October 4th, 2024 Tea Symposium presentations

1. Introduction to the Tea Festival
Hosted by Jennifer Maksymetz
(Sometimes guest hosted by Jared Nyberg)

2. Japanese Tea Ceremony Demonstration
Coordinated by the Victoria Urasenke Tankokai
Ayako Ikeda and members of the Victoria Urasenke Tankokai “would like to demonstrate the Japanese traditional ‘Way of tea’, Chado.”
They also would like to have the audience think on the connection between a bowl of tea and peace.

3. My Years in Taiwan Training with Tea Ascetics
Erick Smithe of Cloudwalker Tea
Victoria based Erick Smithe will be discussing his 5 years training under Daoist tea masters in Taiwan.
He draws on his many years of aged tea specialization and discusses his work to share a meditative perspective on experiencing tea.

4. Local Backyard Tea - Growing & Making Your Own
Pedro Villalon of O5 Tea & Paul Bradley
Pedro and Paul have both successfully grown and produced tea in their backyards here on the Westcoast.
This class will be a discussion led by one of the founders of Vancouver based O5 Tea (Pedro) and tea enthusiast Paul Bradley.
They will be talking about the trials and tribulations of growing their trees from seed VS seedlings, and the many obstacles they have overcome along the way.

5. My Ceramic Journey to Jingdezhen + Yixing
Wei Cheng of Hong Collective
In 2014, as an Emily Carr graduate, Vancouver-based artist Wei Cheng embarked on a transformative journey that took her back to the roots of traditional ceramics in Jingdezhen and Yixing, China.
These two regions are renowned for their rich history in pottery and tea ware, and immersing herself allowed her to deepen her technical expertise and connect with the long-standing traditions of ceramic craftsmanship. Wei would like to share with you the journey of how her ceramic practice has evolved through the blending of Western education background and Asian traditions.

6. The Nilgiri Tea Studio: A Place for New Tea Creation 
Documentary with Q&A
Kevin Gascoyne of Camellia Sinensis
Veteran British Tea Taster Kevin Gascoyne, of Camellia Sinensis in Montreal, takes us on a virtual visit to the Tea Studio, their small tea factory in the south of India.
The award winning Tea Studio has gained an International reputation for its innovative approach to the tea industry and was developed over several years of discussion and research, by Indi Khanna and Kevin Gascoyne.
Many issues: economic, environmental and social, needed addressing in the outdated system that they had both been dealing with during their long careers in the tea industry.
They set out design a project with a muti-faceted manifesto that they hoped would to offer an alternative, private business model for producing specialty tea to this struggling industry.
A re-evaluation of both the tea-making process and an incorporation of more current human values. The visit was filmed on a telephone in 2023

7. Live From Menghai: A Virtual Tour of the Factory in Yunnan that Co-created Modern Shou Pu-er 
Zhao Baoquan, Assistant to the Dean of TAETEA Tea Academy
Coordinated by Keira’s Tea Cellar (guest host Jared Nyberg of JagaSilk)
Zhao Baoquan, biochemist with Dayi (formerly Menghai) Tea Factory, will be waking up at the crack of dawn to join us live from Yunnan China, all coordinated by Keira’s Tea Cellar.
The audience will be taken on a live virtual tour of the factory.
We will get to ask all sorts of nerdy questions about production, bacteria, aging, and storage, from a biochemist intimately involved in the process.
A short video will be shown of the outside (due to it being dark at 7am in Yunnan) followed by a live tour of the production area.
Zhao and Keira will talk about “the history, the present situation, the tea factory relationship with TAETEA Group and there will be a short Q&A”.