PAST EVENTS 2024
ESTA has been participating for five years at Horeca Expo in the lovely city of Gent, and this year we were part of the Sweet Sensations feature.
COMPETITIONS
The winners of our two competitions, Kjell Muylle, new Belgian Matcha Latte Art Champion, and Annabelle Maes, new Tea Tasting Champion, will represent Belgium in the European Tea Championships at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival in April 2025. Congratulations to both of them!
Tea Tasting
Annabelle Maes, new Tea Tasting Champion
Tea Tasting Championship
CAFFÈ CULTURE SHOW
Getting Ready to Start
This is the 5th year that ESTA Hub has been a central part of the Caffè Culture, delivering a tea brew bar, education workshops, panel discussions and two tea competitions.
COMPETITIONS, The winners of our two competitions, Louis Suen, new UK Matcha Latte Art Champion, and Mero Lam, new Tea Tasting Champion, will represent the UK in the European Tea Championships at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival in April 2025. Congratulations to both of them!
EDUCATION, Oscar Woolley of Suki Tea and Gosia Lendzioszek of Matthew Algie held the Matcha Workshops where they explained and demonstrated practically the skills of preparing and whisking matcha and then adding milk to create latte art.
Matcha Workshop with Matthew Algie
PANEL DISCUSSIONS, We hold two panel discussions:
“The Rise of Matcha and its Opportunities” a panel of industry experts including Olivia Nottin of Matcha and Beyond, Emilie Holmes of Good and Proper, Allan Piret of Novus Tea and Oscar Woolley of Suki Tea.
“The Importance of Regenerative Farming in Tea” a different panel of experts, moderated by Annabel Kalmar of tea Rebellion.
Thanks once again to our sponsors who made it all possible
LONDON COFFEE FESTIVAL
ESTA had a presence at London Coffee Festival again this year, with members Tea Rebellion, Novus Good and Proper and Canton brewing their teas.
Annabel from Tea Rebellion describing her tea
Steve Lovegrove from Canton, brewing tea
We were also present on the Marco stand where Quinteassential’s Green Flamingo blend was cold brewed for 30 minutes before being dispensed with chilled sparkling water through Marco’s Pour’d cold brew system. It was very popular.
We had meetings with several potential members and a delegation from Ceylon Artisan Tea Association.
Marco Cold Brew Dispenser
Visitors queuing for cold brew tea
Nearly thirty delegates attended three workshops on How to Brew Tea Like a Pro which focussed on the four key areas of water quality, correct brewing temperatures, tea/water ratios and quality of tea
It was good to be at the Amsterdam Coffee Festival again and witness how many coffee people are now getting excited about tea. We brewed and served some delicious teas from China, Myanmar, Japan, Thailand, Nepal and many other countries, crowned the first Dutch Matcha Latte Art Champion and delivered workshops on How to Brew Tea Like a Pro.
Nearly 10,000 visitors attended the event, and eight volunteers, mainly from the Benelux chapter, helped to make it a great success for ESTA. Lorela Lohan, Joyce Maina, Annabelle Maes, Ann-Katrin Witt, Yang Ping, Irina Petrovska and Annemarie Tiemes brewed and served teas from Tanzania, Japan, China, Myanmar, Thailand and Nepal, all much appreciated and complimented by the visitors.
The first ever Dutch Matcha Late Art Championship was held, with 16 competitors going head to head in a knock out format. The two finalists were Anne van Renkum and Noëlle Meis, and the winner was Anne van Renkum. Congratulations!
Anne van Renkum and Noëlle Meis
Here is the winning moment for Anne as outlet as our three expert judges make their decision and our Superb host Wendelien van Bunnick announces the result.
Anne van Renkum won some Golden Chai from Bradleys Tea, ceremonial Matcha from Kaori, a matcha set from Mount Everest Tea, a bottle of champagne, a Teasy and a sensory kit from Brita and free membership and 500 Euros from ESTA.
A big thank you to all of our sponsors for supporting ESTA at this event. The enthusiasm for tea, given that it was a coffee event, was amazing.
Amsterdam Coffee Festival moves to a different venue next year and we hope to be there.
High Commissioner Bogollagama, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in the UK, meets with the European Speciality Tea Association
In line with Sri Lanka’s participation at the International Food Exhibition (IFE) 2024 held at London- ExCell, on 26.3.2024, His Excellency Rohitha Bogollagama, High Commissioner of Sri Lanka in the UK, joined by Mr. Niraj de Mell, Chairman of Sri Lanka Tea Board, met with the Board Directors of the European Speciality Tea Association (ESTA) at the High Commission of Sri Lanka in London.
High Commissioner Bogollagama welcomed the ESTA and CATA to the High Commission and appreciated their commitment to the speciality tea world wide and the assistance and the ideas being generated in promoting Ceylon Tea, while closely associating with the authorities in Sri Lanka and the tea indutry in Sri Lanka.
It was discussed in detail that Sri Lanka needs to refocus in promoting and regaining the UK tea market through various collaborations and joint actions based on the dynamics and the consumer preferences of the tea market in the UK. Mr. Mel requested the ESTA to be the link point in regaining Ceylon tea market in general and invited the ESTA members to attend the International Tea Convention in Colombo in July 2024.
Taking actions to upgrade the quality, standards, and the new technology, innovatives in the tea industry while protecting the indigenous methods, the ethical practices and the focused manufacturing and branding etc, in the tea plantations and to focus on speciality tea promotions in the UK was discussed. The ESTA already presented a draft MOU in this regard to the Sri Lanka Tea Board and it was agreed to continue the interactions. A Working Commitee to achieve such collaboration was proposed by High Commissioner Bogollagama together with required deep studies, researches etc, in order to penetrate the market.
Mr. Nigel Melican, President of the ESTA, together with its Executive Director Mr. David Veal and the other directors and members of the ESTA who attended this interactive meeting mentioned that they are pleased to work with the High Commission to take forward the ideas generated to a strategy called ” Ceylon Tea, to make fashionable again”
The meeting was also attended by Mr. Simon Nihal Bell, Chairman of Ceylon Artisonal Tea Association (CATA) who contributed with important ideas on the development of the speciality tea sector from Sri Lanka’s view point.
After this meeting the directors and the members of the ESTA attended the Ceylon Tea and Sri Lanka Food Business Networking reception held at the High Commission which was attended by nearly 100 members of the UK tea and food trade, senior UK officials including the Department of Business and Trade and the Commonwealth related bodies, trade chamber representatives, media and influencers, and also the exhibitors who came from Sri Lanka to showcase their products at 02 pavillions of the Sri Lanka Tea Board and Sri Lanka Export Development Board at the IFE London 2024.
Sri Lanka High Commission
London
26 March 2024
The Benelux Chapter of ESTA has successfully held the first Dutch Tea Tasting Championship at Horecava in Amsterdam kindly sponsored by BRITA Group, Mount Everest Tea Company GmbH, and Bradley’s (Tea Reinvented).
The results of the Championship were:
Third place: Thomas Vos from J D Peet’s
Second place: Frans van den Berg from Barista Brothers
First place and Dutch Tea Tasting Champion: Niels de Vaanhold from Mocca d’Or
The first Dutch Tea Tasting Champion Niels te Vaanhold (right) receives an ESTA voucher from Jeroen Van Den Bosche (left) of sponsors Brita Benelux
