O5 Tea + Kale & Nori = Cocktails, Tapas and Tea Event (An Impression)

On the lovely dry fall evening of October 17th,  my impromptu field reporter Drew Taylor walked into the O5 Rare Tea Bar in Vancouver as part of a birthday gift from me.  

 Some readers may recall Drew from a previous post, when my coffee drinking friend joined me at the Urban Tea Merchant for their Sakura Westcoast Tea Service.  Little did he know what he was in for as he took another leap into the world of fine teas.  

 What happens when you add a rare tea hunter, a creative mixologist, and a talented chef?   

A collaboration of fine teas, cocktails and culinary delights!   Pedro Villalon of O5 Tea, Lauren Mote and Chef Jonathan Chovancek of Kale & Nori Fine Culinary Arts joined together to combine each of their special talents and showcase the beautiful teas of Yunnan, China. 

You can find the full menu and tea influenced cocktail recipes here.

Drew's impression of the evening, in his words: 

"The drinks took the edge off the gathering and allowed the ensemble of tea enthusiasts to relax and meet while enjoying succulent dainties, all infused with many fine teas.  All the hosts were passionate, articulate and informed.  For the ticket price of $50, people definitely got their money's worth."

Photos by: Drew Taylor

Kale & Nori's line of bitters created by Lauren Mote

That's a matcha tea grinder on the left

Pistachio crusted turkey marble, Moondog spice, apricot - Moonlight tea puree (paired with the "Moonlight Desires")

"Moonlight Desires" (Gin & Marigold Flower Cordial with O5 "White Moonlight" tea syrup)

Kombucha Squash-tea emulsion, sherry-maple-pecan glazed pork belly (paired with the "Hekou-Lao Cai")

"Hekou-Lao Cai" (with Bison Vodka influenced by "Golden Curls" tea)

hmm, this must have been good, Drew had seconds!

O5 Tea Hunter - Pedro Villalon and Kale & Nori Chef - Jonathan Chovancek

Silver needles braised mushroom and rice croquette, wild ramp kim chi, green onion tofu aioli (a vegetarian addition to the menu paired with the "Misterios")

"Misterios" (Mezcal with Silver Needle & Rosemary Syrup component)

Silver Needles tea steamed Gulf Island mussels, Chinese sausage, Indian carrot pickles (also paired with the "Misterios")

 Sakekasu beef kababs, sweet & hot peppers, rockets, coronation raisin (paired with the "Ushky")

 

The "Ushky" (with a pu'er component)

Kale & Nori mixologist - Lauren Mote

O5 Tea Server (Kendra)  and Event Photographer (Issha Marie)

Teas from Yunnan - the Inspiration

 

 Oh snap!  I should have been there!  Maybe next time...  

World Tea Expo 2012

The World Tea Expo (WTE) took place last weekend in Las Vegas.  This annual gathering of tea professionals, companies, and speakers from around the world was extra special this year because it was its 10 year anniversary!

It was also my second time attending the WTE...and the first time I had the privilege of covering it as a "member of the press"!  It was great!!  This second time to the WTE was better than my first time back in 2010, for sure.  I was a little overwhelmed at my first visit; so many people, classes, huge floor filled with booths of tea companies...and first time to Vegas!

I arrived in Las Vegas a few days ahead of the WTE to enjoy the city and relax.  

Ah, Las Vegas... the Strip, this 6.8km stretch of Las Vegas Boulevard where all the "action" happens.  Don't be fooled, like I was, by how close to each other places appear to be on the map, these are huge, huge blocks!  In the intense heat (106 F/41C) of the desert, the Deuce and the SDX buses (Strip and Downtown Express bus), $5 for 2-hours or $7 for 24-hour pass, and the monorail are great alternatives to taxi or walking for transport.  Save yourself from the blisters and the $20 taxi rides that I had...

Elvis!!

After a couple days of the craziness and excesses of the Strip, I needed to get away from this make-believe world.  I needed to get back to nature, some zen to get ready for the start of the WTE.

What better way to do this than a day trip to one of the seven wonders of the natural world, The Grand Canyon! 

Photo: Drew Taylor

I wanted to go out there too...

Ah, it was great being out in nature.  The Grand Canyon was awesome!

Photo: Drew Taylor

NOW, I was ready for a great World Tea Expo...

Photo: Drew Taylor

All bundled up due to the frigid air conditioning.  Photo: Robert Gignac

 I had educational seminars and workshops starting 8am each of the three days of the expo.  Took in a networking reception to celebrate the WTE's 10 anniversary, and watched a formal Korean Scholar's Tea Ceremony.  I attended two special VIP/press tea tastings presented by the Tea Board of India and by aT (Korea Agro-Fisheries & Food Trade Corp), and tasted many teas from the offerings on the exhibit floor.

I'll bring you into the World Tea Expo with me in my next post.

Spring Tea Tasting at Tao's (Part 1)... and prep for World Tea Expo 2012

Last Saturday, my friend, Raymonde and I went to Tao's Tea Leaf for Spring tea tasting.  Both Raymonde and Tao Wu, the owner of Tao Tea Leaf, are Certified Tea Sommeliers too.  Tao just came back from his trip to China with lots of goodies...Spring teas, of course!

 

So what happens when three Tea Sommeliers get together to taste this season's Spring Teas?  Hours of sipping fun! 

Tao Wu  preparing the Spring teas 

Fresh teas definitely taste quite amazing!  Here is a sampling of the Spring teas we tasted:

Jun Shan Yin Zhen (yellow tea)

Silver needle

Silver Needle (old bush)

Jin Ping Black

An Ji Bai Cha

Phoenix oolong

A fun and interesting way to taste teas, side by side comparison of similar tea, in this case the two Silver Needles:

Silver Needle (left) and Silver Needle -old bush (right)

We had multiple steepings of some of these beautiful teas, in one case as many as nine.  We had to stop since we were starting to experience some serious buzz and still wanted to be able to sleep... eventually that night...

Raymonde and me

Stay tuned for details of the Spring tea tasting in a future post!


Now I have to prepare for WORLD TEA EXPO 2012 (WTE) which will take place in Las Vegas on June 1 - 3.  I'll be flying in a few days!  I still have to narrow down my list of workshops and seminars to cover, tea people and companies to meet.

It's the World Tea Expo's 10th anniversary this year and they are promising no repeats, "all new content".  I went to WTE two years ago and it was a lot of fun, educational, and met some awesome tea people.

Seminars and workshops with titles such as "Will Tea Ever be as Big as Coffee?", "Understanding Puer", various tea and health seminars, focused tastings, tea business related talks, and much more... how can I not attend this year?!  Off to finish choosing what to cover now...you can click here and see what would you choose...

An Elegant Charity Afternoon Tea with Soroptimist International

The Soroptimist International of Toronto presented a lovely charity afternoon tea featuring a colleague of mine, fellow Certified Tea Sommelier and Culinary Consultant, Ingrid Folkers.  How fitting that on Mother's Day weekend, this group of business and professional women will use the proceeds of the event to help local women and young girls, in this case, the 416 Community Support for Women. 

Ingrid, a classmate for quite a few of the Tea Sommelier classes at George Brown College, has been a member of Soroptimist for four years.

Ingrid Folkers (left), Rosita Mandeville, organizer (right)

Ingrid received comprehensive hospitality training (including chef training) in Austria prior to her coming to Canada.  She makes all the foods for her afternoon teas, even the macarons!  Although her oven wouldn't cooperate, so she had to use Ruelo Patisserie's macarons for this event.

It was a lovely afternoon tea, yummy treats and good tea in company of friendly ladies for a great cause!

 

Two teas were served:

Dilmah's Ceylon Earl Grey and Ingrid's own sommelier blended Bourbon Street Vanilla Rooibos  for the non-caffeinated choice.  

The Earl Grey was well blended, strong and rich brew with just the right amount of bergamot.  You can click here for a video to find out the story of Earl Grey tea.  

The rooibos tea was enjoyable with a mild, warming, earthy taste, rich Bourbon vanilla notes, some spices, and had a sweet finish. 

Both teas paired well with the foods.  Yes, I saved bites of food to try with each tea... it must have been quite a funny sight for the other ladies at my table watching me with my camera snapping photos, taking bites of food, sips of tea, taking notes...

Citrus ginger scone, refreshing Lychee Spritzer and Earl grey tea 

the scone was light and tasty

 The afternoon tea tier had many goodies

 from bottom to middle: Mustard Pork loin with chutney on rye, Smoked salmon wheels

from left to right: curried chicken medallions, egg salad, cucumber/dill sandwiches

Mustard Pork Loin with chutney on rye

The sandwiches were really tasty, I particularly enjoyed the pork loin with chutney on rye, not a typical afternoon tea sandwich.  The cucumber sandwiches were very enjoyable too, perfectly thinly sliced, soft bread, nice dill flavour.  The curried chicken medallions were creative with the slices of egg and carrot infused bread.  The breads were slightly sweet, the curry chicken filling was mild, interesting. The egg salad and smoked salmon were more typical afternoon tea style sandwiches.

The sweets: lavender matcha tea cookies, Pot de Creme, French macarons, black velvet cupcakes. 

The rich red velvet cupcake, if you were a cupcake fan, you'd like it very much.  The lavender added a nice touch to the matcha cookies, which I quite enjoyed.  The macaron were yummy, a little bit chewy, lovely raspberry with the chocolate ganache, oh my goodness! 

I really liked the pot de creme, rich dark chocolate cup with light raspberry creme and fresh ripe raspberry, slight bitterness of the chocolate with sweetness of the berry creme, mmm.

Pot de Creme

And of course, what would a charity afternoon tea be without fancy hats and facinators!

A couple of us forgot ours though, aww darn ...