I lived in Seattle for 2 years and hadn’t been there in a long time, so last weekend it felt a little surreal and emotional to be there again. Don’t get me wrong, I really love San Francisco but Seattle holds a special place in my heart. I don’t know what it is, if the beauty of the surrounding landscape or the cheerful attitude and politeness of the Seattleites or the cool vibe of anything around there. Well, I was in Seattle for one of the most anticipated events of the year, the Northwest Tea Festival.

I will tell you more about my experience at the festival in a separate post, but now I want to focus on the Tea Bloggers Roundtable panel discussion I was invited to participate in. It was such an honor and a great experience to sit on the panel. It was awesome to meet old friends I had only met online before, make new friends and connect with fellow tea bloggers and fellow tea lovers.

The panel discussion was organized and moderated by Virginia Cinnabar Wright aka Gongfu Girl (her blog) and owner of Phoenix Tea in Burien, Washington. The panelists were (in no particular order) a certain Tea Squirrel from San Francisco, Heather Porter (Hanamichi), Stephanie Lemmons Wilson (Steph’s Cup of Tea), Charissa Gascho (Oolong Owl) and Geoffrey Norman (Steep Stories). The discussion touched upon different topics including introducing each blog, how tea blogging has changed the way we enjoy tea, how we deal with tea reviews, what our own favorite, least favorite and most controversial blog posts are, how important blog statistics are in the way we write and plan content and how we handle amendments and corrections.

Each of our blogs is a niche within the niche, everyone focuses on a different aspect of tea and has a different take on it. The diversity in our points of view and experiences brought valuable insights to the table and shed some light on different aspects of tea blogging.
 

A heartfelt thank you to my fellow tea bloggers for having me on the panel and to the tea lovers who attended our discussion. It was a truly amazing experience!

Cinnabar Wright, Gongfu Girl
Heather Porter, Hanamichi
Stephanie Lemmons Wilson, Steph’s Cup of Tea
Charissa Gascho, Oolong Owl
Geoffrey Norman, Steep Stories