When my friend Mario Nicholas asked me to lend a hand at the New York Travel Fest I jumped at the change. In case you haven’t seen his YouTube show, On The Go with Mario, you definitely should! Mario travels with tea as a focus so he thought that serving tea would be a great way to share that with the festival goers. Events like this are always interesting because it’s a more diverse group than what you might find at a tea focused event. I was somewhat surprised to find that many of the people who approached our table were fairly well versed tea.
The teas that I selected were Pekoe Sip House Sessa Estate Black Tea and Jalam Teas Bada Unfermented 2013. Serving tea for large groups can be a challenge but this set up seemed to work well. I brewed the Assam in my testubin because it fairly large and keeps the tea hot for some time. This tea was a bit more familiar for everyone so it was the popular choice. I broke out my travel gongfu set to brew the puerh. A few people found it too strong but there were a lot of folks who were surprised at how much they enjoyed it. My Breville One-Touch Tea Maker was a bit of a pain to lug into the city but it was worth having on hand.
I loved getting to share my love of the leaf with so many new faces. It was also great to hear a bit more about Mario’s travels in India and other tea destinations. It is my goal to visit a tea producing country in 2016 so I’m sure that I’ll be turning to him soon for his expert advice.
| Thanks for asking me to join in on the fun, Mario! |