First things first, good tea people: Hello and welcome back to Straight From The Leaf!
[Perhaps it appears that I’ve taken the Stevie Wonder approach to blogging. Let’s hope it’s worth the wait, shall we?]
LAS VEGAS WE ARE HERE
June is the month when tea industry professionals from around the world descend upon Sin City to make it less, well, sinful. It is called World Tea Expo.
Let there be tea.
Yes, this unapologetic tea aficionado presented “Steep Social Media Without Becoming Bitter” that Sunday morning. One of my favorite tea tweeps, Geoffrey Norman (@lazy_literus) attended the session and wrote about it.
[What makes him a favorite? We share the same birthday. Please don’t be envious: increase the birthday gift budget instead. Hint: we both love tea.]
WE ARE TEA-MILY
Let others speak eloquently of scintillating sencha, provocative pu’erh, or mesmeric matcha. Not only were there enough press attendees to do so, but there also were enough Association of Tea Bloggers (ATB) members attending to host a panel discussion.
Highlights from World Tea Expo were meeting all the good tea people in person:
• Michael J. Coffey (@michaeljcoffey)
• Jason Walker (@jasonowalker)
• Robert Godden (@The_Devotea)
• Darlene Meyers-Perry (@TeaArchives)
• Jo Johnson (@AGiftOfTea)
• Tiffany Denise (@teabytiffany)
• Erica Morrison (@TeaFieldsCafe)
• Julia Matson (@BingleysTeas)
• Lisa Kunizaki (@chambredesucre)
• Marcella Farina (@teanhats2)
• Kyle Stewart (@thecupcouch)
[We gathered near Beth and Newman Johnston's Teas Etc. booth (@Teas_Etc)]
BATTING FOR A THOUSAND
My own business, Tea Philosophy, evolved from a blog and a tweet (@VLHamilton). Thanks to all of you good tea people, our global tea-mily is less than 60 followers short of 1,000!
What does this mean?! World dominion? Ban styrofoam cup production? Let’s figure it out once we arrive there together.
For now, let’s take life one cup at a time. Have tea with great company. Savor each sip. Drink tea.
Raised cup salute to all. 3