Jenny said

Northwest Tea Festival in Seattle, WA

Anyone going to (or is interested in) the Northwest Tea Festival on October 1st and 2nd? It’s being held at Fisher Pavilion at Seattle Center.

I just moved to the area last week, and am planning to attend! I would love to meet some fellow Steepsters there too.

The venue will be open:
10 AM – 6 PM Saturday, October 1st.
10 AM – 4 PM Sunday, October 2nd.

Entry is FREE to the public, with a suggested donation of $10.
The festival will provide a porcelain tasting cup as a gesture of thanks to those making a donation supporting the festival at a $10 level or more. Showing the tasting cup will allow you entry into the tea-tasting sessions, and you will be able to taste brewed tea samples at the vendor booths.
All presentations at all festival stages, entry to the vendor area, and the art gallery are free and open to everyone. A few special classes may have some fees associated them. See the complete program for details.

More information at http://www.nwteafestival.com/

14 Replies

sigh this just crept up on me this year… I won’t be able to attend because I didn’t make arrangements sooner… but next year… I’m so there!

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Hmmmmmm sounds interesting! Wonder if I can talk the hubby into going….

Thanks for the link Jenny

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BubbleDrae said

We just moved here 3 months ago, but as it turns out, that’s the weekend of our first trip back to the family, so I’m very sad to miss the festival. I like the topic about starting a tea time tradition with young children. Wonder what kind of cup I could get my toddlers to sip from….

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I’ve wanted to go every year, but there was always something that kept me from going.

I definitely can’t take the time to go both days, but I don’t think there’s anything that would completely keep me from going this year.

I’ll probably go on the 2nd. The sessions look a little more interesting to me, and a number of acquaintances are leading sessions. Jenny, what day are you planning to be there? Or, are you going both days?

Jenny said

I’m going both days I think. There’s sessions and presentations look interesting on both days. I would love to meet up with you if you’re there on either days — just message me for my number.

Jenny, Steepster won’t let me DM you, since you don’t follow me. DM me, and I’ll send you my number too. I’m still planning for Sunday. Unfortunately, I don’t have the time to go both days.

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I went last year, but am unable to go this year
it was fabulous, get there EARLY and sign up for the tastings/events!

Jenny said

Thanks for the advice. =D

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Sorry, I have yet to attend a tea event. It is a wish list of sort, there is perception and what is allowed reality; always that truth or dare from those around.

I am thinking of that retailer Games’ People Play and tea folks do mean on playing at least from this perspective. I have strained away from tea venue, please Jason, mr. moderator don’t email me about etiquette. I am not telling you what to do either.

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Megs said

Can anyone who went to this event comment on how it was? I wasn’t able to go this year (waiting for the baby’s passport to come through) but I’d really like to go next year if it’s worthwhile. Just wondering if it’s worth the drive down from Vancouver.

This was the first year I went, and I only went one day. It was smaller than I expected, but quite nice. There were opportunities to choose three hosted tastings from a number of different options. They were generally informative and fun. There were also larger talks which required no registration. There were also a few hands-on workshops that required an additional fee. There were a good number of vendors (maybe 25 or 30?) who each had a few teas to taste and buy.

Personally, I’m not sure it would be worth a trip down from Van unless you had other things you wanted to do down here, especially if you were doing it as an overnight trip.

It was fun, but a lot of the tastings and such you could probably also do at some of your nicer local teashops. I assume Van has some nice tea shops, just like Seattle and Portland.

If you had other reasons to be in Seattle, I think it’s definitely worth building in some extra time to spend a day at the Tea Fest. Maybe it would be worth driving down spending the day at the Tea Fest and driving back, but that sounds like an awfully long drive.

In other words, I thought it was great as a local. I’m on the fence whether it’s a destination for out of towners.

I attended as an out of towner last year, it isn’t very large, but it was a lot of fun, i got to see james norwood pratt talk, goto tastings with a champion (suzette hammond) and made many friends, to david’s point I did also tack on 2 days of site seeing in seattle.

Agreed, it isn’t huge, but there are definitely some worthwhile parts, some great vendors, the tastings and such are worthwhile and there are some great resources. And who of us isn’t in hog heaven when we are in a room full of people who love tea as much as we do. But I would combine it with some of the local attractions as well.

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Megs said

Thanks for letting me know! We travel to Seattle about 4 times a year so we’d definitely add a day or two (we usually do weekend trips) to hit our favorite spots.

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