Tea booth event in a Bangkok mall

 

it has been great seeing more of Huyen and Seth

Last year I wrote about attending what seemed to be the first dedicated tea convention / expo event in Bangkok, a Tea Atlas event (the branding name), held in Central Embassy.  It was packed with a good representation of everything related to specialty tea in Bangkok.  Not every vendor, cafe, or shop, but an extensive representative set of them.

Then the next couple Taste of Tea events, seemingly connected to an earlier tea shop brand, were kind of different.  These were just booths set up in a mall, with focus more on bubble tea and matcha drink sales.  That's fine, there's nothing wrong with that, but it's not the same thing, not really a move towards higher quality tea awareness and acceptance.

This event was a bit in the middle, limited in size, and covering both scopes.  A vendor we had just met in that recent Vietnamese tasting was there, the Qing Fu Cha owner, Charlie (I think; he might have more than one nickname, maybe also Yee?).  Thais always have a formal name and a nickname, so the multiple names theme is universal here.  

It was nice checking out the first day of that event, in the Central World Mall, more or less the main mall in Bangkok, and visiting that vendor's booth to try some of his tea.  We tried a Jing Mai pu'er and a Thai version of Oriental Beauty oolong; both were nice, type-typical and pretty good.  It was also nice meeting a few people from that tea tasting.

From there other vendors sold interesting versions of different forms of tea.  Araksa Tea Room (cafe) had a booth, which I didn't spend much time at, but that name comes up as providing a nice cafe space.  Two others sold novelty iced or tea and milk blends, based on better quality original style teas, which isn't normal for that theme.  Bubble tea is usually just ordinary black tea, as a base.  Some of the drinks were clearly distinctive; a Da Hong Pao and a Taiwanese oolong example stood out, from two different booths.

What does this mean?  I really don't know.  Maybe that kind of theme will catch on, or maybe it won't.  Maybe they'll diversify back into a more original form of those teas, or maybe they'll shift product form and sell novel flavored versions instead.  I suppose it's still interesting to see, instead of just matcha, bubble tea, and "Thai tea," the orange colored, flavored version.

It might seem like there should be another couple of points to touch on, about what else was there, and other possible directions local tea themes could take.  Really joining that event was more for seeing Huyen, Seth, and the others I'd just met, more than about those teas.  

I'm not sure what could've been there that would have been so personally interesting for me.  Even if the types matched what I love most in teas, like distinctive and intense Thai sheng, or rich and complex Thai versions of Dian Hong style black tea, I'm not sure if it would've changed much.  I have that tea at home, in lots of versions, especially if you count stocking up on somewhat related Vietnamese versions.

If this is what Taste of Tea is and will be it's ok.  It would be nice to see a real tea expo instead, producers gathering to share what they've been working on, and importers or foreign producers there covering what neighboring countries are up to, Laos and Myanmar tea and such.  Short of that this is good, trying some novel iced teas.  I think it's worth swinging by to check it out.  Matcha and Japanese teas tend to get better representation, but since I'm not into that I tend to not notice it as much.

For where I am in tea experience now meeting others into tea is more interesting than the actual tea.  In one sense, to me, that relates to burning out on over a decade of tea types and quality level exploration.  It's a little tiresome.  But that doesn't make it any less interesting or relevant for others who are new to it, or only a few years in.  Part of what I'm expressing is that it would be nice for them to have easier access to the rest of the range too.

I can be clearer.  Nearly a decade ago I went to a Seven Suns tea tasting, highlighting a broad range of tea types, mostly Chinese, or maybe all Chinese, in a shop in Ekamai that's now gone.  It was 8 years ago; I looked it up.  That business founder was trying to set up something that didn't exist yet, true specialty tea awareness and appreciation in Bangkok.  He was a nice guy, and I'm sure still is.  I'm not sure we can conclude that he failed; that business morphed into focus on sales of matcha, which was practical, and in demand.  Specialty tea awareness and demand has gradually expanded here; it just took time. 

Then it's odd to expect that lots of other vendors should keep repeating that pattern, making it stick where it didn't work out for them.  But there are Thai teas at a high quality level out there, that could support an even more interesting experience than that one; I've tried them.  And surely I've only tried a fraction of what exists.  There are online Thai tea groups with thousands of members, tea cafes and shops have a following, and these tea events I'm writing about draw visitors.

It would be sad if it takes another ten years for what I'm describing to come about, a variation of Taste of Tea focused not only on what is readily available, vendors already interested in this form of promotion, but instead on the best of what exists.  The Tea Atlas function was a little closer; maybe it will repeat again this summer.  To be clear two of these vendors were really breaking new ground with high quality cold tea drinks, based on traditional styles, and Qing Fu Cha is a solid vendor option, so I'm expressing that the overall volume and range was limited instead.  No producers were represented, for example, there was no Taetea booth, and so on.

I've heard the point made that low tea demand benefits us tea consumers, because it keeps pricing in check, and availability open.  I'm not so sure.  When demand increases quickly that does lead to rapid pricing expansion, but it also seems like gradual shifts in demand could see the production side respond.  Pu'er cake prices doubled in the last half dozen years; maybe that's a good example of the first case.  And limited Japanese tea production leads to that tea pricing staying high.  

Then again maybe it's easier to argue for the opposite of the point I'm trying to make here; economics is a strange theme.  Anyway, I'd like for more others to have access to interesting tea experiences, even if it relates to me shifting what I focus on and buy, as has occurred continually over my past anyway.  

This Taste of Tea event runs through the 30th; maybe stopping by there is a good starting point for that.  Even when searching I don't see an event notice on social media for this; strange.  This is Qing Fu Cha's event notice version, but there's not much to know; information booths in Central World know where it is in there, and everyone knows where Central World is.

Thai Oriental Beauty is not bad, but then it's all relative