Nothing can be as excited as being able to participating in a historic event and making it a success! The 5th International Aged Puerh Appreciation event in Pasadeda, CA concluded with a smile on everybody’s face @ 5:30pm June/16. Here I put some pictures I took during the event; I will be getting more pictures and video clips to share. So do check back.
Getting ready for our Tea Family picture!
A video clip of this event:
I am sure there will be tasting notes by people who attended and myself later. Here I would like to share some behind-the-scene of this event with you:
The initial planning: Wushing Publishing Co. planned to promote the Art of Tea magazine in 2007 World Tea Expo in Atlanta, GA, June 9~11. At that time, they had already been discussing the arrangement of 5th International Puerh Appreciation in South Korea. The idea of doing such event in US was just like launching the Art of Tea magazine: it was like a flash in our brains: why not do this!!!
In later Feburary, we had better confidence to do so. I started looking for places to hold this event. Houston… no no no. I emailed Andrew Harto with a topic “Need your opinion”, letting him know what we may want to do and asking his recommendations of places in CA. He quickly came up with four options around LA:
Huntington Library
Descanso Gardens in La Canada
Pacific Asia Museum in Pasadena
Chinese American Museum in downtown LA
I contacted Asia Museum in SF, and was astounded by the rental price (something like US$6,500).
By the early March, we more or less decided that Pacific Asia Museum is the best place we could think of. Andrew went there to take pictures and videos! to let me have a better idea of this place.
I let Mr. Liang know that “it is possible, and my friends and I will do everything we can to make sure things go well”. So they changed their S. Korea plan and gave us a go-ahead.
I called the facility manager to arrange the rental and pay down the deposit.
By the late March, Liang and I decided the “menu” of this tasting event. We think it would be great to do like a Chronicle of the most important pu-erhs since 50’s to 2006. People will have a chance to experience the magic of aging and the difference in each decade’s focus.
Andrew and I exchanged emails frequently to discuss/decide on things such as facilities rentals and food/beverage arrangement. He paid well attention into every detail, such that we found out the electricity supply from the Museum might not be enough to boil all kettles, and we decided to rent a power generator. He made my life so much easier 
The final countdown: After finishing the Atlanta World Tea Expo on June/11, Liang and Apple flew to SF, while I went back home just for a day. I flew to SF to meet them on June/13. I supposed to meet them in the hotel around 1:00pm, but I was so lost and confused by SF traffic that I ended up in Oakland and struggled back to SF. By the time we met, it was almost 3:45pm. Totally exhausted. It was the first time I believe my car was going to turn upside down on a 45degree slope, and next second I saw a SUV coming down like from the sky onto my head!
June 14 we arrived Paso Robles. What a lovely gem! Out of curiosity I looked for the house prices on a Realtor’s window: nothing lower than $500K… errr… I know I won’t afford to live in this little heaven unless I could sell 20 piece of 60’s GYG a month!
June 15, another hectic and exhausting day with driving in LA. The traffic was so bad that we ended up on 101 and 405 highways like 3 hours just trying to go to airport to pick Mr. Chen Zhi-Tong up. By the time we finally arrived Pasadena, it was 10:30pm. Andrew and Aaron waited for us in the lobby. It was totally excited to finally meet Andrew!
June 16, waked up at 7:30am. I started to arrange seating on the five tables. Aaron and I later drove out to continue searching for L-stands for displaying pu-erh cakes and small ziplock bags to store samples. We could not find such things since yesterday in Santa Monica! Finally we saw a Michael’s and Target. I rushed them back to hotel, and Liang and Apple started to prepare 6 sets of tea samples for the event. We went to the Museum at 11:30am. I was excited to see how beautiful and refined this place is, and the wonderful CA sunny day! Everybody was so hungry as breakfast was skipped, so I drove to buy some sandwiches for brunch. All tables and chairs started to arrive since 12:00pm.
Andrew was driving around to pick up two waiters and foods/fruits/posters since early morning. He was under so much stress that his wife told me, “He shouted this morning!”
The Speech started at 1:45pm, and from then the whole event just flowed as planned. I had Gabriella the Museum facility manager sit next to me. She turned out to be a pioneer in US tea industry 20 years ago! She enjoyed the event so much that she forgot it was 5:00pm, the time the event should be called off! It was 5:55pm that finally the museum was emptied.
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My general tasting impression (honestly, I ran around like a fly that I could not paid much attention to my cups) was every tea, no matter how aged, was from nicely cared storage condition. They very well expressed what their vintages should be. I am most impressed by the profound mellowness and refined sweetness of 60’s Bao-Zhong Huang-Yin, and totally surprised that 50’s Hong Yin was even more saturated, robust yet refined than the 60’s.
We prepared an additional set of samples just in case. The event went as planned so the additional set was saved. I will keep them as memorabilia.
What’s next: Liang, Chen and me all think that this Event sets a good example of future outside-Asia events. They are very impressed by the passion and the eagerness to learn from all attending people. Mr. Chen already showed his interest to come again to teach a one-day course on pu-erh tasting and blending, with certificates to people who participate.
This event is only a start of all great things to come!
I wish I had more time and chances to chat with everyone who attended. When I looked at pictures, there are still people I could not connect their names with faces, what a shame! But no matter who you are, please accept my most sincere Thank-You, as you and I and everybody just achieved a historic event in Pu-erh!
Guang 
) Hou De was sharing a booth with WuShing Publishing Co. It turned out selling magazines and books is a lot easier than selling fine teas in such a show.
I think the problem was I spent most of time answering questions and taking magazine orders. And the teas Hou De offering were not the kinds that people would see and grab from the shelves.
