A Master Class ~ Taiwanese Teas With Tillerman

I am quite involved in the tea industry, especially on the promotions and social media side.  Although I don't have a tea shop per se, I have managed social media for tea companies. I organize and handle social media for the Toronto Tea Festival, I've written tea articles, most recently for World Tea News, and currently I am the PR chair for the Tea Guild of Canada. Now, what is the Tea Guild of Canada, you ask?

Tea Guild Of Canada is a not-for-profit corporation dedicated to fostering excellence in the world of specialty tea.  The mandate is as follows (from the website):

        We are committed to
            Educating members and the public;
            Exchange of ideas and sharing of resources;
           The creation of programs and events.

Ever since my tea sommelier classes finished, I have missed getting together with other tea sommelier/students and tea lovers to taste teas and advance my tea education. That's where the Tea Guild has filled the gap. 

Members are tea sommeliers, tea sommelier students and ethusiastic tea lovers in and around the Toronto area. We've brought in some awesome guest speakers for our members, e.g. Kevin Gascoyne of Camellia Sinensis, Raelene Gagnon of Tea and All Its Splendour, podcaster/blogger TJ Williamson of the World Tea Podcast and the latest, David Campbell of Tillerman Tea. 

David first contacted me through Facebook to ask for some tea shop recommendations to check out while he was in town from California. A Taiwanese Tea specialist, he's been in the tea business since 2007 and before that was in the wine industry for some 30 years...tea and wine, Taiwanese teas... I put them all together and my mind went bing! We should have him join us for a meeting!  I suggested this and he was game!  

A "Teas of Taiwan" evening was created!

I was there too! That's Linda Gaylard beside me! (Photo:Raelene Gagnon)

Map of Taiwan's Tea Producing Area 

Tea Anyone?

Wenshan Baozhong (a lightly oxidized oolong, heavenly aroma) 

Alishan (Meishan District)

Chinglin Gaoshan (Jade oolong)

Bai Hao (Oriental Beauty) highly oxidized and roasted oolong

Notice the fuzzy white tip

Loved this one! Fruity, malty like darjeeling 

True Bai Hao has this fuzzy pekoe white tip attached the the leaf, look for this when you are buying Bai Hao

David also generously gave the Guild the Powerpoint presentation of his talk, 
you can view it here. Thank you David!

If you'd like a chance to (tea) geek out:

Join us This Thursday, June 1st at 6:30 p.m. 

at The Chef's House (George Brown College).  

Our guest speaker for this coming Tea Guild meeting will be fellow Certified Tea Sommelier, Michelle Pierce Hamilton of the new Tea Lounge and BeTeas of London, Ontario. 

Her topic will be Tea and Health. 

Click here for more details and to RSVP. Hope to see you there!

West Coast: Westholme, Ucluelet, Tea, Sun and Son!

What a summer it was! My family and I were able to do a bit of travelling on the West Coast of Canada back in September.

We visited Vancouver then took the ferry over to Vancouver Island for some sun, beach and TEA! We visited the Westholme Tea Farm, home to Canada's first ever single estate grown tea!  Oh yes, I have tasted tea grown in Canada!  And written an article for Tea Journey Magazine about it!

















A beautiful, sunny Sunday afternoon, tea plants all around, a jazz duo plays while customers lounge on the patio sipping fresh Canadian teas and delectable treats. You can read more about the teas and the pairings and learn about Victor and Margit of the Westholme Tea Farm here.

 

As you can imagine, travelling all the way across Canada just to sample tea grown here was worth the trip...as well as driving through the incredible landscape of the Pacific North West, seeing all those beautiful old growth trees and young mountains until finally we arrived at the westernmost part of Canada.  The west coast of Vancouver Island, home to some of the most magnificent beaches and a few decent restaurants and nice places to stay.  We holed up in a resort in Ucluelet called the Terrace Beach Resort.  Owned and operated by the family of Jason Priestley, we noticed the family resemblance although I'd say he got the looks overall.  I don't know where he was, but he didn't show up while we were there and I'm just a little disappointed.  What's up with that J.P.? I even had tea for you...


The entire structure is built on stilts made of heavy timber.  Tsunami proof I'm guessing.  They were giving the place a face lift when we arrived, scaffolding all around the building we stayed in but it didn't manage to scare off the young buck deer grazing out front.

Although they have private access to a cute little inlet, we hopped back in the car and drove up the coast to Long Beach.  Sixteen kilometres of awesome sandy beach with rough driftwood structures scattered along the shore to offer some reprieve from the endless winds and pounding of the surf.

The odd washed up kelp looked
like it belongs in a space movie.  While my husband satisfied his inner caveman body surfing in the chilling seawater, my son had the time of his life running back and forth between the tide and the shore, carrying small rocks and shells to and from.  This summer the boy overcame his fear of the water in no small part due to seeing a short animated film, "Piper" that accompanied the Disney Pixar film "Finding Dory".

Once we'd worn the boy out (he slept easily and deeply that night), we ordered some takeout from Hank's Smokehouse, a gem of a restaurant we found through a friend on our first visit during our honeymoon a couple of years ago.  We overdid it the first time, but this time a balance of smoked this and that and salad and some overpriced drinks we picked up at the Ucluelet Liquor store (remind me to stick with the government outlets next time!).

Jealous yet?  I miss it already.