World Tea East-Philly Summary Part 1

I just returned from an exciting tea show for the trade called World Tea East. It was held in Philadelphia, in the heart of the historic area. Tea shows are always fun for me as it is a time to see new tea products, old friends, meet lots of new ones, and taste tons of teas!

After teaching Tea 101 for the conference attendees at 8 a.m., I rushed to a board meeting for the Specialty Tea Institute, and then I was off to the expo floor to discover new tea and tea products.  

  For me, World Tea Expo shows are like a kid going into a candy store!!

 
So come with me as I tell you all about what I discovered.  You may want to look for these things in your local tea store or online! These are some of my highlights, but every booth offered something a little different. 
 
Here is the tea display for Rishi Tea.  Their award-winning teas are lovely and all the people working the booth were so nice to talk to.
 

Here is a lineup of Teas Etc teas.  Beth Johnston is the CEO of Teas Etc and a good friend.  Teas Etc has won many awards for their teas and are great to work with.

Teas Etc offered many tasting throughout the show.  I was lucky to participate in a tasting of a 60 year old Pu'erh and a 20 year old Baked Amber Oolong!  For you tea geeks out there, you know this was a treat!  For those that don't know about these tea treats, I will have to follow up with a blog!

Below is a picture of a Purple Tea from Kenya.  I have been reading about this tea and was excited to finally taste and see it.  There will be more to come on this tea in a separate blog.

Another tea friend at the show was SerendipiTea. The owner is Linda Villano who not only sells wonderful teas, but is a lovely person as well. 

For those interested in teapots, the selection was vast and wide.

I thought this tea collection was cute from Adrea by Sadek.  I seem to be on a bird kick lately, how about you?

 And the show stopper for teapots, in my opinion, was the Sorapot by Joey Roth!  It won one of the best product awards as well. Love it for its sleek design!

Next week, I finish my summary of World Tea East with some VERY cool tea products, a little Philly sight seeing, and my first time teaching for the Specialty Tea Institute!  What is your favorite thing so far?

Happy Sipping from Philly's World Tea East, Lisa

Cooking with Tea - Le Cordon Bleu

photo courtesy of John O'Hagan/TeaTime

What a fun day at Le Cordon Bleu last week!  It was time for the "Cooking with Tea" contest that I had arranged with Chef Jae Gruber to help spread the word that tea is more than just a beverage.  This was not the first "Cooking with Tea" contest the culinary college has held.  The idea surfaced a few years ago with Susan McKeen, then editor of Tea Experience Digest.  Susan had asked me to be a judge for the contest she put together.  I not only had the privilege of being one of the judges the contests, but wrote the article featuring the winners of each category.

Le Cordon Bleu was still very interested in having the contest again, but we had two problems: 

• I was in the middle of writing two books in a year and didn't have time to put a contest together.
• Since Tea Experience Digest was no longer in production, there was a need to find another media sponsor.  

This is where TeaTime Magazine comes in. Once I finished with my two books, I had time to contact TeaTime to see if they might be interested in covering the story.  To the delight of Le Cordon Bleu and me, they enthusiastically said yes!  After Teas Etc graciously agreed to sponsor the tea needed for the event, things were ready to heat up. 

I chose 9 teas from Teas Etc wonderful line for the students to choose from.  I went to the school for a tasting of all the teas and did a small tutorial for them.  It was fun to watch their faces as they tasted all the different teas.  They could choose up to four different kinds to play with for their recipe.  They could also choose which category to enter: Appetizer, Entree, or Dessert.

photo courtesy of John O'Hagan/TeaTime

As a tea specialist, it is so exciting to spread the word on tea especially to culinary students.  There was so much excitement in the air as the students gathered in the kitchen for the contest.  They had one hour to prepare their dish.

photo courtesy of John O'Hagan/TeaTime

As the students began to prep their dishes, Lorna Reeves (editor of TeaTime Magazine) and I went around to talk to the students about their dishes and how they were incorporating tea into them.  The excitement for the contest was building. 

It was time to judge the students recipes.  On the judging panel was:  Lorna Reeves, editor of TeaTime Magazine, Chef Mekolites CEC, Chef Crump, Chef Gruber, Evening LCB Evening Deen, and Lisa Boalt Richardson, Author and Owner of Lisa Knows Tea. Each student brought out their dishes one at a time. They explained their dish, the type of  tea(s) they used, and their execution of tea in the recipe.

photo courtesy of John O'Hagan/TeaTime

Each one was very different and delicious, but in the end we could only have one winner from each category.  All the winners received a copy of both my books, Tea with a Twist and The World in Your Teacup generously donated by my publisher Harvest House Publishers. 

Do you want to know the winning recipes? Look for them in the January/February issue of TeaTime Magazine along with more details about the contest.  You won't want to miss it! 

Do you have a favorite recipe using tea as an ingredient?  I would love for you to share it!

Happy Sipping and Tasting, Lisa

Tea and Chocolate - A Perfect Pairing

Tea and chocolate are two of my favorites things and combining them together for a pairing is so delicious.  I had the privilege a few weeks ago to present a mini Tea and Chocolate Pairing Workshop at America's Mart International Gift Show in their new Gourmet Kitchen with Beth Johnston from Teas Etc! 

 There were many celebrity chefs there and in fact, Alton Brown from the Food Network was our opening act as my husband likes to jokingly tell people.  It is true that Alton Brown was there just before us signing his books, but I am sure he didn't schedule himself to be our opening act. 

If you own a business, you might have attended the America's Mart in Atlanta before for their gift show either in January or July.  If don't own a business and not familiar it, it is three high-rise buildings packed full with everything a store owner needs to sell such as rugs, apparel, gifts, gourmet food, and books to name a few.  I am told that is is the largest gift mart in the country and is the place to purchase products for your store.  Every time I go, I am overwhelmed with the amount of things available and wonder how in the world businesses narrow down their list to buy products. 

I have used Teas Etc teas for several of my events and the quality is always top-notch.  This was the first time that Beth and I have presented something together and it was quite fun to have her professional input on each tea I chose for the pairing and her personal insight into each growing region. 

We paired three different types of chocolate with 2 teas each and asked the audience which pairing they preferred.  It was also fun to see some familiar faces in the audience of tea business owners that I knew!  For the dark chocolate pairing, I made up a batch of my Easy Chocolate Truffle Recipe from my first book, Tea with a Twist, and it was a hit. 

Following the event, Beth Johnston offered further tea and chocolate pairings at her showroom just a few steps away from the gourmet kitchen.  Beth was also gracious to invite me to her booth after our presentation for a book signing.

If you are a tea business and are interested in attending one of my Tea and Chocolate Pairing Seminars, I will presenting an extended workshop at the World Tea Expo in June.  It will be an extensive workshop on learning how to taste and pair and I will be using Teas Etc teas again for the event.   If you are interested in having me come speak at an event please contact me.  If you are interested in coming to one of my events, please be sure to check out my schedule as I am adding events all the time. 

Happy Sipping and Tasting!