by for their short seminars, you got to taste some of their other oolong offerings. Plus during the seminars, Thomas (I think he may have been the owner) was really energetic. He would often start singing in the middle of his presentation.
I think I am done sampling the teas from the expo and hope to cup some of my Indian and Chinese teas soon. It will be interesting to see if I still like them and if I can get them to taste the same as they did in Asia!
No comments:
Post a Comment