World Tea Expo 2014 – Long Beach, California

The World Tea Expo, held annually in the US at the end of May, can be a very dilute affair. It’s partnered with its idiot twin, the Healthy Beverage Expo, and cleaves to the lazy American habit of referring to any potable hot liquid that isn’t cocoa, coffee or soup as ‘tea’. Cruising the stands on exhibition days can feel rather like finding yourself at a Doctor Who convention where 85% of the stuff on show is from Blake’s 7 or Red Dwarf – and everyone else is fine with that!

When the organisers, F+W Media, announced that a ritzy new awards ceremony would headline this year’s event there was widespread muttering amongst tea purists, many of whom feared that its scope would be frivolously broad, or that commercial interests would turn the judging panel into the Tea equivalent of FIFA.

Best Beverage In A Supporting Role

Instead, I’m happy to report that the inaugural World Tea Awards, although far from perfect, exceeded expectations by a sizeable margin. Tea scholars were celebrated, good practice rewarded and there was a surprise winner in one of the coveted New Product categories, where Nuwati Herbals, a Native American themed purveyor of natural health remedies, took the Open Class gong for its ‘Tea Pee’ Prostate Support Tea. This diuretic concoction has received literally gushing reviews in the alternative health press and, being of a certain age, I experienced a momentary flurry of personal interest in its efficacy. Disappointingly, the Nuwati web site is short on empirical data and long on self-congratulation. It turns out that Tea Pee, in addition to containing a long list of exotic ingredients like kava kava, maca maca and parsley, has its own tragic back-story of personal loss to tell, and while this might have impressed the WTA judges it had quite the opposite effect on me.

Brain Food

The simple truth is, you don’t need to add anything to tea for it to be effective against almost any medical or psychological condition. Barely a month passes without the announcement of some newly discovered health benefit, the latest headline-grabber coming from the University of Basel where researchers have established that green tea measurably improves cognitive function and working memory. For those who, like myself, prefer the richness and complexity of black and oolong teas, the good news is that you can ingest the green tea in extracted form and still get all the benefits. I’ve been taking three 500mg capsules every day for a week now, and in that time haven’t once mislaid my wallet, keys or umbrella, which is evidence enough that the benefits are real.

I’ll leave the last word on the World Tea Awards to my young Welsh friend, Huw. When the finalists were being announced, he tutted derisively at a German nominee called Butterflies In The Tummy, which was described as ‘a mélange of exotic fruit paired with subtle vanilla’…

“That’s not tea”, he opined in his inimitable Valleys accent. “That’s pudding, that is!”