San Francisco Tea Festival
The San Francisco Tea Festival was located in the Ferry Building along the Embarcadero which overlooks the Bay Bridge.
The Ferry Building itself is an attraction with its huge farmers' market and wealth of gourmet restaurants, chocolate, honey and coffee shops.
Last Saturday was unseasonably hot in the City-80 degrees! There were so many people walking along the Embaradero that I couldn't get a decent photo, so here is one from the internet.
After a short wait in line, we made our way into the building and were each handed our own "swag" bag complete with tea related samples and a commemorative festival teacup.
samples
The hall is architecturally beautiful, but it was hot! There was no air conditioning and the tables were spaced so close to one another. Everyone was bumping into each other, but since it was a tea loving crowd, everyone was polite and patient but complaining nevertheless.
I felt sorry for the vendors as they were pouring hot tea all day.
I hope they expand the venue next year and/or have air conditioning.
Drinking multiple cups of hot tea in a hot overcrowded space is not ideal (but it was worth it).
Of course I anxiously queued up for Harney and Sons. They were pouring a variety of samples with one of them being Paris, my favorite tea.
Harney and Sons was having a festival sale, so I bought a tin of Holiday and Celebration tea.
After more browsing, I decided to return to the Harney booth and pick up more tins of Holiday. What great Christmas gifts these are going to make!
My finds from the festival including some delicious Hong Kong Milk tea which I can't wait to try. I'll share another oolong gem I discovered in a later post.
I definitely look forward to next year's festival and would like to attend the Portland and Seattle tea festivals one day.
Thank you for continuing to follow me and read my blog after an extended absence. Life gets in the way of blogging, but I hope to write and post as much as my schedule allows. I really miss this lovely tea community and being in touch with all of you.
Happy Tea Time,
Nora
Nice to hear from you, Nora! Glad that you enjoyed your first tea festival, despite the heat and crowds. November must be a popular time for tea festivals. A few weeks ago, I attended the 3rd Annual Royal Botanical Gardens Tea Festival and shared some photos on this week's post.
ReplyDeleteHow nice you got to visit the SF Tea Festival. I did attend it a few years ago. I wish they would find somewhere else too. It was so noisy the year I was there. Please do come to the Portland and the Seattle Festivals, they are both good. Each seems to have it's own personality. Thanks for visiting me at Delights of the Heart.
ReplyDeleteNora, when you mentioned the Portland festival, I immediately thought of Marilyn and would have sent you a link if she hadn't already commented!
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