James Norwood Pratt's take on Slow Food Nation Tea

Four Thousand Experience Tea at Slow Food Nation
650 words or so by James Norwood Pratt

It was a milestone of sorts in America’s tea history: probably the largest tea party in American history; unquestionably the most sophisticated in terms of the quality and variety of teas served; and beyond sophisticated in terms of the hosts. Some of America’s foremost tea professionals joined together to serve tea at the Slow Food Nation food festival held Labor Day weekend in San Francisco. The three-day event thrilled all involved.

A colleague from the festival’s wine sector commented afterwards: “The tea pavilion was the most successful of all areas it seemed to me. It was closer to the vision of Slow Food in experience as well as quality. Kudos to all of you for your fine presentation, highest quality of leaf, and true sense of presence.”

Tea was one component among others—bread, wine, olive oil, fish, charcuterie, chocolate, coffee, spirits, etc.—each with its “pavilion” inside a cavernous converted pier at Fort Mason. Unlike all the other Slow Foods, each of which simply offered a variety of tastes, the Tea Pavilion also provided an experience. Guests were introduced to knowledgeable tea professionals and seated at tables where they watched as extraordinary teas were described, prepared and served to them in an endless stream for 15 to 20 minutes. The five tables, each slotted to provide drainage into a catchment, were built specially for tea preparation and seated 8 to 10 participants, all within easy ear-shot and arm’s reach of the host preparing and explaining the teas they were drinking. A fabric enclosure around each table provided a tea room sense of cozy seclusion conducive to absorbing tea appearances, smells, tastes and discussion. The design of the Tea Pavilion, like the concept itself and its execution, was under the curatorship of Alice Cravens and Greg Dunham, proprietors of San Francisco’s Modern Tea.

Alice injected tea into the event’s initial planning and spent almost a year shepherding the project to fruition. Colleagues from near and far answered her call to help staff the event: MEM Tea Imports (Boston), Lu Yu and Perennial Tea Room (Seattle), Rishi (Milwaukee), and Adagio, Numi, Red Circle, Modern Tea, Silk Road, Teance and Urasenke from the Bay Area.

Out of some 10,000 ticketed attendees, roughly 4,000 stopped by the pavilion for tea---and consented to wait in line. Tea people found it pleasantly disconcerting sometimes to have more people lining up for tea than for coffee, the pavilion next door. Tea, the primordial slow food, could be offered in turn to no more than 800 persons per session. Response was uniformly enthusiastic from attendees exiting the pavilion and exclaiming they’d greatly enjoyed experiencing true tea. Presenters took pleasure in sharing their most extraordinary teas for the occasion, so that guests were treated to examples of Matcha or Da Hong Pao or Puer, say, fit for high priests and princes, served by some of America’s leading tea lovers like Winnie Yu, Joshua Kaiser, Ned & Catherine Heagerty, Brian Birkee , Jason Chen, James Labe, David Lee Hoffman, Angela Justice and Sina Carroll. Along with twenty some others, the all-star backfield included Mark Mooradian, Alicia Paullin, Valerie Turner, and Doug Livingston. As “greeters” out front stood Perennial Tea Room’s Julee Rosanoff and James Norwood Pratt.

Working together to promote tea to a tea thirsty multitude, we were conscious of representing some sort of Honor Role of the Tea Trade, bona fide comrades in a community which embraces us all. Together we felt we saw Americans take another Giant Step towards eventually becoming a tea consuming society. Among us were some old enough to remember song lyrics like “By the time we got to Woodstock, we were half a million strong.” Slow Food Nation greatly outnumbers Woodstock Nation already, and from this time on tea is a vital part of it.