Let me share my great experience presenting at the Toronto Tea Festival!
I was delighted that the Toronto Tea Festival organizers accepted my workshop proposal: “ConnectiviTEA: Tea Lovers Unite” for the 2025 event.
Category: Blog
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What You Need to Steep Tea Gongfu Style
A question from another tea lover on Instagram inspired me to write a post about how to get started and get what you need to steep tea gongfu style!
What is Gongfu Cha?
Gongfu cha (skillfully prepared tea) is a style of brewing tea that originated in China over 1,000 years ago. It involves using a higher ratio of tea leaves to water than Western-style tea brewing. Small steeping vessels–teapots or gaiwans–are used with small cups. (A gaiwan is a kind of Chinese bowl with a lid.)
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Companies that Sell Loose Leaf Tea Samples
Let’s talk about tea companies that sell loose leaf tea samples.
So, you are interested in exploring loose leaf tea. Perhaps you are even interested in brewing with a gongfu cha approach. But, you aren’t sure where to get the tea or how to start looking.
I have some suggestions!
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Tea-Infused Chocolates to Delight
This post shares a handful of tea-infused chocolates to delight your palate, especially if you enjoy oolong or green tea.
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Tea and Buttery Cookie Pairings
Here are some tea pairings–black and green teas–to serve with cookies. I hope you will enjoy these and buttery cookie pairings as much as I do!
Winter is cookie season! Cookies are my absolute favorite dessert. Seriously, I could easily rattle off 10 or more “favorite cookies!”
Make it easy to enjoy restorative and mindful tea sessions with my online Winter Rest Kit for Tea Lovers!
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My Top Tea Experiences of 2024
Instead of posting a list of my top teas for the year–especially since I published something like this not too long ago in my Surprise Teas of 2024 post-I thought I’d share my top tea experiences of 2024.
Before I share the list, I would like to clarify what I didn’t include on it.
I had tea sessions with friends in person and via Zoom that were really fun and, often, deeply meaningful in ways that are hard to share on a list like this. I didn’t include those. They felt too personal.
Tea Lovers: Why not make attending one or more of the 2025 tea festivals a priority this year? This post shares 41 (and counting!) tea festival dates and locations in the USA, Canada, Europe, and Africa in 2025! As I find information, I’ll highlight which festivals have inclusive/online options, too. [Last updated 10/9/25.] Looking ahead to 2026? I’ve started the 2026 Tea Festivals post!
What is a Tea Festival?
Tea festivals are wonderful opportunities to connect with all things tea and other tea lovers.
As I wrote in “5 Tips for Attending Tea Festivals“:
Tea festivals are events open to the public (often requiring attendees to purchase tickets) that feature vendors and artisans (sometimes even producers) who sell tea, teaware, accessories, and related merchandise. They also usually sell tea sweets or other food items.
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Tea Infusiast News, No. 24
My monthly newsletter, Tea Infusiast News, is subscriber-only AND free.
In the December 2024 edition, No. 24:
You can’t tell from the table of contents, but this newsletter revealed the giveaway items before they were publicly announced AND they shared a sneak-peek at my early 2025 plans.
My experience at an online tea event underscored the power of communiTEA–the magic that happens when we connect over tea in community.
I’m going to be real, Tea Friends. I have been struggling a bit. I have been scrambling to catch up–and trying get ahead–in my personal and professional life. An upcoming surgery has me discombobulated. Besides the stress of working more to prepare, fear around that event has been an unwelcome and too-constant companion. It has been really hard to process the fear and to allow space for other feelings.
Meditating with others online helps. The practices I have learned as a meditation teacher help–particularly, to be with and breathe through my emotions. The charity tea event I recently held, Story of a Teacup 2024, also provided an unexpectedly wonderful boost.