Rocky Mountain Tea Festival 2016

So I went to the Rocky Mountain Tea Festival for the 5th year in a row this last weekend. There were some new vendors at the Tea Bazaar that had never been there before and several that it was really nice to see again.

One of the new vendors that I was really impressed with was a new company called Wu Mountain Tea. The founder was the one allowing us to taste his company's tea. His name is Dylan Rothenberg and his tea was very fresh, of excellent quality, and had the best price I have seen for the quality of his tea anywhere.

He sells in 8 oz. quantities, so I would find out if he sells samples and taste a wide variety of his teas then pick several favorites that you know you will drink that much in a year. I would recommend buying from him in the mid-summer and specifying that you want the tea produced that spring. Buy a year's supply and then order from him again the next summer. His black Yunnan Dragon Pearls are exquisite.

I saw the Nepali Tea Traders there again this year for the 3rd or 4th time. Their tea is usually very smooth with a characteristic high-elevation quality. Unfortunately the retail quantities that they sell on their website are very small. I simply called the founder and asked for her recommendations on which teas had an especially good year this last spring and she is sending me samples. When I narrow down my favorites I will order a 16 oz. quantity from her as a special order. Her name is Maggie Le Beau, and she has a lovely, warm, genuine personality. She is one of my favorite people I have met at the Tea Festival for that reason.

I also saw Brian of Shan Shui Teas again this year, and loved his class as I do every year. He does an absolutely excellent job with his Gong Fu style oolong tasting every year. I make sure that I take that class every year, because he does a very good job mixing it up and making it fresh every time I take it.

There was a new vendor there from Denver this year. They are called Kleff Tea, and they are a small boutique tea blending company. I bought this fabulous double-walled glass Chinese style tea tumbler from them. It is in the picture above. I am absolutely loving this tea tumbler. I have been using it more in the Chinese style, putting loose leaf tea in the tumbler with hot water and using the steeping basket as a sieve to prevent the tea leaves from getting in my teeth. It is working fabulously.

The Cooking with Tea class was a lot of fun, just like always. Lenny is so entertaining. The 4 course traditional Chinese Dim Sum meal with paired oolong teas was absolutely fabulous. When I made the reservations I let them know that I had Celiac disease and they did an absolutely wonderful job accommodating my multiple allergies. They really bent over backward to make sure I didn't have problems with the food. Of course, I took Zypan, a digestive enzyme supplement from Standard Process, before and after the meal, because they don't have a gluten-free kitchen. However, I only reacted to trace levels of gluten, commensurate with flour dust in the air.

Did anyone else go to the Rocky Mountain Tea Festival? What did you think of it? Would you like to go next year because you couldn't go this year? Was my blog the first you had heard of the Festival? Until next time. I hope to maybe see you, dear reader, at the festival next year!

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