San Francisco International Tea Festival ... and a sunny afternoon downtown

The other night I was checking my email and found that I could not log in ... my password had been changed "2 hours ago". I was immediately a little worried and my mind first went to the idea that my email account had been compromised - not that there's anything to really "hack", but still, it wasn't a pleasant feeling. Then I found out what really happened ... Ian had changed my password because he needed to surprise me with tickets for ...

the First Annual San Francisco International Tea Festival !!!

Considering that I've missed the last two Northwest Tea Festival events in Seattle (even while living there), I was so excited! And with that, we headed from our little neighborhood on the historic F-line tram all the way down to the Ferry Building.

I love trams and other public transit systems in general, but having the opportunity to ride electric trams from the late 1800s on a regular basis here in San Francisco is something that I will never cease to be happy about. This particular tram is one of the couple of orange colored ones from Milan, Italy (compared to the round, quieter, historic American PCC streetcars). As in the above video, it's all controlled by air pressure brakes and manual gears!

 San Francisco Ferry Building ... ground level where all of the delicious eats are!

Just checked in for our goodie bag and tasting cup

Tasting cup in hand, ready to go!

First stand, various Yunnan Pu-Erhs

Chado booth from southern California, showcasing mainly some flavored teas and blooming teas

James Norwood Pratt giving the opening speech, with Roy Fong (owner, Imperial Tea Court located downstairs on the ground floor of the Ferry Building)

Red Circle teas

Now we're getting to more my style ... traditional, unflavored (except by their respective terroir) handcrafted teas ... inside of the golden clay yixing pot were some jasmine pearls, in the middle gaiwan was a 1986 tie kuan yin (re-roasted in 1999 and 2009), and in the right gaiwan was the ever-popular Tai Cha #18 from Taiwan with its huge Assamese leaves

We wandered about for a while, visiting various merchants and tasting their goods. I was very excited to find a few merchants who carried some really great artisan teas ... I kind of skipped over the blended, flavored, and blooming tea merchants. Noon hit, and we were hungry for some lunch, so we walked back to the ground floor and headed out the back of the ferry building to the pier area where the huge Saturday farmer's market aways gathers ...

Had to get my Hawaiian fix from "Namu", the Korean-style food cart that stops at various places in the city. Loco Moco + waterfront seat + sunny Bay Bridge/Treasure Island view = winning combination. Ian had an oyster po-boy from Hayes Street Grill.

Stopped for an espresso-bean shake (could we have any more caffeine today?) at Gott's "Tray Gourmet" Roadside 

Before heading home to explore our goods for the day, I had been meaning to check out the Lomography Gallery Store that recently opened a couple months ago in Union Square. We decided to walk from the Embarcadero, through FiDi, to Union Square and on the way we found this waterfall sculpture park

Sometimes I really take for granted how pretty this city is ... then there are scenes like this that bring it all back into perspective

Cable cars along the re-opened California line (for those who don't live here in SF, the California St. cable car line isn't just for tourists ... it's actually a huge commuter line for those who work in the Financial District)

The craft stalls of union square

 And the ever-changing "hearts" of the city 

And back home, after a nice nap, I unpacked the bag to indulge in my new finds...

Proof: We Were Here! First annual tea festival in SF!

My purchases from the day ... a sampler of Glenburn Estate teas (various flushes throughout last year of darjeeling and assam teas) in a pretty drawstring bag, "Jade Bao Zhong" from Sky Tea (more full mouthfeel than a normal very green bao zhong), and three from Fox & Moon Teas: Ancient Lotus traditional style green tea scented with lotus blossom from Thai Nguyen, Vietnam, 3rd place competition Oriental Beauty oolong (Dong Fang Mei Ren), and Phoenix Mountain pommelo blossom fragrance oolong (yu hua xiang).

FTGFOP grade monsoon flush darjeeling from Glenburn Estate. FTGFOP is one of the abbreviation combinations used to grade some teas (primarily Indian and African teas) ... while it really stands for "Finest Tippy Golden Flowery Orange Pekoe", some tea snobs joke that it means "Far Too Good For Ordinary People" :-p

Fox & Moon teas ... Pommelo blossom fragrance phoenix oolong is on the right

I was very happy to see that the Indian tea merchants were really using the tea board's newly adopted Geographic Indication certification marks on their products. Much like champagne can only be called champagne if it is from Champagne, France, India has been trying to do the same with its teas to protect the industry. Due to the high prices darjeeling can fetch, many inferior teas are often blended into a tiny bit of darjeeling but then sold/marketed as "darjeeling" tea. Considering the relatively tiny amount of true darjeeling produced, much of what is out there sold as "darjeeling" is often either 1) very little darjeeling tea in the blend, or 2) possibly not of darjeeling origin at all. If you've ever had a pure first or second flush darjeeling, you can immediately tell the difference. There is no imitation for the brisk floral nature of high mountain darjeeling, so look for those above logos for certification of true origin.

At the lomography gallery store in union square, I picked up a three pack of ISO 100 color cross-process slide film (35mm).

I was initially afraid the people at the shop would be a bit pretentious (a lot of photo shops can be if you don't immediately name/term-drop), but they were awesome. I got advice about how I can set to ISO 125 instead of shooting straight ISO 100 to get some vivid color saturation, or cross-process the slide film (i.e. develop it as a normal color negative roll) which may yield some really interesting results like making certain colors more subdued while others really pop out.

I've decided that aside from snapping pics for the blog, I would like to return to film photography. There's something fundamentally rewarding about being forced to take the time to take pictures and develop them, and in my reverting to the "analog version of things", I plan to use my 1970s AE-1 with a small 50mm. Not having to worry about charging a battery all the time and the feeling of advancing your film manually ... there's no replacement. I also recently found out about Harvey Milk Recreation Center's photo lab where individuals can use equipment (enlargers, contact print frames, etc) for a nominal fee. Thinking about taking a black and white film development course there, once a week for one month, but we'll see :-)

Finally, what would this blog be without a little balcony garden update. The feijoa bush, after dropping nearly all of its leaves these past couple of months and seemingly dead, has decided to wake up from its sleep and started growing some fresh new leaves! I thought it had gotten too cold and dry for the plant, but I guess this was just how it copes with the weather change! So beautiful to see the burst of life coming back ...

 Looks like the feijoa will be a full bush again soon enough!

And from the tree ... the yuzu fruit are getting larger every day. One of them in particular is looking like it is turning yellow and therefore ripening :-) Will we have bright yellow yuzu on the tree soon?

 This yuzu looks closest to ripening

Yuzu #2

Yuzu #3 (and #4 in the background). There are a few more down below as well.

Considering that the tree is still in the tiny original pot we bought it in, I'm really surprised it's been able to make fruit! I can only imagine how well it would thrive if it were in the ground. Maybe eventually we'll plant it at Ian's dad's house so it can live forever!