Toronto Tea Festival for every tea-enthusiast
My love for tea dates back to a time that I can’t particularly recall but I do remember that it was in the spring of 2010 that I had first ever witnessed the visceral tea gardens in Munnar. I began to value my cuppa chai even more when a tea farmer took us to a 150 year old tea factory and we saw a chain of events from plucking to packaging. It blew my mind.
A few years later I came across a book called ‘Hot Tea Across India’ which talked about the various cultural intricacies associated with chai. I was astonished to read how it was a social phenomenon and deeply rooted in all cultures across India.
Fast Forward to 2020 in Toronto, it was at Toronto Tea Festival, an annual event to celebrate tea, I realized that tea is in fact a global phenomenon.
I volunteered at the festival and was part of the team creating an extraordinary experience of tea tasting within city limits.
More than 50 exhibitors from across the country came together and more than 1000 tea enthusiasts took part in this indulgent experience.
As a volunteer, I was involved to support the back end functions during event preparations and customer engagement during the event day, to ensure a life full experience. This included preparing customer package inclusive of event information and tea tasting cups, checking with exhibitors for any requirements, photographing at the photo-wall to create social media impressions and interacting with customers to gauge their overall experience at the event.
With the power of tea and a customer first approach, we were able to deliver an action packed day where the visitors were able to learn about and engage with teas and tea brewers from the world.
I am sure to partake in this event in the years to come and continue my education on tea drinking rituals from different parts of the world.
