Sydney Tea Festival 2016

Overview

Not content with a run-of-the-mill cuppa? Find your people at the Sydney Tea Festival, returning to Carriageworks this month for the third year running.

Off the back of their successful venture into Melbourne this May, this wildly popular festival is back with a characteristically eclectic 2016 program. There's a number of offerings for seasoned specialty tea-lovers and advocates of the humble tea bag alike across its market and workshops.

Entry to the tea market includes a tasting cup, which will almost certainly come in handy when sampling brews from over 50 stallholders, including T2 (who you'd be sneakily sampling in-store on a weekend anyway), Sticky Chai, T Totaler, Rabbit Hole, Bodhi Organic Tea, Tippity and LongLeaf Tea Vodka (which is exactly what it sounds like). In addition to a variety of specialty loose-leaf tea and herbal tisanes, visitors will find tempting food stalls and tea ware in the market from Black Star Pastry, Bloodwood and Bodum among others.

Those wanting to delve further into the uses and brewing of tea should check out the festival's workshops. Try your hand at some divination while waiting for your Hogwarts letter with the tea leaf reading workshop. If you would rather drink the tea than read it, other workshop offerings include bespoke chai blending, tea and chocolate pairing, as well as talks about the history of tea.

Cap off the day with a cup of tea in the brew lounge, knowing you've made a stellar contribution to the 7.7 billion cups of tea likely to be sold in Australia this year.