I recently attended the 2018 Tea Fest PDX in Portland on July 21st. Last year the Tea Fest PDX was successful, but it was cramped because they had a small space and got way more visitors than expected.
2018 Tea Fest PDX rented the entire World Forestry Center, instead of just a section of the outdoor area. With more space came more vendors, 40 listed on their website. It had a better flow this year as booths were not in straight rows causing traffic, though booths inside the building had some squished spaces.
What I find the most interesting about the Tea Fest PDX is the range of vendors as there was Japanese tea, Kombucha, herbal only shops, handmade local artist teaware, crazy expensive puer, Taiwanese oolong, skin care, flavored tea blends, and fancy British tea. Oregon has lots of local shops, so Tao of Tea, Smith Teamaker, Young Mountain Tea, Jasmine Pearl, just to name the big names that come to my mind. Vendors from Seattle were Phoenix Tea and Floating Leaves tea.
Minto Island Tea was selling plants and teas, all grown in Oregon. Upon entering the festival, I saw people holding tea plants and I knew I wanted one. I snagged a $12 tea plant. Their booth showed tea processing with actual tea on the table. I later came back and tried the tea that they processed themselves, which was quite good.
Phoenix Tea revealed their new Full Moon cake, a 2018 Yue Guang Bai. I sampled the white in its 14th infusion and it was still going strong.
To run with their theme, they also have these cute bat tea pets!
Denong Tea had a nice booth at the Tea Fest PDX. On sample was that delicious 2016 Black, along with their new Cherishing Destiny Ripe and Raw. They had more expensive teas available as well.
The 2018 Cherishing Destiny Shou caught my eye and tastes as it was air fermented. Usually, shou is fermented on the floor, so this was an interesting change for a quest for a clean tea.
Mizuba Tea is a matcha seller I keep meaning to try. They had a big range of matchas broken down by whether you want a more robust or sweet matcha.
Floating Leaves Tea was showing a preview of their Dong Ding Documentary! At their booth, they had the new 2018 Red Peony and it is goooooood! Strangely, the best photo I took of their booth was of their Taiwan Wuyi.
I actually got close enough to try Plum Deluxe’s tea this year. Last year they were in the gauntlet of traffic so I couldn’t get close and sample. They have an inexpensive monthly tea club that sends out freshly blended tea. I tried a Strawberry Rhubarb tea that was awesome, and I really liked the smell of this Mango Dragonfruit herbal.
Friends of Fire was the booth name, and I only caught Jonathan Steele as one artist there. Someone correct me as I believe there were other artists. I was half drawn to all the pretty teaware, but half trying to get my butt out of there as it was deadly for the wallet.
Rabbit’s Moon Tea Arts had a van in the back like last year. I could have gone to their SpeakTeasy on Friday, but I was just too pooped from travel and eating too much food. They had a gorgeous setup!
Their Yunnan Rose cake won sexiest photogenic tea of the festival. I could not stop taking pictures of it. I just wanted to buy it for looks and to take more photos of.
Now for a barrage of random tea booth photos! I got pretty tea drunk so a lot was a blur.
There were a lot of cool tea classes running all day at Tea Fest PDX and this year I went to two. I did Chariteas’ class which we tasted two Indonesian Whites, one which was oxidized for 48 hours. A lightly and higher oxidized Vietnamese Oolong, and an Indonesian black tea.
The last class was also the last class of the day hosted by Charles and Laurie Dawson. I know them from the Northwest Tea Festival tea bar, as well as World Tea Festival. This class was epic.
I had a 97 white tea. It was a bitter undrinkable white that they exiled to the closet… now the tea is straight honey.
I had a 1960s black tea. It was in a tea bag but it tasted hella old.
The jewel was the special anniversary cake. A CNNP Zhongcha Menghai origin from 1995 (though I ran it through Mr. Nug at Deadleaves.club and most info he found was 98-05 production and the cake is $$$$$). Drinking the 95 made my entire skin crawl, like this tea was pure static that shorted my brain, then traveling to the rest of me. The cackling peanut gallery of Lazy Literatus and I were being nerds and gushing. Best descriptor was him saying, “I am having the most delicious stroke.” All I could think about was drinking more of it as all other thoughts were broken. This 95 CNNP won the best tea at the event. Actually, everything (even the dodgy 60s black tea bag) was magically amazing.
Prior to the last class of the day, and I’ll admit I spent most of my day here, was under a tree by the tea vans. I found Crimson Lotus Tea and he borrowed power from Rabbit Moon Tea Arts and set up camp, brewing all the new teas. He wasn’t selling any goodies, just serving some tea and chatting.
I was able to drink full sessions of 2018 Intrigue, Honeymoon, and Day Dreamer. My favorite was Intrigue, which will be my must buy when it comes out.
During the Honeymoon session, a wild Scott from Yunnan Sourcing appeared! A surprise guest! Yunnan Sourcing and Crimson Lotus Tea never met in person, so it was interesting hearing them talk shop and 2018 teas. I got photo evidence! HAHAHAHAHAHAHA! (Crimson Lotus Tea’s Baby Boss chose that moment to grab the Tea Owl too).
2018 Tea Fest PDX Haul
With your ticket you got a tote bag to hold all your tea shopping in. Sadly, the official tasting cups that everyone was supposed to get did not arrive in time, being stuck in customs. With that, everyone got an official paper cup. My paper cup is perfect as I brought my own cup.
Astoria Tea Company carried some interesting teas (last year’s New Guinea white I purchased) but also an assortment of herbal teas from Russia. I picked up a weird herbal that looks like dried apple skins (but isn’t) and their Chaga. I had Chaga in blends, but after being able to try it on its own, it reminded me of shou puer but without the caffeine, so I felt it was a good buy.
Here is my camellia sinensis tea plant grown in Oregon, via Minto Island Tea Company. I was worried if I wasn’t allowed to bring plant material across state lines, but no one stopped me. It looks like you can purchase the same tea plants online!
I also purchased their black tea made from the same plants. It was surprisingly good, almost Ruby 18 like.
I wish I bought this cup from The Jasmine Pearl Tea Co last year, so I caved this year – a pothead mug.
Rabbit’s Moon Tea Arts’ 100g Ultraviolet cake. This tea is a black tea cake but made of purple leaf varietal in Nannuo. Nuff said.
Denong Tea’s 2018 Gu Yun Raw Puer
As much as I wanted Cherishing Destiny shou, I wanted something a bit more classy. I asked Jeffrey McIntosh for his personal picks of the best. He said the Nannuo is great, but the Gu Yun is his top as it is good and the price is lower as it is from their own tea garden. Samples came with the cake.
Crimson Lotus Tea‘s 2018 Stone Lion Sheng Lao Man E
I didn’t purchase this per say, but I won it finding Crimson Lotus Tea then I made my Tea Hating Husband shout I LOVE CRIMSON LOTUS TEA as he had the best loudest voice.
Well, that was a good tea festival. I look forward to 2019’s Tea Fest PDX!
