Month: June 2013

For Day 1, go HERE.

For Day 2, go HERE.

I wouldn’t say it was a bad day. Heck, far from it. So many wonderful things transpired – dare I say, epic, even? However, I was off step from the natural rhythm of the day’s events, and it all started the moment I thought I lost my press pass. It took me a good ten minutes of panicking and cursing to find the damn thing. Fittingly enough, it was hidden amidst the spoils acquired from World Tea Expo Day 1. Correct…amidst a pile of tea.

After finding that, I made a mad dash to the Las Vegas Convention Center, and I still managed to get horribly lost in the interim. Even with my GPS. That’s gifted, I tell ya. Luckily, I made it just in time for the “Steeped and Brewed: A Comparative Tasting of Tea and Beer” focused tasting. Another ten minutes passed before I actually found the room I needed to get to. Jo Johnson met up with me a few moments later to get me in.

Once we entered, I took a seat at the front of the class. (It’s beer and tea, why wouldn’t I?) And waited to start. In the meantime, Jo introduced me to the proprietress of an online op, and she took a seat next to me. A few moments after that, Tea with Gary sat at the same table.

The hosts of this tea-‘n-beer comparison workshop were Kyle Stewart and Chris Beard of A Cultured Cup, and master wine sommelier James Tidwell. The teas used for the comparison were a pre-QingMing Long Jing, a Phoenix Dan Cong, and a Keemun Hao Ya B.

(Un-related Sidenote: Why does it always have to be Keemun Hao Ya B?!? Why can’t people splurge on Hao Ya A?!? It’s the only Keemun I haven’t tried yet! Okay…gripe over.)

On to the beer.

Selected for the Long Jing pairing was a Kölsch-style ale. Both bore similar color palettes but differed on the palate. Whereas the Long Jing was grassy, slightly winy and buttery. The Kölsch was pungently sweet, thicker-bodied, and possessed a floral (almost heathery) mouthfeel. While I’m loathe to say it, I think a lager would’ve been a better pairing.

Out of the corner of my eye, I caught the woman next to me mixing the two together. I exclaimed: “Dude! Why didn’t I think of that?!” And gave her a high-five.

Seriously, I’m surprised I didn’t think of it first. Usually, that’s my thing. Both together tasted…oddly superb.

The second pairing was much more successful: The Dan Cong with a Weihenstephaner Vitus weisen (read: “wheat”) beer. Both the oolong and beer were bronze in color, floral on the tongue, and evenly light-bodied. The only area where they differed was mineral aftertastes – the oolong had one, the beer did not. However, both were very floral and sweet dance partners.

Last, but definitely not least, was the best paring of all. The Keemun Hao Ya was pair-mated with a Taddy Porter from Samuel Smith – a macrobrewery out of England. I’d had some prior experience with that very porter, and with Keemun. So, I had a rough idea of how well they would get along.

Pairing both was better than I could have imagined. Following up the wood-smoke-sweetness of Keemun with a burly/chocolaty porter was like Christmas delivered on monster truck wheels. Gary and I both groaned like honey-satisfied bears in our seats. And when the tea and beer were combined…er…I think my brain melted.

Once all the comparisons were done, I was a tad…bouncy. While the beer provided for the tasting was in thimble-sized cups, combined with the tea caffeine, I was jittery in my seat. The uppers and downers played lacrosse in my brain. A happy, buzzy sorta game.

The woman next to me observed this and commented, “Wow, you’re a cheap date.”

I paused for a moment to muster up something witty. I managed a…

Nailed it.

*****

Once that bit o’ business was concluded, I decided to hit the Expo floor again to see what I’d missed. I was so sensory-overloaded the first day that I figured there were booths I’d missed. And, indeed there were. Plenty.

Expo Day 1 was about visiting the booths of vendors I knew. Day 2 was about introducing myself to new vendors. And I. Sucked. At it.

I learned an important lesson on my second booth-wandering. If you have a press pass, some vendors are going to assume you’re some sort of brew-buzzard, looking to score free samples.

Well, they’re not completely wrong. I did indeed want to try everything there was to try. However, it was in their best interest to at least pretend to be nice to folks that could make them look nice on e-paper. But that was a minor annoyance.

When I hit the floor for the first time, I encountered AmazonV in my wanderings. She informed me that there was a product that combined iced tea and aloe, and that it was worth a try. I shuddered at the thought.

I ran into The Tea Stylist soon after in front of the ITO-EN booth. We marveled at the bench off to the side, which was made of recycled tea leaves. At that moment, I had an epiphany.

“Can you take a picture of me on the bench?” I pleaded.

The Tea Stylist agreed to, and I got into position.

Best. Picture. Ever.

Shortly after that, I meandered a bit until I encountered a group of taste-testers in an enclosed area. It was a judging booth. Nineteen of the year’s iced tea winners were up for competition. Random sippers were allowed to come up and weigh in on which was the best of that year’s offerings. We were all given a white token, and we were tasked with placing it in a voting bucket (?) by the booth of our choice.

My pick was…*sigh*…TeAloe.

Seriously, it was phenomenal.

*****

The most epic thing I encountered that day, though, was a meeting of sorts – the founding of The League of U.S. Tea Growers, proposed by Nigel Melican and Jason McDonald. Everyone was there. And I mean, everyone. Growers from Hawaii, Mississippi, South Carolina, Louisiana, and even some well-known ones – The Charleston Tea Plantation director, Richard Sakuma of Sakuma Bros., and the aforementioned Jason McDonald of FiLoLi Farms. Even James Norwood Pratt was there.

Press folks (such as myself) vastly outnumbered the growers in attendance. And even as the idea was proposed, it didn’t sound like everyone was particularly on board with the project. That said, something was happening. The whole thing seemed big. Like, Founding Fathers big.

I even voiced as much with, “I have nothing useful to contribute. I’m just fanboy gushing. I consider you all luminaries.”

Then sat back down.

Many people weighed in on the pros and cons, their own personal experiences, helpful advice, and anecdotes galore. Perhaps the most effective proponent was James Norwood Pratt. He only said one thing – short, sweet and to-the-point.

“This is something that has to happen – period.” And he surrendered the microphone.

Pratt being Pratt

Point made.

Something had happened that afternoon. I’m nowhere near experienced enough in “teaconomics” to wager as to what…but something grand had occurred. And I can’t wait to see it grow.

You can follow their progress on Facebook HERE.

Or on Twitter HERE.

*****

The last event of the day was where my complete lack of rhythm was most prevalent. And, no, I’m not talking about dance moves.

Right after the LUSTG founding meeting, everyone retired to the Las Vegas Hilton for the annual Expo social. All the vendors, press people, and other tea luminaries – all in one room schmoozing. Small problem. I never learned how to schmooze.

When it came to finally meeting people I’d associated with in some fashion online, I was well within my element. However, effectively networking at a mixer?  I might as well have been a freshman at a new high school in the middle of a lunchroom.

Seriously, it looked like a high school cafeteria.

I spent most of the time foraging for food and congregating with people I already knew, such as Lady Joy’s Teaspoon and Lady Earl Steeper. One particularly precocious photographer even caught us partying X-TREME-ly hard.

Party animals.

Jo Johnson caught up with me as I stumbled about from food kiosk to food kiosk. “You look uncomfortable.”

“I’m extremely uncomfortable,” I said, mouth full of quesadilla.

“The secret is to be yourself,” she imparted.

I nodded, still chewing.

Alright, be myself, I said to…um…myself. Be myself.

Then I had a follow-up thought. Wait a minute. Myself wouldn’t be caught dead at a mixer like this. Moments later, Lady Joy’s Teaspoon mentioned that she, Teaity Chris, and Lady Earl Steeper were thinking of grabbing junk food and retiring to a game of Cards Against Humanity.

You can guess what option I went with.

I didn’t get to sleep until well after midnight.

To be continued…

Short version: It’s been a hectic couple of weeks.

But for once I can say, “Hectic in a good way.” I’m not used to being busy. As my oft-used moniker suggests, I rather enjoy my leisure time. That and any activities I participate in are brought gradually into fruition. Well, the month of May wouldn’t let me. One of the things that got lost in the fray was this blog. Or any writing for that matter.

At present, I’m about three write-ups behind. Eleven-hour work days, general weariness, and generous helpings of whimsy have contributed to my [current] delays in updates. However, as I write this, it is currently 10PM-ish, and I have some modicum of downtime while doing laundry. A necessary chore before packing for World Tea Expo. (Oh yeah, there’s that, too.)

So, I’m going to use this here time (and space) to cram three different topics into one write-up. They were subjects that probably deserved more thorough prose, but I’m on a time crunch. The effort might be  incoherent, but it’s late…and I have a vacation to plan at the last-minute. Sue me.

Meeting Tea Pimp Tony

Picture if you will a tea guy that writes a blog, posts it on a forum, and the thing goes viral. A publisher catches wind of the blog and says, “Hey, could you turn that subject into a book?” The tea guy gives it the ol’ can-do. Around the same time, picture – if you will – the same tea guy being interviewed about his blog. And, after some time passes, ends up engaged to the interviewer.

Sounds like my fantasy, doesn’t it? Well, it’s this guy’s reality.

Tony Gebely is one of the most well-known personalities in the tea community. He is the former purveyor of Chicago Tea Garden, and his personal blog – World of Tea – is one of the most frequented. Seriously, I’d kill for that guy’s analytics.

By some stroke of luck, I had a chance to meet him. Business brought him to my fair berg, and I was tasked with showing him the some of the sights. And by that, I mean we drank beer. First stop was the Widmer Brewery – a must see for any out-of-towner. While there, I picked his brain on all things from blogging, books, business, tea, and remaining the statistical outlier to my “tea and dating” theory.

Our second stop – The PDX Green Dragon – saw us talking more about tea…while we drank tea-beer! As if hailed from on high, they had a double-fermented Earl Grey beer on tap. I settled on that while Tony dug into a Chamomile ale.

I dropped him off back at his hotel, or at least as close as I could. No, I was not drunk, but my GPS apparently was. And we hoped to touch-bases again at World Tea Expo. (There’s that name again!)

Pu-erh Into Darkness

It was a Thursday.

Star Trek Into Darkness was premiering at midnight. Throughout the course of the day, I was torn as to whether or not I wanted to stay up that late to see it. A part of me just wanted to wait until that following Tuesday when I knew it would be cheaper, but the Trekkie in me wanted to see it “NAO!”.

While I was mulling over that geek debacle, I was in the middle of finishing another blog. All the while, sipping some Nepalese pu-erh. You heard right. Nepalese. Pu-erh.

It was the product that actually brought me to the attention of Nepali Tea Traders – an outfit that sources from private farmers in the Ilam region of Nepal. They had quite the extensive collection of Nepalese oolongs, but it was the pu-erh that really caught my eye.

The first time I steeped it, I went with the NTD’s Westernish instructions – about a teaspoon of leaves in 8oz. of water for three-and-a-half minutes. The result was a cherry wood red liquor with a very earthy nose. Like, legitimately earthy and not “dead fish” earthy. It tasted like a shou pu-erh twice its age or older. The earthy aspect was complimented by a chewy, almost fruit-like lean – roasted plums or something to that effect.

On a second go-around – this time, gongfu prep – I did four successive at thirty and forty seconds in a gaiwan. With slightly more leave to play with. Each of the four infusions differed, but not enough to relate each steep individually. The flavor more-or-less deepened rather than changed. The infusions were sweeter, richer, more nuanced, and heavier on the Himalayan muscatel lean. A winy note also showed up gradually over each attempt. Plus, it was a treat to see liquor darken as the leaves opened up more.

It was during this second gong-fu-ish go-around when I was having my Trekkie crisis. I don’t know if it was “boldy steeping a tea I hadn’t steeped before” or what…but Trek won out. I went to the midnight showing, hopped up on seven-or-eight steeps of an exploratory pu-erh. Fitting for a kid that grew up Trek.

Scenes from Smith’s

One particular Monday morning, I was obligated to pick up my sister at the airport. I had time to kill before heading out to PDX. I did what I always do when I was  around downtown Portland; I headed to Smith Teamaker.

In the span of two hours, over a pot of Uva Ceylon, I observed the following things…and jotted them down. Because that’s what writers do, occasionally:

–      There was a short, nerdy guy with a woman that bore a striking resemblance to Sophia Loren circa 1970-something. Strikingly gorgeous. No matter what she said or did. He seemed enraptured. He was just happy to be there in her presence. In his shoes, I would’ve been, too.

–     A couple off toward the display wall were arguing over whether or not to by one of their mother’s the Lord Bergamot. They couldn’t remember whether or not she liked Earl Grey. I almost wanted to chime in, but didn’t.

–    A gorgeous, sandy blonde-haired woman came in – clad in jogger attire – headed for the display wall, picked out some Brahmin, turned, looked at me and gave a slight smile. I bashfully stared at my pot.

–   Another couple were having a conversation with the tea bartender about the pronunciation of “rooibos”. As if on cue, a Smith employee, who was from South Africa, appeared to assist.

–  Got to talk with the owner for a spell about travel.

–  Tony – the lead blender – looked in my direction and said, “You should have your own plaque over that seat. You’re here so much.”

I love this place.

I meant to turn that two-hour period of time into a longer write-up, one leading into an idea about a tearoom anthology…but it never came to pass. There have been many more such occurrences, but these are the three that stuck out.

Now, if you’ll excuse me, I think I heard the dryer chime. Time to start the actual packing for World Tea Expo.

Sigh.

Oh yeah, one more thing. If you’re going to be at World Tea Expo, you can find me here. I hear it’s going to be hoot.