Tea Festival season is back, peeps! The NW Tea Festival was held on September 23 and 24th in Seattle Washington. 2019 was the last time this festival was held. NW Tea Festival is the biggest tea festival, likely because the PNW tea scene is strong. This year we had a few from outside PNW in attendance.
Unfortunately, I could only attend the Saturday as I had other engagements on Sunday. NW Tea Festival was packed with a long queue to get in. There were times I couldn’t walk down an aisle as it was just full of people.
From years of doing tea festivals, the plan of attack:
- If you desire to do any classes, arrive early and directly get into the queue for class tickets.
- Hit Teaware Booths early for first dibs.
- Buy food/treats early before they run out.
- If you aren’t there for teaware or food, immediately go for a booth that does gongfu sessions, like Crimson Lotus or the Tea Lounge, otherwise you will have to wait for a seat to open up. However, I find NW Tea Festival people are good about staying for only a session or two, not overstaying, unlike other festivals.
This year the Tea Bar, now Tea Lounge, expanded. There were multiple tables to sit down, get served amazing tea, learn about unusual teas, and meet people – for free. This was the spot to be to try Korean tea, aged oolongs, 25 year old menghai puer, aged white tea, banana bread rooibos, and more.
I hosted a tea session of “Interesting “weird shit” tea cakes” at the VIP table. By weird shit, Sheng Puer that got fubrick molded, Fujian roasted sheng puer, black and shou puer blend, and shou puer pressed with vanilla beans. I also threw in the special Kuura club cake, only 50 in the world.
Thanks to all who came by and got tea drunk. The fubrick hit particularly hard. And a special shout out to my Fiber Arts friends who came by! It is amazing how the two worlds I’m in often cross paths.
I executed my plan of making a mad dash to teaware and purchasing. One place I circled back later and purchased teaware I couldn’t get out of my mind.
NW Tea Festival has heavy hitters of puer and oolong – all run by patient and knowledgeable people who are happy to teach you all about these more complex and traditional teas.
Crimson Lotus had a vat of Dark Depths. Dangerous.
Floating Leaves Tea brought a curated collection of their popular and in-house roasted teas.
Bana Tea Company, a favorite of mine from my days at the Los Angeles Tea Festival, has amazing puer and white teas.
Wang Family has a massive booth of Taiwanese oolong from daily drinkers to teas for the tea whales.
Also a strong showing of teas from Vietnam, and Nepal, as well as more high end puer.
Other dangerous items – handmade teaware, traditional gongfu tea pots, travel teaware, and English teapots.
And Tea Thoughts tea swag!
I started showing all the more intimidating teas, but NW Tea Festival has plenty of tasty flavored teas, some with PNW themes or local staples.
Oolong Owl’s 2023 NW Tea Festival Haul
Everyone who attends the festival gets a tote bag, cup, magazine, and sample.
This year my purchasing has changed. I have so much tea at home so only the most interesting will do. There are other items I purchased but not shown as they are to be gifts.
I gotta have more Tea Thoughts stuff, this bag is awesome.
Tea themed food. I regret not buying more chocolates sooner. Not pictured were millionaire shortbread, Russian tea cakes, and Bakewell tart that I ate.
Some unusual and delicious tea blends. Felicity Loft Alaska and La Connor Tea Co.
Another oolong brick and sweet rice puer from Bana Tea Company.
A badass tea tin from Chicago Teahouse.
And here comes the tea owl whale. The Wang Family oolong aged in a honeydew melon and Jonathan Steele teapot.
Both purchases stopped surrounding conversations as here is some owl dropping over $200 on a single item. I also needed these gorgeous teacups and shibo from Susanna’s Arts.
The next tea festival in the Seattle area is the Cascadia Tea Festival in April 2024! See you there!
