Travel to Ontario for the annual Tea'rrific Tea and Culture Celebration

Ottawa Travel Guide

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Tuesday, 20 November 2012 16:05

There's something fascinating about tea that makes it practically revered around the world, and at the Tea'rrific Tea and Culture Celebration in Ottawa, visitors can get a glimpse of what makes this plant so enticing. From 11 a.m. to 6 p.m. on Saturday, December 1 at the Ottawa Convention Centre, travellers can partake in a truly unique experience, learning about how tea has influenced cultures across the planet, from India and China to England and, of course, Canada.

Entertainment for everyone
Tea isn't the only main attraction during this year's Tea'rrific Tea event. During the festivities, visitors can watch live music, lovely traditional Indian dances and even Bollywood performances! For those who have yet to experience a Sri Lanken dance performance, they should head to the main stage area at 4 p.m. and see for themselves what makes this dance so incredible.

Educational workshops
The history of tea cultivation and making dates back thousands of years, when the Chinese first started to extract leaves and dry them on metal bowls. Since then, there are dozens of varieties of teas, from the mysterious Pu Er, which has some healing properties and takes a special brewing process to extract all of the flavours, to the floral Earl Grey, which most tea drinkers have come to love - especially with steamed milk and a splash of vanilla sugar for a London Fog.

During the educational workshops at the festival, tea lovers staying at Ottawa hotels can learn about not only the history of tea, but the process each variety goes through to create starkly different flavours. Not many people know this off hand, but all teas, from green and white to brown and black, are made from the same type of leaf.

The perfect cup of tea
Dozens of tea distributors will exhibit their products during the event, from exotic and rare tea varieties to lotions and perfumes made by the versatile plant. Vendors will be more than happy to show attendees how to create the perfect cup of tea, teaching them how to make proper measurements for particular tea varieties to providing advice about products that make tea 10 times more delicious.