Oolong Owl Invades the World Tea Expo – Day 1
Hi Tea peeps! The Tea Owls and I were at the World Tea Expo 2014 today! YAY! This is my first World Tea Expo and it was really spiffy to be in my city of Long Beach, California this year.
I read on IHeartTeas blog to prepare for the tea expo. I made a list of teas booths I had to see, but walking into the showroom….
S O M U C H T E A
Not the greatest pictures today as they are all from my cell phone camera – but here is the view from the Press room overlooking the expo.
Tea everywhere! With almost 300 booths, that is a lot of tea and beverage related overload and goodies to sample. It was overwhelming where to start. Even though I made a list where to go, I still wanted to see (and sample) everything, for Day 1 I didn’t get to sample everything and see all the booths. At the same time, I am also the type of person that just likes to wander around a trade show/expo. I started at the early number, but I got lost a few times. Rest assured, World Tea Expo was organized very well, I’m just the type of person who has gotten lost in a bathroom in Las Vegas. I figure I got about 1/2 of the booths in depth checked out (with a few I need to visit again tomorrow) and the other half I walked by but didn’t go in closer.
World Tea Expo 2014 Oolong Owl Fun!
Teas sampled by Oolong Owl: 53. I kept a tally because I’m weird like that.
Bathroom Trips: 6. Nice clean bathrooms that were easy to find at the Long Beach Convention Center.
Yixing Pots Spotted: Enough to make me weak in the knees and blow my tea budget.
Tea food, snacks and Healthy Beverage Expo drinks sampled: 13
There was a big line of Kombuncha booths, it was nuts. My tummy felt fizzy after a couple so I skipped some. Mmmmm.. Tea Icing @ Modern Tea Girl. So good. I could eat an entire tub or two of tea icing. The Fig Oolong was AMAZING.
Worship the tea cupcake!
Tea Owl Cuddles and squees: 4
Justea‘s Daniel with Intern Tea Owl. Hoot.
Take Home Samples for Oolong Owl Tea Review: lots. Oolong Owl will be busy for awhile.
Tea literature and business cards: A tree weeping.
Spiffy free tote bags: 2
Head turning conference topic: Staying Out of Jail and the Courtroom – Marketing Products to Sell Without Going Over the Line. (Healthy Beverage Expo).
World Tea Expo 2014 Reception party! Ah, it was a lovely sunny (as always) day in Long Beach.
Finally, the coolest Pu’er cake in the house! 101 Tea Plantation
Oolong Owl’s Favorite Samplings of World Tea Expo 2014 Day 1
Den’s Tea Karigane Houjicha – Very delicious! Fun, unique tea pale white appearance, lots of unami and roasty houjicha flavor.
Tea Room’s Organic Chocolate Infusions. Jasmine infused Milk Chocolate. SO GOOD. There were a bunch of us huddled around the booth, sampling everything and wanting to buy everything. Screw mainstream diets, I’m going on the tea chocolate diet.
Nina’s Paris – Amazing amount of teas that all smelled amazing and Magicienne was delicious!
Justea‘s Oolong Tea Star. I have to have it! Very delicious oolong and impressive presentation!
For Day 2 of the World Tea Expo 2014 I plan to pick up some tea books, drink more samples, take better photos with the shiny red Oolong Owl DSLR camera and hopefully hang out at the Tea Bloggers Round Table.
Be sure to come back to Oolong Owl tomorrow for Day 2 of the World Tea Expo! I was also live tweeting during my World Tea Expo experience – be sure to watch my twitter around noon to 6pm to read the tea action!
Check out my Oolong Owl World Tea Expo Haul to see all the goodies I purchased from the expo!
