Friday, March 12th,
6:00pm to 10:00pm &
Saturday, March 13th, 9:00am to 1:00pm + Intimate Lunch
Tea
Extravaganza 2010, the first independent tea tasting of its
kind in Washington, D.C., was successfully completed at the Park
Hyatt Washington on Friday, March 12 and Saturday, March 13,
2010. Similar to a fine wine tasting, the two-day event was unanimously
hailed by registrants as extraordinary after tasting 14 of the finest,
rarest, and most exquisite loose-leaf teas the from around the world.
Tea Extravaganza 2010 attracted aficionados from around
the Washington, D.C. area. The event was co-sponsored by Park
Hyatt Washington and the American Tea Masters Association.
Tea Extravaganza 2010 was a very unique and independent tasting event. None of the teas were available for sale. The event was purely an experiential gathering for sampling three steepings each of the high-end, exquisite teas.
Chas Kroll, Certified Tea Master and Executive Director of the American Tea Masters Association personally prepared the menu for the two-day event. “We taste-tested and evaluated well over 200 loose-leaf teas over the past three months. We followed the tasting protocol used by the association for training new tea masters,” explained Kroll. “Several of the teas on the menu were harvested by hand on only one day of the year. This is important due to the influence of the terroir and growing conditions affecting their rarity, similar to fine wines. This also explains why the teas retail for $100 to $500 a pound.” The teas on the menu were all donated to the association by major tea vendors such as: PeLi Teas, Keiko-Tea, Metropolitan Tea, Tea Habitat, Shan Shui Teas, and The Whole Leaf.
Among the teas on the menu, Yunnan Dian Hong Golden Buds (PeLi Teas), Tenbu (Keiko-Teas), Premium Winter Fu Shou (Shan Shui Teas), Dong Fang Mei Ren “Oriental Beauty” (The Whole Leaf), 1998 Honey Orchid Phoenix Oolong (Tea Habitat), and Tai Ping Huo Kui (The Whole Leaf) received the greatest praise from registrants.
Stay tuned for the next Tea Extravaganza
to be held at The Boston Park Plaza Hotel & Towers
on April 23 and 24. Click here for details.