Now for tea and sweets!
Family was the main reason for the trip, but we also planned it so I could finally go to the San Francisco International Tea Festival! The festival has been going on for many years and it attracts tea makers from around the world!
It takes place in the second floor of the Ferry Building… at first it did not appear to be a ton of vendors, but the variety of teas and the number of countries represented among the tea makers was impressive!
Tea is amazing. It’s ONE plant. And from that one plant comes so many varieties based on terroir, when harvested, how grown and then how processed. I’ve drank a ton of tea my entire life, and even so there I tried a few here I never had like Yellow Tea and Japanese Kuchika tea (stems). There were so many teas…
And there was so many samples of each. Some tables were ready to give you a whole journey with their teas!
My favorite part of the event was the lectures. They were a variety of topics and very informational. There was some excellent discussion about issues like Climate and the Matcha Shortage. As well as shutting down tea snobbery and opening it up to more people as a beverage to enjoy.
There was even a lecture about using tea as an ingredient with samples! We had your usual matchs brownies and earl grey cookies… but they also had spent leaf onigiri! One of my favorite things is to cold brew green tea and I will certainly do this in the future…
They had a couple of food vendors, Imperial Court Tea shop since it was right down stairs. I got a black sesame bun from Little Moon.
Their Black Sesame Bun was so good. Roasty and the MIlk Bread bun was so soft.
I tried A LOT of tea. I had lots of water and totally got tea drunk at the end of the day. So bring water and the nice thing about the event is you could come and go. Especially since it was a warm day and we were on the 2nd story, it did get stuffy towards the end of the day. But the lecture rooms were nice and cool and had plenty of space.
My favorite tea of the show? Surprisingly it was the green from Redwood Tea Estates! A local tea maker AND grower! They even brought tea flowers and seeds to share!
Their teas were not only so delicious, but they were so fragrant and sweet since they left a lot of stem on them.
Being local, they show up at the Ferry Building Farmers Market where they also offer samples!
All in all, I do recommend attending, especially for the price. The VIP bag was actually super cute and high quality. The samples of tea were okay, so you can pay just regular admission and bring your own little tea cup.
Other sweets and drinks we enjoyed in the trip…
When looking for nearby soft serve, we discovered Lexie’s Custard in Downtown Berkeley. The custard was pretty good. But they also make their own apple crisp and their Apple Crisp Caramel Sundae was perfect. The crisp was still actually crispy and the apples had great texture. My favorite dessert of the trip.
At the tea festival, one of the vendors recommended visiting Elaichi Co. in Downtown Berkeley for their Chai and Matcha. I got their standard Chai which was quite good. But they have a seasonal Maple Matcha which was excellent.
In San Jose, I needed to run an errand in Japantown and since it was a rainy day, I am so glad I ran across Tono Coffee Project. It’s a small stand in an apartment building right across from the Cal Train Tracks. Menu is small, Ice or Hot. Black, White and Extra which included Chocolate
YEP! I got the chocolate and OMG. It was the best Mocha I’ve had in a VERY long time. Japantown is small but charming. I wish I wasn’t doing my typical fly by…. Would recommend visiting the area and definitely stopping by Tono
But the best drink I had on the trip was the Nibby Horchata from Dandelion Chocolate. A blend of nuts, rice water, spices and cocoa. I have been to Dandelion on all my trips and was there to pick up their new Hojicha Hot Chocolate Mix. I was skeptical but finally tried this and it’ll be my order there from now on.
FINALLY… Soft Serve. After a wonderful dinner with Family, we found ourselves heading towards Chase Center and hoping that Gotts would have their Salty Caramel Soft Serve (We had not gotten it at the Ferry Building while at the Tea Festival). Sadly by the time we got there, Gotts had shut down the machine. We were sad but decided to stay for something which turned out to be even sweeter…
It wasn’t until the end of the trip when we were in Oakland that we popped by Prescott Market and Fast Time Burgers for their Strauss soft serve and it was glorious. We got a swirl and P. was a happy guy. The chocolate in particular was very good. We may try a burger there next time…
Again, great time. Great eats. We already miss our adorable little nephew and will be looking for more excuses to go up.
