I love tea and love sharing my love of tea. I invited about 100 Facebook friends over to drink tea. I was not sure how many people would show up. I was hoping for 10 but thought maybe 5 would come. You just never know about an event like this. I was completely thrilled to have around 18 people show up!
I told people I would make them any tea they wanted to try- bubble, matcha, kombucha, pu-erh, chai, iced, green, white, yellow, purple, mate, flowering, herbal, rooibos, black- whatever tea they wanted!!
I invited people to come and go from 11-4.
I started with Mango Bubble Tea on the table for all to try. I knew a lot of people had never tried it. And I was right, the majority of guests had not tried bubble tea. But, it was a hit.
My co-worker and her daughter stopped by for some bubble tea....
Pam enjoying Bubble Tea
I had two varieties of kombucha for them to try. Some, if not most, we surprised how much they enjoyed the kombucha.
Two ladies from church stopped by. They were adventurous and up for anything I made. Linda, has always enjoyed my kombucha- she has the first one to purchase my set of 6. When we taught ESL together, I always had fun bringing her new and different kinds of kombucha to try. Monica says she would like to learn to make kombucha.
I then decided I would make chai 3 ways for people to experience the differences when you use different milks. I made Tao 500 Mile Chai and some chai from scratch. I made one with almond milk, one with vanilla milk, and one with soy milk.
Making my homemade chai from scratch. No tea in this chai.
Making chai in my 3 hole crock pot worked perfect for the chai sampler
Someone brought me this amazing vanilla mint chai, so I made cups of this chai too. It is amazing!!! Like a Girl Scout Thin Mint in a cup
More friends, a cousin, and my mom come to drink some tea. The funny thing in this picture- it looks like my mom is drinking the bubble tea out of the pitcher with a straw!!!
Purple tea was a new one for people to try. I made them Purple Rain. I think they liked this one. It is so fun to introduce people to new teas.
More friends and my neighbor show up to try tea!!!!
A former co-worker stopped by. She said that they had an exchange student stay with them from South America. She shared what learned about Mate tea and the bombilla straw with us. She brought her own straw to drink from too. I made a Mate tea for her to try. I got out my bombilla straw for Pam to use. It was fun to learn more about the straw and drinking Mate tea from Lisa.
(this photo is bubble tea, not mate)
I made Pam and Lisa these too Mate teas.
I was asked about a flowering tea, so I got out my glass pitcher and we made some blooming tea. It is always a fun surprise to see the flower open up as the tea is made. They say you can re-use the flower 5 or 6 times to make tea.
Here are friends, co-worker and her daughter, my sister, and my cousin.
I had hibiscus tea that I made from flowers from Guinea West Africa. In Guinea they call it Bissap tea.
I made a Tangerine Rosemary White tea. It was not very strong and not a big hit.
I did a Rooibos, but no one enjoyed it. They said it tasted my cough syrup. In defense of this particular rooibos, I do like this one. My sister, Jill, whose favorite tea is rooibos- was not here when we tried this tea.
More friends from church and another neighbor.
We did several herbal teas. Everyone was a fan of these fruity teas.
One of my co-workers who came has a daughter who makes and sells jellies. She made an apple chai jelly. We all loved this jelly. One of my guests wanted to eat it out of the jar with a spoon.
This was such a fun day!! I had so many friends who said that they would come again. Also, some friends who said that they could not come would like to come. I may make this an annual or bi-annual event.
This was a great time to get together and share laughter, tea, and memories. Sharing something I love and I am passion about made this a terrific day. There was nothing special about what I did. I provided tea and hot water... I did not have to do any special prep, no food, just tea. Have knowledge about something you love? Think about sharing it with others. I never regret outreach to friends and family.
