Tea Geeks, heads up!

Sometimes it seems like coffee lovers get special events every week. Festivals, tastings, competitions… But that’s about to change with Spirit Tea and Marco’s upcoming series of events across the Nation: The Spirit of Tea Tour.

Chicago-based Spirit Tea is teaming up with the beverage tech company Marco and traveling West through Los Angeles, Denver, Portland, and Seattle to not only teach you about tea with an educational tea workshop, but dare you with a Matcha Latte Art Throwdown.

The first part of the Spirit of Tea Tour will be a hands-on seminar diving into how to perfect and dial-in your tea brewing skills, led by Spirit Tea co-founders Taylor Cowan and Jordan Scherer. Scherer tells me that the goal was to make this interactive. “We are lucky that tea is an industry that involves all of the senses. When we talk about tea brewing from a chemical perspective it’s important attendees experience these elements viscerally, so it made sense to bring this material right to their doorstep.”

Spirit Tea, a Friend of World of Tea, has extensive experience training and curating tea programs, whether it be for their local coffee shops or for Michelin-rated restaurant Alinea in Chicago. Utilizing their exceptional selection of seasonal teas and the volumetric, variable temperature controlled Marco Mix water boiler, they’ll be demonstrating and discussing:

The educational segment will be followed up by a matcha latte art throwdown, in a traditional bracket-style barista format. Yeah coffee, we can hang too.

The events will be hosted by local coffee shops in their respective cities. Although it might seem counter-intuitive to host a tea seminar and competition in a coffee shop, Scherer notes, “Coffee shops are currently where an elevated discussion around proper extraction is already taking place. This material is high level and we are seeking allies to help create more enthusiasm around tea. The matcha element engages the community in a monthly ritual that will drive out more attendance through friendly competition. Matcha is very sensitive to water temperature so it’s an easy way to reinforce the principles of the workshop in a competitive environment.”

These events are totally free and open to the public! No registration is necessary. I’ll be at the workshop in Los Angeles, and will be bringing a World of Tea competitor to the Matcha Latte Throwdown, so I hope to see you there! Find your city below to attend:

1208 E. Wardlow Rd Long Beach, CA 908079/28 @ 1:00pm: Tea Dialing-In Workshop

777 S Alameda St. #150 Los Angeles, CA 900219/28 @ 6:45pm: Matcha Latte Throwdown

1619 Reed St Lakewood, CO 80214 10/11 @ 1:00pm: Tea Dialing-In Workshop

10/12 @ 6:30pm: Matcha Latte Throwdown

1015 SE Main St.  Portland, OR 97214 11/7 @ 1:00pm: Tea Dialing-In Workshop

11/8 @ 6:45pm: Matcha Latte Throwdown

2737 1st Avenue South Seattle, WA 98134 11/9 @ 1:00pm: Tea Dialing-In Workshop 11/9 @ 6:45pm: Matcha Latte Throwdown