Tag: Tao Tea Leaf

Tea Cuisine, Tea Culture

A Sensual Feast of Tea And Chocolate

An Extraordinary Experience I have just experienced an adventurous evening of tea and chocolate pairing at Soma Chocolatemaker, in downtown Toronto, organized by The Tea Guild of Canada. We were met by Soma’s guide Samantha. As she lead us through the tasting of each morsel, she explained its place of origin and the close relationship the chocolatier had with their farm sources, confirming for me that specialty chocolate sourcing has parallels to direct-sourced fine tea. Curiously, some of the chocolate […]

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Tea Culture, Tea Knowledge, The Tea Book

Sip & Discover: Toronto Tea Festival 2018

In its sixth year, and now one of the biggest consumer tea festivals in North America, The Toronto Tea Festival is preparing for a large crowd of tea fans – both novices and connoisseurs and everything in between. The weekend event will be taking place at Toronto’s Reference Library in the Appel Salon Saturday February 3rd and Sunday, 4th, from 10am – 5pm. The Festival was founded by Tao Wu and his sister Mingzhu Gao, of Tao Tea Leaf in […]

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Tea Culture, Tea Knowledge

Monkey Time!

Year of the Monkey The Monkey appears ninth (out of twelve) in the Chinese Lunar calendar’s Zodiacal line up. New Year celebrations run from Sunday February 7th (New Year’s Eve) to Saturday February 13th. People born under the sign of the Monkey are said to be quick-witted, charming, lucky, adaptable, bright, lively, smart. A year of the Monkey is said to be unlucky, so precautions must be taken e.g. making sure the rice jar is not empty and avoiding sharp […]

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Social History of Tea

High Style: A Fashionable History of Tea

I am thrilled to be hosting an illustrated talk for the Bata Shoe Museum in midtown Toronto on Sunday May 13th (Mother’s Day). It’s entitled, High Style: A Fashionable History of Tea. In preparation, I’ve been considering the influence that tea has had on style throughout history. I’ve been delving into Asia’s ancient past, but also investigating tea’s introduction to society in Europe’s Baroque period and beyond. I’ve uncovered some interesting nuggets. During the early 1700’s 1 lb of tea […]

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Tea Culture, Tea Knowledge

Traditionals: Fragrance Enhanced Tea OSMANTHUS

Tea or Dessert? Most of my tea friends know that I’m not a fan of flavoured teas, particularly teas with dessert names, such as “New York Cheesecake” or “Apple Crumble”, etc. These sweet themed teas are usually enhanced with artificial flavours or if the flavours are natural, the black or green tea base is inferior and anyway, most retailers don’t want to waste a premium tea by adding unnecessary enhancements. There are however traditional fragrances that have been infused into […]

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Tea and Travel, World Tea Expo

Anticipation! World Tea Expo 2011, June 24th – 26th

When I attended World Tea Expo in 2010, it opened a world of possibilities. I was completing my studies at Toronto’s George Brown College Tea Sommelier program and a relative newbie to the commercial universe of tea. It was exciting and exhilarating to be near the greatest “tea minds” in the world! I had a chance to hear and ask questions of author and educator Jane Pettigrew, tea guru James Norwood Pratt and tea industry professionals. It was a heady […]

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