PAST EVENTS 2021
ESTA exhibited at Horeca Expo Ghent in late November 2021, hosted by Willem Huisman and his team from Brita and supported by members of the Benelux Chapter. As well as tea cuppings we were offering tea cocktails mixed by Kiona Malinka and tea brewed through Aeropress by Wendelien van Bunnik, the current World Aeropress champion. Peter Deprez of Viva Sara presented about ESTA at the Coffee and Tea Academy. We hope to have an even bigger presence next year.
It was good to be involved with Catex as the Irish Horeca community got together for the first time in nearly two years. Our large brew bar was located just opposite the SCA competition stage which we were able to use on the third day to deliver presentations by Nigel Melican, Oscar Woolley and David Veal and a tasting workshop by Diana Riquel.
At the brew bar the aroma competition was popular as always and was won by Peter Garland of Sextons Bar and Bistro in Dundalk. Several new members joined us with even more showing interest in doing so.
A special thanks also to Joseph Smith, the National Coordinator of the Irish chapter and his volunteers for organising the event and also thank you to our sponsors Marco, Brita, Catex and IFSA for making it possible.
A wide range of speciality teas were provided by Bewleys, Clement and Pekoe, Nik’s Tea, Java Republic, Suki Tea, My Tea workshop and Solaris. Thanks to all of those members for their support.
DANIEL VERSEY OF MARCO RECEIVING HIS PIONEER PLAQUE FROM DAVID VEAL
Caffe Culture Show was a successful event for ESTA, we received many compliments for our very impressive Speciality Tea Hub which dominated the main exhibition hall.
We had 22 volunteers helping us to promote speciality tea through a number of highly interactive and successful activities. In fact one of the most positive aspects of the show was the way that our volunteer members, most of whom had never met before, bonded and worked together as a team, creating a really professional and convivial atmosphere.
Many fantastic tea samples were shared with visitors by our brewing team led by Ash Reda of Camellias, assisted by Katie Coleman, Aurea Ruiz of Whittards of Chelsea, Jo Harper and Kathryn Bennett of Dartmoor Estate Tea and Harriet Lamyman of Fine Tea Merchants. Teas sampled included Jun Chiyabari Nepalese First Flush (only 30kg in total were produced), Gong Ting (Palace Puerh) Shu Puerh Cake from Yunnan, Baolam/Dalat Oolong from Vietnam and White Bud Puerh, also from Yunnan, amongst many others.
On the Innovation section of the Hub Stewart Johnson from Reginald Aimes was demonstrating nitro tea and cold brew, whilst Amy Gallagher of LuLin Tea was Mistress of Mixology using her own speciality teas and alcohol from Bushmills.
Alexis Kaae of Simply Tea in Denmark was responsible for demonstrating the various attributes and flavours of the six categories of tea, and with her daughter Natascha presented two matcha whisking workshops followed by the first ever UK Matcha Whisking Championship with nine competitors, won by Gosia Lendzioszek of Matthew Algie who becomes the UK Matcha Whisking Champion! The competition was judged by Alexis and Natascha as well as Oscar Woolley of Suki Tea and Marc Pierre Dietrich of TeaSmiths.
Tea and Food pairing and more tea sampling were offered by Tracey Jackson and Karen Robinson of Marco Beverage Systems, assisted by Phyu Thwe of Mogok Tea who became a member after the show. Marco also provided the hot water dispensers for brewing the tea, and the water specially formulated for speciality tea was provided by Brita Professional Systems, represented by Samantha Scoles and Gary Norwood who were on hand to answer any technical questions about water standards.
One of the most popular activities was our aroma workshop and competition where we invited visitors to smell six different aromas including rose, tobacco and fresh grass from our Tea Sensory Kit developed in collaboration with Lucta. Good fun but also a great educational tool for learning about the sensory aspects of tea.
We launched four products for sale at the event, the Handybrew teapot, Teasy on the move brewer, ESTA sensory kit and tea flavour wheel, and Michelle Hawkins and Denise Alborough of the ESTA executive were on hand to handle sales as well as membership enquiries.
Three members, Sunbird Rooibos, Jade Tea (Teasy) and Teasmiths had small commercial pods to promote their products, and since the show as well as the aforementioned Mogok three other companies have joined us, Pekoe Tea, Novus Tea and Karma Tea, with several more also about to join. Thank you to you all. And a thankyou to Hans Verhoosel and Amy Gallagher of LuLin
Finally the volunteer and other members were able to relax at our members reception hosted by Katy Woolard of Whittards of Chelsea, at one of their central London stores, who provided a warm welcome, food, wine, beer, and of course speciality tea!
