Tag: Toronto

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 […]

Continue Reading
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 […]

Continue Reading
Social History of Tea

Dressing for Downton: “Yes, Milady. Spadina House Awaits Your Visit”

  Toronto’s Spadina House plays host to Downton Abbey’s Costumes   Season 4 of Downton Abbey has just ended and filming of Season 5 has begun, although in North America we will have to wait a year to view it. For those of us in Toronto suffering withdrawal from the series, it’s wonderful to know that we can indulge ourselves during the hiatus with an up-close look at Downton costumes. “Dressing for Downton” is an exhibit of 20 mostly Edwardian […]

Continue Reading
Globe-trotting, Tea and Travel

Sense of Origin

West Coast Envy Here in central Canada we envy those who are so lucky as to live on Canada’s west coast, specifically, Vancouver. There is a friendly rivalry between Toronto and Vancouver. They call Toronto “The Big Smoke”. We mockingly refer to Vancouver as “Lotusland” because of the laid back attitude of most of its populace. Whatever daily lethargy the inhabitants might feel is soon dispatched with a cup of ‘joe’ from a coffee shop on the corner, any corner. […]

Continue Reading
Style and Design

Marie Saint Pierre infuses Spring designs with Tea’s Glitter & Gold

Marie Saint Pierre at LG Fashion Week Toronto Marie Saint Pierre is a Montreal, Canada womenswear designer known for free-flowing, artistically inspired garments. Her clothing is a favourite of many of Canada’s cultural luminaries. Her clothes drape, wrap and layer in ways that we don’t expect. I own a few of her pieces; my favourite from many seasons ago – a crisp white taffeta shirt with exaggerated collar and cuffs. They are designed with the urban woman in mind, but […]

Continue Reading