The Northwest Tea Festival is my favorite tea festival of all time. It was on September 28 & 29th, at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. There is so much to do, see, meet, and learn as this is a large tea festival that is open to the public. This year was their 12th year and was especially full as there were 59 vendors, 2 stage presentation areas, 5 workshop booths, 1 tea bar, and an intimate tea tutorial and tea guest table, with two days to do it all.
2019 Northwest Tea Festival was the highest level of chaos and busy (despite saying that every year at every festival) as I had a full schedule on Saturday and only Sunday to hit all the booths. This year, I was leading two classes – FuZhuan tasting & White tea basics, on the Tea Blogger Roundtable panel, and two Tea Guest Table appearances. I also used my presenter badge to roll in early to snap photos and relax before the storm.
Saturday, in particular, was just a madhouse, it felt the most crowded festival day (not counting the gauntlet wall of unmoving people of the first PDX Tea festival due to skinny aisles) as it attracted a large number of people at once. Everyone could tell the doors opened as within minutes the place was full of thirsty people.
2019 NW Tea Festival Vendors
Floating Leaves Tea – Let’s start with Floating Leaves Tea. They made a booth that mimicked the shop experience with bonus Yana’s baked goods.
They had a cool old door table with Shuiwen serving tea beyond just sample tasting – she talked about tea path, broth, feel, and comparison between similar teas. Shuiwen is also a blast to have tea with!
Crimson Lotus Tea – As usual, this is a spot I lurked around the most. Really, any table who sets up some chairs attracts a crowd. Though, it seemed I saw regulars hitting this spot too.
Crimson Lotus Tea had a tasting schedule, with 2 teas every hour, usually a sheng and a shou. Though, one time it was both Space Girls at once for a tasting comparison. End of the day had the juicy stuff being sampled – the new 2019 Altered State – to secure you needed to Uber home instead of drive.
MeiMei Fine Teas – Though from the DC area, MeiMei Fine teas made the trek to Seattle to share their fantastic teas and knowledge.
I sat down at their gongfu table and had some excellent 2019 Bai Mudan as well as expertly brewed Rou Gui.
Tillerman Tea – This year Tillerman Tea had the whole line up for sample and sale, including Owl’s pick Dong Ding Laoshi. Their Hongshui was also a solid choice. A strong line up of teas which a number of them sold out at end of the day.
Denong Tea – End of Saturday, when they kicked out everyone who didn’t have a badge, I finally got close to Denong Tea and tried their puer. 2019 spring is drought leafed, opening a stronger flavor. Jade Leaves was sweet, but Golden Branches is my pick for the cleanest shou with their aerial fermentation style.
Serene Tea Cha – Serene Tea Cha is a new local Seattle tea seller starting to make appearances around town. I’ve reviewed some of their tea. Saturday I stormed in and snagged some of that Cold Dew Shou Mei I thought about buying. I then spent some time on Sunday circling trying to have a sit-down session with their aged white tea. I was able to try their 2015 aged white, which had some interesting mineral flavor.
Phoenix Tea – Phoenix Tea is the local Seattle spot for wanting to taste a wide range of tea regions. What caught my eye is their selection of dark teas, especially these logs cut down to a more friendly size.
Wang Family Tea – I reviewed Wang Family Tea’s black teas not too long ago. They made a splash drawing crowds for their wide selection of Tawainese teas. However, what made them steal the show was their innovative teas – Hakka Style rolled oolong stuffed into a Pomelo and aged! People were circling and demanding this tea, even at its $100+ price tag it sold out well before I found it.
What also caught my owl eye was a couple of lone packages of white tea on the shelf in the corner. Turns out, it is Qing Xin cultivar, Shan Lin Xi grown white tea. This white tea was THICCC, amazing, and I purchased immediately. Apparently, they have a silver needle grade…. (call me!)
The Matcha Factory – Along with Tealet, and somewhat more wholesale focused, I experience a special treat of drinking freshly ground single-origin matcha. I rolled in at the end of Saimidori tasting and the start of Gokou sampling. I really like Saimidori, but Gokou had an excellent sweetness. These guys are pushing getting matcha ground in the USA, then shipped for maximum freshness. I have a video on my instagram stories of matcha being ground then directly whisked to drink.
Wize Monkey – I was happy to see Wize Monkey in session and their new developments into their award-winning Coffee Leaf Tea. They are constantly innovating and moved to carry loose-leaf in addition to tea bags.
What tasted great was their Chocolate Coffee Leaf, flavored with just cacao shells. The neutral pairing of the cacao shells worked fantastically with the Coffee Leaf tea for a smooth tea.
Friday Afternoon Tea – In the flavored tea and geekdom world, Friday Afternoon is creating blends of crazy awesome sauce. What caught my eye is their Moon Princess oolong, that as it resteeps goes through the progression of Sailor Moon’s character.
Market Spice – Market Spice is a local attraction for tea and spices at Seattle’s Pike Place. Their Orange Spice tea is quite famous, I’ve seen it in Alaska being sold as a favorite tea.
It is good Seattle representation that Market Spice was here, selling Orange Spice, other fruity spicy teas, and honey. However, just about the entire space could smell when Market Spice was making more tea as it filled the air with strong sugary cinnamon spice.
Other sights at the Northwest Tea Festival
Young Mountain Tea (more on this in my haul)
My Zen Tea LLC puer, black tea, white tea, and tea honey.
Zuo Wang from Portland.
Artist Tom Hill.
Shipwreck Honey – Local Seattle honey. It isn’t in my haul photos, but I bought a couple jars and a dozen honeystix to bribe the SO with.
Homemade and locally made tea stuffed in a pomelo.
Saturday tea drunk photo op.
2019 Northwest Tea Festival Oolong Owling
As I mentioned earlier, I hosted a bunch of events, all free. Like previous years, the free class tickets go in like 20 minutes, to the point on Sunday I rolled in 45 minutes early and there was already a line of people waiting to get in who has yesterday’s wristbands. There was a request for more beginner and regional classes, which I ignored for my FuZhuan tasting, bringing out the moldy of the moldy. We discussed how Fu Bricks are made, how that mold is there and tasted Bitterleaf Tea’s 2000 Gold Dust and a 2018 Fu brick.
The Guest Tea Table was my second haunt, a new table for a line up of popular tea locals to share their teas and skills with.
For Saturday, I treated everyone to an encore of Fu Zhuan but also Bana Tea Company’s 2019 Still Love You Sweet Rice and Agarwood shou. Right after that tasting was Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2019 Altered State, which became a trainwreck of tea drunk.
Sunday, I flexed my tea basics for White Tea Varieties, showing and tasting Silver Needle, White Peony, and Shou Mei, with a bonus 2010 aged Shou Mei in the mix. My Guest Tea Table appearance was of special shit I felt like drinking – 1990s Shou Mei, Old Ways Tea’s 2018 Dabo Black, and 2014 GongMei White2Tea.
Thanks to those who went to my classes and visited the guest tea table!
2019 Northwest Tea Festival Haul
My 2019 Northwest Tea Festival haul is mostly large volumes of white tea.
Serene Tea Cha’s Han Lu Cold Dew Shou Mei – After sampling and reviewing for the tea blog, I wanted more of this tea. Thankfully, it was available so I purchased two bags.
Bitaco Colombian White – I bought 6oz. I already had samples from World Tea Expo and happy Bitaco (though looking at my bill, it was via Chado/Waterfall Tea Company) was selling tea. 2oz for $10 I felt was an excellent deal, so I went hard. I’m going to leave these sealed to age.
Mei Mei Fine Teas – 2019 White Peony/ Bai Mu Dan and Rou Gui. I am lucky I didn’t sample more of their teas as the rate I was going I was going to buy everything I tried.
Wang Family Tea – Shan Lin Xi Bai Mudan and a sample of the pomelo oolong. I needed their Shan Lin Xi Bai Mudan and I needed a lot of it.
Young Mountain Tea – Nilgiri Black Orchid. This tea was hinted at during the PDX Tea Festival and made its debut at the Northwest Tea Festival. It is a take on a Nilgiri black tea gone Sun Moon Lake. The sample at the tea festival tasted super fruity, so I had to buy it.
Crimson Lotus Tea’s 2019 Altered State – No one is surprised I bought this, I even planned to buy this cake. I sampled this tea twice at the festival. A tea friend told me it made her teeth rattle. I promptly got messed up drinking it the first time (though I had 2 fubrick and 1 agarwood session directly before) and forgot what happened from 3pm to 6pm though I recall laughing a lot. The second time I drank Altered State it was also a potent gong ringing experience. A cup made it feel like my head is in a large church bell that someone is banging. I would drink a sample cup and go for a walk around the festival, come back and have another cup, and repeat.
Teacups – a woodfire one from Friends of Fire. It was in the rummage box. It is not the colour I’d pick and it is not perfectly round, but the slight indentations fit my hand perfectly, so I had to get it.
I got 2 cups (robin egg blue and maroon) out of the $5 teacup pile at Artist Tom Hill’s booth. I would have gotten more, but I have a strong bias to cups with a flare, and there wasn’t much selection of those. The purple floral cup was a gift from Wang Family Teas for dropping a lot of money on white tea.
To go with my Puer honey from last year, I got White Peony Honey from My Zen Tea LLC.
At Floating Leaves Tea’s booth was Yana’s baked goods. I arrived early and purchased a couple of packages of Russian Tea Cakes, my favorite. Her’s are particularly good as they are incredibly buttery, not the dry dusty hockey pucks that need tea to wash them down. I also got one of her delicious matcha rice cakes filled with red bean. I noticed the end of Saturday she was near sold out of everything, so I bought more of each. I spent the next 2 days nibbling away at my Russian Tea cake stash.
