Smooth Steepin’: Northwest Tea Festival 2025
- Neldon Hamblin
- Oct 14
- 12 min read
Updated: Oct 16
Hey friends! Recently I was able to attend the always amazing Northwest Tea Festival, which was held in Seattle at the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall on September 27th and 28th.
My flight got in later at night, checking into the hotel around 9PM. I stayed at The Maxwell Hotel, a StayPineapple hotel located directly across from the Seattle Center Exhibition Hall. I always love staying here- the decor is quirky and fun, and they even customized my room for me! When I opened the door, this is what greeted me: a customized greeting card, a goodie box with different herbal teas and shortbread cookies, and a cute little decorative tea set with “Northwest Tea Festival 2025” written on the wrapping. They really go the extra mile to make sure you’re comfortable and I love staying there.
Saturday, September 27th, 2025
I got to the convention center at 9:45am and by the time I got all settled in, with my equipment dropped off at bag check, the amount of people waiting to get in was insane. Even right at 10AM, when the festival opened, there were already lines of people at the different booths. Admission for this year's festival was $25.00, and included a tote bag with commemorative ceramic cup for the 15th anniversary of the festival, as well as a brochure from iteaworld on their oolong classification system, and a few other goodies. According to the official numbers, there were just under 4,100 paying attendees at this year’s fest (4,087 total)- way more than last year’s 3,300! I ran into Shirley, founder of Brew & Blossom Tea and a good friend of mine, and had to hang out for a second- she is incredible. She got her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in tea science and is a certified tea artist and taster, and she was the one giving the presentation on the unique oolong system from iteaworld. I also caught up with Jane (@instaichikawa), another close friend, and did a tea swap with her. Chris Shirley, another great friend and my amazing photographer for this fest (seriously, thank you, Chris!) was always a pleasure to chat with.
My first stop was Mark Mohler, of Sanguine Teapots- he had shared a reel showing off some of the “happy accidents” that he got out of his latest firing- one of which, I fell absolutely in love with and had to have. I snagged this gorgeous cup of his, which was split down the middle almost exactly with a red glaze and the classic swirl glaze. After acquiring my beloved cup, I went to Sugimoto Teas- Julia is one of my long-time friends in the tea world and someone I always seek out whenever I know she’s at a fest or an expo- so of course, I ran by. Unfortunately, I didn’t get pictures with her this year- Sugimoto’s booth was always insanely busy, especially when they were demonstrating the traditional Japanese matcha ceremony. After them, I made my rounds- my first tea of the day was Friday Afternoon Tea’s Scorpio blend- a delicious blend of aged heicha, goji, licorice root, black peppercorn, serrano chili flakes, and szechuan peppercorns- it had a lovely fruity earthy flavor with a nice, tongue tingling spice to it. Their booth was also incredible- it was space themed as they had Planet Heycha doing a popup in their booth- it was so cool! Plus, Friday’s another close friend of mine- hanging out with her was awesome, and her staff was incredible- shoutout to the amazing people there, including Allyn- they were super friendly and helpful!
The next booth I hit was Smile Tea- offering delicious Japanese teas, and manned by one of the youngest tea lovers I have ever seen- she was incredible and knew everything about their teas, presenting them extremely professionally and engagingly. They had a delicious “tea sangria” made with citruses, apples, and pears, paired with their hojicha. This was incredible and super refreshing. I then went to Tea Fairy, a teahouse based in Redmond. Their selection is always impressive and it was fun chatting with the owner- we bonded over a love of liu an heicha and discussed WuYi yancha cultivars, specifically rui xiang and qi lan. Their packaging is always so gorgeous and they had a lovely selection of aged puerh cakes for purchase. I then made my way over to Felicity Loft, tasting their lapsang chaga and their Sunshine Solstice. Megan is another close friend of mine, and she was also incredibly busy- but it was always great heading to her booth and tasting a fresh cup of whatever she had brewing. Next to her was Cliche Teas, another good friend of mine- their packaging is also always beautiful. Their “Cozy,” or chocolate Earl Grey tea blended for Meg’s Tea Room, was delicious- chocolate teas are notoriously difficult to blend, but they did a perfect job here. The cacao blends so well with the earl grey and the vanilla bean black tea that it really did make a decadent treat. Meg was also such a lovely woman to meet- I enjoyed chatting with her and talking tea!
Next on my list was Crimson Lotus Tea- Glen and Lamu are always such delights to see, and Glen was busy as usual at the tea table. I got to sample their new “Shousparilla” shou puerh, as well as their Shou Girls shou and Moon Princess sheng. I managed to sneak in and watch Sugimoto’s matcha ceremony here, as well, then made my way to TeaJTeas’ booth. Thuy and John are also such close friends of mine and I always love seeing their teas. They had a lovely selection of Vietnamese teas this year, including Tra Xanh Nu Sen, or lotus bloom green tea. This was incredible- a whole lotus flower stuffed with delicious green tea from their Summer harvest. Such delicious teas, as always, especially their Vietnamese lotus silver needle.
I was graciously invited to the workshop led by Charles, Laurie, and Anais Dawson, an “Introduction to Samovar Tea,” by Michele (@herbtehtravellingteaturtle). Having never tried samovar style brewing before, I was excited for this! Their session was incredible and the Dawsons are natural educators and entertainers. At the workshop, we were each provided with a small baggie containing tea biscuits, small Eastern-European candies, rock sugar lumps, a gorgeous teaspoon, a toy, a chocolate, and a small container of jelly. We would go up, table by table, to get the zavarka (заварка), or “tea concentrate,” then we would use the samovars to dilute the concentrate ourselves with water. The first time was just a standard black tea zavarka we drank plain. The second steep, we tried a lychee black tea while doing the vpriusku (Вприкуску), or taking a piece of candy and putting it between our teeth, then sipping the diluted tea- this sweetened the tea and was so fascinating. Sugar historically was too expensive of a product, so to sweeten it, these candies were more economical for the samovar method. It was so fun and unique- I loved it. The next steep was then with a zavarka made of Persian black tea, which we added lump sugar to and let it dissolve before drinking. This was a lovely, sweet tea, with a nice malty bite to it. My favorite was the jam, though, which was done with a strong malty dianhong. The dianhong was brewed intensely dark and when paired with the citric-acid and fruit jelly, tasted almost like a dark chocolate raspberry candy. It was so fascinating. This was extremely educational and I’m so glad I managed to make it to this workshop!
Next up was the New York Tea Society, another close friend of mine- Roy Lamberty has done something really quite special with his NYTS, hosting tastings virtually and in person at their physical location. He had some great teas today, including some chong shi cha and liu an! I also managed to catch Shinzo Shiratori, the amazing man behind XiZhiHao in the west and genuinely just such a fun guy to chat with. I was so glad I got to meet up with him and chat- he is such a cool guy and is someone I’ve genuinely admired for years now. I also ran into some good friends, like Sarah Troske (@sarah.troske) and Geoff (Lazy Literatus).
As it was approaching 1:00PM, I went to get lunch with Krystal (@tea.books.mugs) and @winkingcat at the Italian festival at the plaza above the convention center. I had to run back down and meet with the tea bar associates at 1:30, so I ate quickly. I had a tea bar session scheduled for 2:00-3:00PM, tasting puerhs from Chen Sheng Hao, a company I have been a brand ambassador for about 2 years, which I absolutely love. Frank Gu, the North American arm of CSH, brought some delicious selections to taste for people- we started with their 2022 LaoBanZhang and I brewed up their 2014 YinBanZhang afterwards. This was honestly such a fun experience- people loved the puerh, especially considering that many of the people at my table were beginners to puerh and had no prior experience. They handled the bitterness of LBZ well and were rewarded with the intense huigan- it was so much fun teaching them to identify huigan and to taste the sweeter flavors of the LBZ, During my session, too, James of TeaDB stopped by and drank for a bit- as did Geoff (@lazy.literatus).
I was also slated for my presentation at 4PM, so I only hit a few more stands before going to stage 2, where I would be presenting. The presentation was a MASSIVE success- every seat in the house was full! I got some great questions and encouraged a lot of people to go home and research their own weird, wacky teas. I also mentioned that I would be doing a tea bar session on Sunday at noon, tasting the LaoChaPo and meicha (vine tea) from my presentation. You’ll see more on that later. Cindy Tuisko was also there, someone I’ve known through WuyiStar for years as well- she was so sweet and was at my presentation in the front row. She is genuinely such a lovely woman as well and I’m so lucky to know her- she came up after the presentation and gave me a big hug and was just so sweet- genuinely just a lovely person!!
After my presentation, I visited Herbs and Kettles, where I finally met Poorvi- in April, I met and hung out with Abe at the Chicago Tea Festival, but I had not met Poorvi yet. Poorvi has been a close friend of mine and was actually one of the first companies to reach out and send me teas, and they were the first to introduce me to Indian teas. After them, I hit up Tao Teaware and Jonathan Steele Studio, admiring their beautiful teawares, then Bardo Tea. I ended up buying a beautifully stunning 100mL mutton fat jade gaiwan from them and sampling some of their sheng puerh. The last booth of the day was Fire Lit Clay, where I did purchase…too much teaware (that’s not a thing, right?) and walked away with 3 gorgeous teacups. Later that night, I enjoyed my first (shocking, right?) hotpot with TeaJTeas and their team at Happy Lamb Hot Pot. Saturday was definitely a success!
And of course, the obligatory day one haul photo. I picked up a festival cup, poster and bag, 4 new tea cups (3 from Fire Lit Clay), a mutton fat jade gaiwan, a gorgeous nixing teapot gifted from a friend (thanks, Andrew!), tea from a tea swap with Jane, and teas from ChenShengHao.
September 28th, 2025: Tea Tasting InsaniTEA
Today was a bit more hectic but more laid back at the same time- hectic for me, but the fest itself was more laid back this day. The booths were all still incredibly busy, but nowhere near as bad as Saturday morning. The first stop of the day was Wang Family Tea, a consistent favorite of mine- Jeremy of Communiteahouse, one of my close tea friends, was serving up some of their delicious teas. I started the day with a beautiful charcoal roasted si ji chun, which was impressive and very honey-esque. I then tried their Da Yu Ling, Sesame Fragrance Oolong, and their pomelo flower oolong tea- all of which were quite delicious.
I did a livestream recap of the festival floor this morning, which you can watch here- I spent a good bit of time at Bardo Tea tasting their 1970s and 1980s shou puerhs (ghost dance and disco biscuit)- these were incredible. I had never had some of the 1970s shou before, which was the earliest production of shou puerh, only invented in the early to mid 1970s (1973-1976). It was incredible how much it tasted like a liubao- which makes sense, given that Menghai tea factory took the processing used in Guangxi with liubao and applied it to puerh material to create an answer to aged puerh’s popularity in China. After this, it was time for me to make my way to the tea bar for my tea tasting at noon.
Friends, you all are absolutely amazing people! I would never in my life have guessed that so many of you would want to come to a tea tasting of funky, regional teas from China, but my goodness, you all turned out! At noon, I began tasting the teas I talked about at the expo: liubao lao cha po (“old tea grandma”), meicha (“vine tea”), and I tasted a third aged tea- a Minnan shui xian from 2004 that had been charcoal roasted. I thankfully had the foresight to arrive early- I prepared 2 large teapots of laochapo to sit and steep (as lao cha po requires longer steep times) and 2 extra teapots of meicha. Special thanks to Chris for being my photographer and helping serve tea, Diana Jendoubi for some great photos, Sara Figueroa for other great photos, as well as all of the amazing staff at the tea bar- they worked tirelessly to help me with whatever I needed, even going around with the extra pots of tea and serving them to the eager crowd. At one point, we were 4 lines deep with people- it was insane! If you would like to try the lao cha po, or if you did try it and loved it, good news! Iteaworld, the suppliers (shoutout to them for supplying me with these unique teas- thanks Jelina!), have started carrying it due to the demand. You can purchase it here or use the code “TEAWITHNELDON” for 20% off on any order. (Full disclosure: this is an affiliate link, so I may earn a small commission if you make a purchase — at no extra cost to you! It just helps support my blog. Thank you!)
After the crazy successful tasting, I made more rounds around the fest. I stopped at OldWaysTea with Krystal, where we enjoyed their delicious yancha- I’m a big fan of their zuhuo dahongpao, and Phil, being the amazing man he is, gave me a pouch of their niu lan keng yancha to share- so kind! Imo Madoi also had some delightful Japanese snacks- I loved their okra chips. I also stopped by Miro Teas, chatting with the amazing Jeannie, and bought a beautiful walnut cha ze (茶则) that doubles as an electronic scale. Miro tea always has such amazing items and it was so cool- I had to snag their last one. Next up was La Conner tea, where I sampled their Washington Summer blend- a blend of green tea, strawberries, and lemon. After them, I checked out Undertow Trading, who both have an incredible logo and an amazing selection of Korean teas, like a yuzu herbal. Best of Health was the next booth I stopped and purchased from- their innovative tisanes are incredible. Wild-foraged, PNW ingredients are processed similar to a sheng puerh, pressed into tuochas- they also had a variety of herbal blends and tinctures for sale, but my favorite were their cakes. I snagged a cake of the thimbleberry tea, which was absolutely incredible- super sweet with a nice citric/raspberry like tang to it, it was insane. Their fig leaf puerh cake was also incredible- I could have sworn they had added coconut flavoring to it, but it was just the processing of the fig leaf that made it coconutty. It was so wild. Oregon Tea Traders also had a lovely booth featuring some great puerhs from Yunnan Sourcing. After their booth, Krystal and I went to B. Fuller’s, which is always such a fun, kooky display- lots of cool packaging and great teas for sale. We then ended our day with a session at The Empty Tea Cup with Josh Brock. I was joined by Poorvi and the Dawsons, as well as Anna Ye of Anna Ye Tea and Zidan (Nepal Tea Collective), where we all shared some of my 2018 aged fu cha.
Overall Thoughts:
This year’s Northwest Tea Festival was definitely one for the books! The Northwest Tea Fest is always one of my favorite events of the year- the people are incredible and the crowd is always amazing, but this year was so much better than last year’s. I was blown away by all the amazing vendors this year and the workshops were incredible. The tea bar was always busy and packed with tea lovers, and the presentations were so fun to attend. My presentation went smoothly and was great- thank you all so much for attending and making this year such a great experience. It was so cool being able to see the growth this year alone and to meet so many incredible people, all united in their love for tea. I also always love reconnecting with my close friends and I really appreciate each and every one of you for your continued support of me.
Tea Friend Gallery- thank you all for being amazing!
Your point about the challenge of sourcing consistent, high-quality Pu Erh for a business is spot on. The variability between pressings can be immense, making it a real gamble for cafes or retailers who rely on a stable flavor profile for their customers. This is especially true when trying to secure larger quantities, as a single poor-quality batch can disrupt the entire supply chain. For those in that position, establishing a relationship with a premium Pu Erh cake supplier for bulk inquiries is often the most critical step to ensuring both quality and reliability.
This looked like so much fun! I love the pictures, and the detailed descriptions, and above all how full of joy and tea you look!