Toronto Tea Festival 2020 Recap and Thoughts

It always takes time to get back to reality when I get home from a weekend at the Toronto Tea Festival. This year I felt like it took me longer than usual to get back in to the swing of things because there was quite of bit of information to process! Once again, the Toronto Tea Festival 2020 was jam packed with vendors, educational presentations and workshops, ceremonies and even attendees. With so much to see and do, I often felt like I had to somehow be in 3 different places at once! Hats off to the committee for always taking the festival one step further to make it an extra special event for tea drinkers all over the world. Here’s a recap of the weekend and my thoughts for next year.

As usual, once you get through registration at the Toronto Reference Library, you’re greeted with the Toronto Tea Festival branded tote bag that includes the program book, glass tasting cup (you need it for all the tea samples you’re going to drink!!) and new for this year, a calendar that includes some special discounts from vendors.

Toronto Tea Festival 2020 Vendors

There were 51 vendors at the festival this year. Vendors came from all over! Thunder Bay, Vancouver, California, Africa, etc. There was a nice mix of vendors that focused on pure teas and blends. Also, vendors that had tea themed products, tea infused snacks and more. If you want to see more of the vendors, then stay tuned for The Unofficial 2020 Toronto Tea Festival Awards. I’ll be highlighting some of my favourites then so check back next week.

Presentations

The first presentations of each day were on my list to see but because of travel I unfortunately only caught the tail end of them. On Saturday, my good friend Amy Taylor of The Art of Tea and Tasseomancy spoke about the mystical side of tea which also gave a look into the book she is writing (and hopefully will be done this year!). Check out her website to learn more about her work and stay posted for her book release.

The first presentation on Sunday was Concept to Cup by Nadia De La Vega – Tea Content & Compliance Manager at DAVIDsTEA and Celia Aceae – Tea Research & Development Specialist. Again, I only caught the end of this talk. But, they spoke about how they source their teas, create their blends and fan favourites. I wish I had more from this presentation. I did, however, get a chance to join one of the tea tastings DAVIDsTEA hosted throughout the festival and will share more on that in another blog post!

Now on to the presentations I actually saw from start to beginning…

Saturday 1:30pm – Botany of the Tea Plant by Linda Gaylard

I always enjoy presentations by Linda. She does a fabulous job at educating — I love leaving with that feeling that I just learned so much. The tea plant is my favourite (obviously) but it really is just a gorgeous plant that I want to learn more about. Linda covered some basics along with the history of the plant. She even gave growing some tips to attendees if they were to get their hands on seeds or a plant of their own!

Saturday 3:30pm – Ceramic Tea Wares: Form, Function and the Making Process by Helen Kong & Sorlie Madox

Helen and Sorlie are the founders of Secret Teatime — a ceramic studio that specializes in beautiful teaware. I’m so glad I attended this presentation because it was more than I expected! Anyone that appreciates and has an obsession with teaware of any kind would have really enjoyed this talk.

They went over their clay to function process and highlighted some of the things that inspire their creations. My favourite part of this talk was the anatomy of a tea bowl. I never knew there were so many different parts to a chawan (see image above). They also touched based on the different Kyusu and filters you may find in some teawares. I definitely left this talk with a deeper appreciation for all handmade teawares!

Sunday 11:30pm – Journey to the Land of the Morning Calm: Korean Tea Regions & Types by Soo Park

This talk was at the top of my list to see this year! Soo filled this presentation with so much great information and delivered it in a way that made me feel like I was on a trip through the tea fields in Korea with her.

With visuals and facts, Soo went over the traditional herbal teas in Korea from flowers, to grains and even mushrooms. She highlighted the ones that were used for medicinal purposes and those that were just for enjoyment as well. Of course the main focus of the talk was about the different Korean tea types (according to The Date of Harvest) and the different tea regions in Korean.

Soo shared some interesting facts throughout her presentation (example: Starbucks matcha comes from a farm in Korea, so some people may have been drinking Korean tea without even realizing it!). She even showed some breathtaking video clips from her Korean tea trips and showed off the reason it is called “the land of the morning calm.” If you’d love to explore more Korean teas, be sure to check our her website. Her teas comes from the Hadong tea region.

Sunday 12:30pm – Travel to the Heart of Chinese Tea: Stories of a Western Tea Newbie Turned Tea Savvy by Phil Rushworth

I always try to attend Zhen Tea’s presentations at the festivals and this year they switched it up by having Phil do a talk instead of Zhen. Phil shared a lot of photos, videos and wisdom from his tea journey and travels. This talk was relatable in some ways since Phil went from Red Rose tea bags to Chinese teas. His experience was a bit different since he jumped into helping Zhen open a tea company right away. When you read descriptions for teas on their website, Phil was the one who wrote them! It was inspiring to hear how he had to learn things rather quickly.

Phil also offered some tips when it comes to learning more about tea. One of my favourite things he said was a quote from Zhen on tasting tea. “Give the tea space to speak.” Forget about tasting notes, just listen and drink a tea as often as you can to learn more about it. He also suggested doing side by side tastings to accelerate your learning.

When it comes to travelling to a tea farm, Phil recommends you plan accordingly and keep a “flexible” mind as culture difference is everywhere. Overall, it was an entertaining and very well informed talk!

RELATED: Check out Zhen Tea’s vlog from the 2020 Toronto Tea Festival!

Tea Ceremonies

Two ceremonies were hosted at the festival for 2020. Chinese Tea Ceremony and Japanese Tea Ceremony. Different from previous years, these ceremonies were only available on the Saturday. I attended the Japanese Tea Ceremony which was presented by Momo of Momo Tea and narrated by Helen Kong of Secret Teatime.

Workshops + Competition

Workshops this year included the Chinese Tea Ceremony interactive workshop by MING TEA and Kombucha Demonstration by Artizen Kombucha. I attended the latter as I did the ceremony workshop last year. But just barely! I caught the tail end of it (again – it’s hard running all over the place haha), and headed to their booth to chat more about how to make your own kombucha at home. I also got a SCOBY from them so I can attempt to do so. Fingers crossed!

The Steep Off Competition returned as well. I participated in this last year and wasn’t able to attend this year due to a schedule conflict.

Thoughts for Toronto Tea Festival 2021

Overall it was an excellent weekend of tea sipping, catching up with friends, and making more connections. I really like that the ceremonies were moved into the old speaker room like last year. It makes it easier to hear what’s going on when it’s not in the crowded vendor area.

I would love to see more presentations from tea industry leaders on how they got into the business and what they’re life was like before tea (similar to Phil’s presentation). It’s great to hear that side of things and makes for a relatable talk.

I like that they added another workshop this year and brought back the tea tasting event with sommeliers (which I hope to attend another year). The Steep Off is fun to participate in or watch, but a part of me misses the Tea IQ competition, too. That was a fun way to get more attendees to participate in a competition. I’d love to see another competition like that one in 2021!

Did you attend the Toronto Tea Festival 2020? I would love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.