Tea Foundations I’m thrilled to announce that George Brown College is rebooting its in-person tea program starting with Tea Foundations. And I’ll be your guide! This is also a prerequisite for the Advanced Tea Program (Tea Sommelier), which we are also planning to restart. Look at the beautiful space we have above The Chefs’ House, St. James Campus, Centre of Hospitality and Culinary Arts, 215 King St. E., Toronto Join me for this dive into the universe of tea! Monday nights March 13 – April 17, 2023     The post A New Teaching Adventure! first appeared on The Tea Stylist ..read more

  On Tuesday, September 14, 8.30pm,  Soo will be chatting with me about my tea universe – lots of potential for liveliness! Visit  Soocha Tea for link to registration. During registration, an optional donation can be made to the Nature Conservancy of Canada. Hope you can attend!     The post Soocha Tea and Me, Tuesday, September 14, 8.30pm first appeared on The Tea Stylist ..read more

Saturday February 1st, 1.30pm The 8th Annual Toronto Tea Festival takes place over 2 days, Saturday February 1st and Sunday 2nd, at Toronto’s Reference Library, in the Appel Studio. I’m happy to announce that I will be speaking on Saturday Feb.1st at 1.30pm. Topic – Botany of the Tea Plant. I’ve really enjoyed researching this project. A bit of a deep dive for me, but I’m learning so much! My plan is to distill this knowledge into a concise 30 minute story! New this year! I will be a guest at the festival table both Saturday and Sunday from 3.30pm to 5pm, with copies of The Tea Book available ..read more

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. Some of the fine chocolate artistry that we sampled 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. Samantha of Soma Chocolatemaker Curiously, some of the chocolate sa ..read more

 Founder, The Tea Spot and author, Cancer Hates Tea   There are many reasons to attend World Tea Expo, but I’m finding that as I grow into the industry, I’m just as interested in tea people as product. Maria Uspenski introduced herself to me a few years ago, after The Tea Book was published. She was warm and enthusiastic. One of those rare humans who seems to glow from within. She had long been associated with the expo. Her company, The Tea Spot is a sponsor of the trade show and her inventive blends, well-engineered Steepware®, and dedication to customer care are well-known. Some years she h ..read more

Anatomy of a Painting Two Ladies and an Officer at Tea, c 1715, unknown artist ©Victoria and Albert Collection The 1715 oil painting, Two Ladies and an Officer at Tea, (above) has often been used to cite the prominent place that tea held in elite society of the early 1700′s. For tea social history enthusiasts, it is a quintessential image, one of the earliest to depict the partaking of tea in the western world. It is part of the Victoria and Albert Museum’s vast collection. While researching for a talk I gave on history of tea ware 5 years ago, I used this painting to illustrate the upper clas ..read more