World Tea East - The workshops

I think I've finally gotten back in the swing of things after my World Tea East adventures. It was wonderful, magical, and amazing; although, I must confess, it was hard to be away from the little ones for so long. The baby isn't quite one so this is certainly the longest I've been away from her. Everyone did fine at home, though, and it was well worth the effort. Just seeing my book out there in the real world made every challenge of getting to the Expo worth it.

I flew to Philly on Thursday, Sept. 8th. It was a quick flight and everything went so smoothly that I figured I was due for a major problem on the way home. (I seem to have become something of a pessimist.) I arrived at the Philadelphia Downtown Marriott around 8:00, sent a few emails, bemoaned the lack of Food Network on the hotel TV package, and then tried to get some sleep before my very full Friday began.

I had a few priorities for the show. 1) I was doing some reporting for World Tea News on Friday -- general observations and remarks for a round-up and some writing about the evening networking reception. 2) World Tea News was kind enough to allow me to have my book on display and I took the chance to talk to some people about the book and to hand deliver copies to a few of the essayists. 3) I wanted to make sure I experienced as much of the show as possible -- meeting vendors, seeing products, and finally getting to meet bloggers and Twitter friends who I had not yet met.

Because I was writing for WTN I made it a priority to get to as many of the workshops as possible. For each session there were three to four concurrent workshops/lectures/tastings so I logged some mileage up and down the hallway. 

(For more images of the workshops, please visit the Tea Pages Facebook page!)

I started with Dan Bolton's "Top Tea Retail Trends" presentation. Dan is the editor of World Tea news. There were a couple of dozen people attending and Dan highlighted some of the most recent movements in the tea industry. I was particularly struck by the dramatic increase in US tea imports (a record 18% increase in 2010.) In terms of market share in the beverage industry, tea is currently 7th, behind juice but ahead of sports beverages. He also noted the significant expansion of tea in the grocery stores, both in terms of shelf space and the number of SKUs. 84% of American households have tea in them and about 10% is loose leaf.

I spent a few minutes visiting Lisa Boalt Richardson's "Tea 101" class and then Susan Peterson's workshop on edible flowers. (Susan is from Teaberry's Tea Room in NJ.) Lisa (of "Lisa Knows Tea" fame) is a great presenter so I wished I had more time to spend. (I was very happy to discover that she was actually co-teaching the Specialty Tea Institute Level 1 and 2 trainings that I was taking later in the weekend.)

I then headed over to Beth Johnston's Black Tea Tasting. Beth is the owner of Teas Etc. and she was presenting with the help of her son Chris. I was seriously conflicted when I saw that Dan Bolton and Beth were presenting opposite one another. I think if Dan had been giving his lecture at another time I likely would have ponied up the cash to register for Beth's focused tasting as a participant. I must confess to being a little star struck when I spotted Jane Pettigrew at the front table. Having Beth and Jane in one room was a bit too much for me -- women I have admired so much for their contribution to the tea industry. I also noticed my friend and colleague Danielle Beaudette of NH's Cozy Tea Cart was one of the volunteers for the class. I later realized that also at Jane's table was blogger AmazonV (Nicole Schwartz.) When I popped into the room they were cupping a Hawaiian black tea. Apparently Beth also shook up the room by sneaking a Lipton tea bag into the cupping session.


The next round of workshops had Anupa Mueller speaking about "How to Conduct a Successful Tea Tasting" while Margaret Heery and Michele Schmal presented on "Food Service Market Trends: What's Driving the Sales of Iced Tea." I spent a little time in Mueller's presentation and appreciated her concrete recommendations and her rich experience in this area. It was one of the better attended workshops with approximately 40 participants. I thought her tips on guiding conversations were useful: providing background to customers on origin, history, seasonality, etc. while walking them through how to look at a dry leaf, to inspect the color of the infusion, to experience the aroma, and to taste. I will certainly use some of her ideas of how to create a selection of teas for a tasting, whether a sampler of the five main tea types plus an herbal, by category (all black, all green, etc.), a range of organic or Fair Trade, or even by theme (teas with connections between their names, such as "royal" words.)

The last set of workshops was the hardest for me to choose between. Two of my friends/colleagues were presenting at the same time: Cynthia Gold, the tea sommelier at Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers and author of "Culinary Tea" presented "Think Tea in Every Menu Course" while Chris Cason of Tavalon offered his always popular workshop "Tea & Cocktails Flavor Fusion." In other sessions Dianna Harbin talked about how to start a tea meetup and Mim Enck did a tasting session of blended and flavored teas. I spent a few minutes in Cynthia's, Chris's, and Dianna's presentations. Chris had given me the tip to show up later in the session when he was starting to pour. I made sure to get their in time for his Crimson Toddy, a hot hibiscus tea combined with some orange peel, cinnamon, clove, and bourbon. When I left he was working on infusing gin to make some Earl Grey MarTEAnis. I was certainly jealous of the attendees of Cynthia's class when I saw the amazing array of food they were able to try - tea rubbed pork, Darjeeling vinaigrette, tea cocktails, and tea-infused chocolates among other treats.

Saturday was another day of great workshops, but I spent the day at the Specialty Tea Institute trainings. I would have again felt torn between Charles Cain's Tea 201 class on profitability and Thomas Shu's tasting session with Taiwanese oolongs. I did grab a few minutes to visit Pearl Dexter's "History of Tea in America" during my lunch break.

My experience made me very excited to attend World Tea Expo in Las Vegas in June when there are more workshops, but I will be incredibly torn choosing between sessions. It was such an unusual opportunity to get to workshop hop and I was glad I took full advantage.

Next time: The Expo floor

To see more photos from the workshops, visit the Tea Pages Facebook page!