2nd Annual Milton Tea Fest

 A few weeks ago, I attended the 2nd Annual Milton Tea Fest.

 

 

I admired the lovely tea-themed artwork.

 

 

It was quite busy, so I only took pictures of some of the vendors.

 

 

My modest tea haul!

1st Annual Milton Tea Fest

At the beginning of the month, I attended the 1st Annual Tea Fest held in Milton.

 

 

There were over 30 vendors offering tea samples and other goodies.

 

 

Top: Chai Affair

Bottom: Amani Tea

 

 

Tea Samples (left to right): white tea, rooibos, chai, Korean tea

 

 

 

I also enjoyed sampling Momo Tea's different flavoured sencha green teas (left to right): sakura, ringo (apple), melon, and badu (grape).

 

 

 

More tea samples: turmeric chai and Tao Tea Leaf's ready to drink iced teas/lattes.

 

 

 

I had a nice chat with Andrea from Tea & Toasts...

 

 

 

...and Katie from Monarch Tea Co.

  

 

 

My haul from the Tea Fest

3 Momo Teas (the apple, melon, and grape blends). 

Taniya Gupta's book of poetry and the Monarch Tea Co. custom blend, "She Believed In Herself", that was inspired by the author!

Five on the 2010s

It's the last post of the decade! Instead of doing an annual recap, I decided to look back at Tea in the Valley's memorable moments from 2015-2019 (when I joined Blogland).

2015

2015 Toronto Tea Festival

1) I went to my first tea festival. Over the last 5 years, I've attended 2 Toronto Tea Festivals and 4 Royal Botanical Gardens Tea Festivals. The tea festivals are such a blast and a great opportunity to sample different teas and meet the vendors (many are local small businesses).

 

2016

Twinings Tea Tastings with Stephen Twining

2) I met Stephen Twining from the Twinings UK-based tea company. Twinings has been in the tea business for over 300 years so it was amazing to meet Stephen, a 10th generation Twining.

2017

Afternoon tea with blogging friends

3) I met up with some blogging friends for an elegant afternoon tea at Nicol's Pastry Shop. I've made wonderful friends through blogging. I'm grateful that some of us live within an hour's drive from each other so we can meet up in person!

2018

Outdoor Summer Tea Social

4) I'm so lucky that my co-workers like tea and participate in the tea socials that I organize. Over the years, our tea socials have varied from potlucks to "pop-up" teas to "teas to go".

2019 

A thrifting jackpot: a 10-cup teapot

5) Treasure hunting at thrift stores and garage sales is part of the fun of collecting teawares. After years of searching, I finally found this HUGE teapot, nicknamed "Black Beauty" by my colleagues, that can serve 10 cups of tea. So now I can share more teas with family and friends!

Thank you all for your visits and comments throughout 2019. Looking forward to a new decade of tea!

Happy New Year!

4th Annual RBG Tea Festival

In early November, I went to the Annual RBG Tea Festival. This is the fourth year that the tea festival has been held at the beautiful Royal Botanical Gardens in Burlington.

I arrived promptly at opening time and made a beeline for Dessert by Deb's charming booth. I had a great chat with Deb (her past business was a tea subscription box called The Sugared Teacup). The dessert teas all smelled sooooo good! 

I also had a nice chat with Katie (not pictured), who owns one of my favorite local tea companies: Monarch Tea Co

Top: Tea with Tracie

Bottom: 3 Teas

 The lovely Linda from The Travelling Tea Room

Relaxing Rocco: This is the first tea business (to my knowledge) that is named after the owner's cat!

Samples from Teas and Toasts

Samples from Blair Elements (left) and Blue Mountain Tea Co (right).

Sencha green tea and matcha samples from Momo Tea.

Infusions Organic Tea

The "Addicted to the Pot" sign made me smile.

Samples from Tumeric Teas

My favourite was the Bliss Organic Cocoa Lattle Blend.

The matcha hot chocolate from Plan De Vida was a big hit and sold out quickly.

The Consulate General of Sri Lanka was giving out free samples of their Ceylon Teas. It was interesting to see and taste the differences in teas from varied elevations.

I purchased this sparkly teapot broach from Teas and Toasts.

My tea haul from Blue Mountain Tea Co, Dessert by Deb, and the Monarch Tea Co.

My tea empties from the November sipdowns.
Whoops, I did it again! I brought home more teas than I finished!

Today is Cyber Monday. If you're looking for new or unique teas, please consider ordering online from these tea companies. Many of them are currently offering special promos. This is not a sponsored post. I just like to support local Canadian tea businesses--they work so hard to share their love and bring us high-quality tea!

3rd Annual RBG Tea Festival

At the beginning of November, I went to the 3rd Annual Tea Festival at the Royal Botanical Gardens. 

Some of the teapot trivia

These teapot trivias led us to the 29 vendors, 10 presentations, 5 tea tasting competitions and 4 tea ceremonies! Once again, I spent my time visiting and sampling teas from the local vendors.

 An exhibit of the classic versus contemporary tea vessels.

Pretty tea china were also presented by Tea and Toasts (top) and Lifestyles for Life (bottom).

The Travelling Tea Room always has such an elegant display.

Samples from beTeas: Choco Spice Rooibos, Milky Oolong, Purple Rain Green Tea, Wuyi Oolong. 

The Tea Stylist (not pictured: my white tea sample)

Sample from one of my favourite tea companies, Monarch Tea Co.: Biscotti Spice Rooibos. 

Samples from Tumeric Teas: Tumeric Latte (my favourite), Warming Ginger, Calming Lemongrass, Cooling Peppermint, Energizing Chai.

Left: Sample of Quince Herbal Tea from Tea-ara. 

Right: Sample of Lemon Sencha from My Tea Brew.

 Samples from Blue Mountain Tea Company: Coconut Milk Oolong (voted as the favourite oolong at the festival; left) and Nepali Breakfast Organic (right).

Left: Organic Black, Chai and Organic Green Tea Samples from Relaxing Rocco, a new tea company named after the proprietor's cat!

Right: Infusion Organic Tea (I can't recall what I sampled).

I had a nice chat with the delightful Deb from The Sugared Teacup. Her charming tea sampler boxes are being phased out at the end of the year so that Deb can focus on her new business venture--tea postcards and art prints.

An interesting display of teacups by The Art of Tea and Tasseomancy.

Samples from the Sri Lankan Consulate: Ceylon tea brewed at different elevations (high to low).

The set-up for the Chinese tea ceremony demonstration.

Next week, I'll share what I brought home with me!

2nd Annual RBG Tea Festival

The 2nd Annual Royal Botanical Gardens Tea Festival returned earlier this month bigger and better than ever! There were 35 vendors, 13 educational presentations, and 6 demonstrations offered during the 2-day festival. This year, I focused on visiting the vendors whose enthusiasm and passion for tea were truly inspiring.

 Uva Teas Canada offered a commemorative tin to mark the 150-year anniversary of Ceylon tea.

 

The Monarch Tea Co.

The Hamilton-proud owner, Katie, is one of my favourite tea entrepreneurs and delivers excellent presentations. 

Tea samples (bottom): Madeleine Cookie Black Tea (left); Warm Peach Pie Green Tea right)

Booch Kombucha

10 am isn't too early for some  kombucha, right?!?

Blue Mountain Tea Company

Sample: Up and At Them Organic Black Tea

Victoria Road Chai Co.

Sample: Garden in Bloom Chai

Steeped Tea

Steeped Tea is another Hamilton-based company and offered their own Advent tea calendar: 

"24 Steeps 'till Christmas."

The Sugared Teacup

The Sugared Teacup offered beautifully decorated boxes filled with tea things from Tea-ronto businesses. I am soooo tempted to sign up for their subscription boxes...

Teas and Toasts

This was one of the prettiest booths at the festival. 

I loved the tiered trays made of saucers and the charming infuser holder (right).

Zhen Tea

Sample: Guan Hin Yong

Kevin Kong Wellness Centre

Samples: A black tea (top) and a Pu erh from 2007 (bottom).

The festival was sponsored by the Consulate of Sri Lanka.

Their booth gave out free samples of different types of Ceylon teas.

The Travelling Tearoom

How cute are these teapot necklaces?

The Algonquin Tea Company

"100% certified organic, hand-picked, indigenous Canadian herbs and blended herbal teas."

Samples: Awakening Tea (left); Sacred Blend Tea (right).

Left: I'm not a big fan of tumeric teas, but I enjoyed the sweet tumeric latte served by Genuine Tea.

Middle: The Matcha Uji was made from green tea leaves plants that were exposed to Mozart music to foster their growth.

Right: Vanilla matcha from Steeped Tea.

Top left: Afternoon Blend Black Tea by The Tea Stylist who wrote the award-winning Tea Book (one of my faves!).

Top right: Cinnamon Dream by Teas and Toasts.

Bottom: Samples from Chayo Tea (left) and Bon Tea Place (right).

 Tea Postcards!

Tea Butler Canada (available at the RBG)

Christmas herbal teas samples

I brought home these 2 fun tea shirts by Tea Life Brand.

I also stocked up on my favourite tea-infused lip balm by Bare English & Co.

I exercised GREAT restraint and only purchased 3 teas: 

1) Madeline Cookie; 

2) Ginger, Papaya and Peach Chai (I was intrigued by the exotic combo);

3) Garden in Bloom Chai sampler

Another wonderful tea festival in the books!

I'm joining the following parties this week:

Tuesday Cuppa Tea

Friends Sharing Tea