It was a busy show filled with lots of education and tastings:.
I taught a Tea and Chocolate Pairing class. I love to share about tasting and pairing and watch people start to really let their palates be the judge. We tasted ten teas from five different countries and paired them with seven different chocolates. The class participants were fun and the comments they had were great. I was honored to have Jonathon Jones from Tregothnan sit in on my class-will share more about Tregothnan later. If you haven't tried pairing tea and chocolate together, you really should experiment!
Friday evening I was invited to dinner by my publisher, Harvest House Publishers. We have tried to get into Rosemary's for a couple years, but didn't get reservations in time. This year we were able to get reservations and what a wonderful culinary experience on so many levels. Next time you are in Vegas, do try to get into Rosemary's-you won't be disappointed. A big thank you to Harvest House Publishers for a wonderful dinner.
Saturday:
A big day that was a full of events. I attended the workshop on Hawaii Grown Teas presented by Eva Lee. It was fascinating to learn about their process and evolution in tea. As I sat with my friend Jane Pettigrew, we both thought how wonderful it was to watch the growers who were all sitting a row in front of us. It was so emotional for them to watch their dream becoming a reality, it brought tears to their eyes as Eva presented.
This year was the first year the World Tea Expo offered an Authors Circle event. I was honored to be a part of it and share my inspiration behind writing both my books. I love to meet the buyers for my books and talk with them. Immediately following the Authors Circle, I signed books at the Harvest House Publishers booth and had fun meeting more buyers!
Later in the day, I had the opportunity to attend my friend, Cynthia Gold's Tea and Cheese Pairing. She is very knowledgeable about tea and pairing and I enjoyed her class. She will have a book coming out this fall called Culinary Tea which I can't wait to buy.
Sunday:
I sat in on Jane Pettigrew's class on Unusual Blacks with Bill Waddington. Jane did a wonderful presentation. Some of the teas I had tasted before, but some were new to me such as the Hawaii grown teas and teas grown in England at Tregothnan. I did learn an interesting tea fact from Bill Waddington that Alabama now has a small tea farm.
A peek into the tea garden
I was invited to a luncheon where Jonathon Jones did a presentation on Tregothnan. It was fascinating to learn how England is now growing their own tea. Jonathon and I spoke after the presentation and he has invited me to come over and speak sometime across the pond possibly with a tea and chocolate pairing. He even shared some of his chocolates infused with his English tea-yummy!
I did a second book signing at Harvest House Publisher's booth for those that wanted a book signed and missed me on Saturday. I learned that tea is becoming quite the hot trend in Mexico as I chatted with a couple tea room owners from Mexico. How fun that tea drinking is growing in areas that it was not popular before.
I had the opportunity to walk the expo floor after lunch and see what all is new in tea. I will blog about some of the latest products I found and teas I tasted in future blogs.
Takeaways:
As always, I enjoyed chatting with all my friends in tea from all over the globe. For those in the business, it is one of the highlights of the year. I have made some new friends this year as well. It is wonderful to taste tea fresh from the garden, learn about new tea growers all over the world, and see new products that make tea drinking a little more fun or easy.
Happy Sipping, Lisa
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Enjoyed seeing you at the WTE and taking it all in.
ReplyDeleteIt sounds like you participated in many wonderful tea events at the Expo. Your class on pairing tea and chocolate sounds very interesting. I hope to be able to attend the Tea Expo at least once - it would be such a fun experience.
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