The Vancouver Tea Festival is in their 5th year! It was held November 3rd and 4th (Saturday and Sunday) at the Chinese Culture Centre and Dr. Sun Yat-Sen Classical Chinese Garden. I attended only on Sunday.
For 3 years in a row, I’ve missed the Vancouver Tea Festival. One time I was in Vancouver just before or after it. The other year I was having surgery so I missed it. Last year I didn’t make it as I was remodelling the kitchen and I’d be a complete jerk to leave the tea hating husband to do all the work by himself. I narrowly almost missed the Vancouver Tea Festival this year. I planned for a whole weekend, going out of my way to ensure I make it, then it got foiled by an out of town friend visiting. I tried to bring that friend to Vancouver for the weekend and that didn’t pan out either. This tea festival became driving there for the day, and we couldn’t stay long as it was a Sunday.
Out of all the public tea festivals I’ve been to, Vancouver Tea Festival has the best location. It is right in Chinatown so it is easy to commute there by public transit. Vancouver has an excellent Chinatown, so while you are there you can also go shop and eat lots of food. The food part is important as all the other tea festivals I’ve been to lacked food. The Vancouver Tea Festival is also at the Dr. Sun Yat Sen Garden. There is a free spot you can stroll through and hopefully catch them feeding the koi and turtles, but for an extra fee on your tea festival ticket, you can get into the private gardens. It is picturesque to have tea at the gardens, but I cheaped out as I had limited time.
The Vancouver Tea Festival has 21 vendor booths and 3 sections for tea bars. Included in that number, 9 vendors and a tea bar that were only there on Saturday or Sunday, so it was best to go both days. There was a good mix of stuff from chai, matcha, spirits, chocolate, flavoured teas, and traditional teas, but this festival had quite a bit of puer. What was funny was aged shou kept reappearing and pushed. I had tasted at least 4 aged shous here, which is quite strange.
2018 Vancouver Tea Festival
Amoda Tea, which has a fun monthly tea box I’ve reviewed a couple of times, had an excellent selection of matcha and tea blends.
Treasure Green Tea Company had a lovely set up of various teas and teaware. I was tempted by the purple travel set as purple teaware is uncommon.
They had a full spectrum of teas on sample, including a 2008 heicha and the start of the aged shou train of a 1998 shou on sample.
Whisk Premium Matcha had a line of matcha and matcha sweets. Dang it, I forgot I was going to buy that pin. The matcha latte sample they had was very good.
The Spirit of Tea makes spirits infused with tea. Right now, it looks like they just have an Earl Grey Gin and Rooibos Liqueur. I tried the Earl Grey without the gin and it was deliciously strong.
M Concepts had a selection of puer and other teas, but I homed in on the pretty teacups.
Taynton Bay Spirits is another alcohol tea. These are 14% alcoholic tea cocktails made with tea/herbs without any mystery flavourings. I tried both, the ginger matcha was the best, but the Strawberry Herbal was likely a more crowd favourite due to the sweet fruity flavour.
Drunken Chocolatier won me over and I bought a little artisan-made chocolate bar. They have beautiful chocolates, half infused with tea and liquor.
The Chinese Tea Shop is my personal MUST STOP AND BUY when I’m in Vancouver. This is where I planned to blow my wallet at and I could have gone harder.
They had a killer deal on yet another aged shou, a blank wrapper 2005 tuo for $25, which was the best tasting deal of the festival (some guy bought 10!).
They didn’t skimp out either, there was 1990s white, puer tea, and yixing pots. I was planning to repurchase some teas and I didn’t need to visit the shop as it was all here.
Van Cha is a shop I haven’t heard of, but I have heard of Silver Crescent Tea, with a location downtown, plus they said they are opening another location in Vancouver. Another puer heavy place, another aged shou on special. Is Vancouver sitting on a mountain of aged shou? I quite admired their chicken tea pet. Van Cha quite a high-end shop with not much in my personal price range.
Thai Roots Trading was a Sunday only vendor that sold rose and thai tea mix. I enjoyed both greatly and loved seeing more Thailand teas, even if it’s just tea bags and mixes.
Here are other sights of the Vancouver Tea Festival vendors.
Not so Gentle Tea (go to their site and read those reviews, lol)
I spent the end of my day at the Vancouver Tea Festival sitting at the gongfu cha bar drinking a couple high mountain oolongs and yes more aged shou. The gongfu table was definitely the place to be as there were good teas and fun conversation. It was also one of the only spots to sit down and kill time inside the festival.
The tea drunk progression of Owl.
My criticism of the Vancouver Tea Festival was website and presentations. The website is barebones needed a calendar to have them viewed easier. I plum didn’t notice there was an aged tea class at the end of the day due to the layout. The handout given at the festival was more information than the website, and I’m admittedly one of those types who never look at the handout as I planned everything in advance via the website. There were small things like the door ticket price wasn’t listed as well as some vendors. Finally, I was surprised they let an MLM in the door.
Vancouver Tea Festival is a small festival, I walked through pretty quick. If you talk to every vendor you likely can get through in an hour. The free shopping bags and cups went to the first 800 people and I managed to get one on a Sunday. Vancouver does have a great tea scene with lots of high-end shops and variety of tea, so I know you are all out there – go hit this festival up next year and show em who’s boss!
Owl’s 2018 Vancouver Tea Festival Haul
I made up for my sad Northwest Tea Festival haul of mostly honey. They had 2 different bags and thanks to tea-hating husband joining me I could get both totes. The free tasting cups are unmarked white cups.
Trudy Ann’s Chai was at the Northwest Tea Festival and I regretted not getting one of their chais. I have no chai tea in my house thanks to my dad guzzling it all. This chai has an amount of spice that I prefer. I also had to get a tin of Thai Tea mix from Thai Roots Trading. Since coming home I’ve had the Thai Tea twice and it is tasty!
I could not resist the gorgeous cups from M Concepts. These were a great deal at $10 each. I love the glitter and swirl detail on the left cup.
I had to get tea chocolates from Drunken Chocolatier. I cannot say no to puer chocolate.
Finally, I purchased a whole lotta stuff at The Chinese Tea Shop. I already have the 1990s shoumei (review coming really soon!) and the loose leaf Yunnan Wild Black gushu, both of which are amazing I needed more. I also got a sample of the pressing of the Yunnan Wild Black.
That is it for 2018 tea festivals for me! For the other tea festivals I attended this year check out
2018 Northwest Tea Festival | 2018 PDX Tea Fest | 2018 World Tea Expo.
Since someone will likely ask, here is the 2018 Tea Festival Schedule to find one near you.
