Tea Festivals are back! Cascadia Tea Events has been doing small local tea festivals in the absence of the big NW Tea Festival. Rest assured, Northwest Tea Festival is coming back in September 2023, but Cascadia Tea Festival is a smaller, intimate event.
The recent Spring event is their 2nd tea festival, the last one being the Autumn Tea Festival in 2022 that I unfortunately missed. I was planning to go, but I had a group knitting event at a Mariners baseball game a few days prior where a number of my group got covid.
The Cascadia Spring Tea Festival!
The 2023 Cascadia Spring Tea Festival was held in Everett, WA, about 30 miles north of Seattle.
For the first hour, I was running a tasting session at the Tea Education table. For tasting was a 10 year old white tea from Kuura, oolong roasted in a bitter melon, and closing with some hard hitting Fu Zhuan.
Next to me was another tea tasting table hosted by Joshua / The Empty Tea Cup.
I’ve been to a number of tea festivals, and despite the small venue, this one was busy and packed! Busier than the similar sized tea festivals in Vancouver Canada.
The vendors present – Floating Leaves Tea, Sugimoto Tea, Friday Afternoon, Heritage Teaworks, Three Bears Tea, Crimson Lotus Tea, Saku, La Conner Tea, Tea J Tea, and Whatcom Tea – some heavy hitters!
Floating Leaves Tea was right by the door. I sampled their new Buddha Hand and newest crop of Smooth Baozhong. That new baozhong is amazing!
Heritage Teaworks has some amazing handmade wooden teaware items. The breaking tray was quite lovely.
Three Bears Tea was my main mission for this tea festival. I had samples given to me by friends and I needed more. That said, I stayed until I tried everything they had at the festival.
Tea J Tea had a huge crowd as they were a tea and food subscription box. It was difficult for me to get a closer looking. But what caught my eye is their teaware.
Crimson Lotus Tea had an impressive pile of cakes. I was able to drink more Big Red and some Altered State for the drive home.
Whatcom Tea had an overwhelming amount of tea!
La Conner Tea is a tea blender west of here. Their teas names are local locations, so if you are familiar with the area, it is pretty neat.
More sights! Saku Tea, Sugimoto Tea Company, and Friday Afternoon Tea! Not pictured was LaLiath Bakery (I love their Millionaire’s Shortbread) as well as a fun crafting space to make buttons.
Cascadia Tea Festival Haul
I wasn’t planning to get much, my tea stash has been out of control for years. I snagged stuff I sampled that I enjoyed. Pika Pet also had to come home with me.
In the end, 10/10, I would attend another Cascadia Tea Festival and recommend it to others who live in the area to check it out!
