Epcot's
2006 International
Food & Wine Festival

Twingings Tea Seminar
Report by Andrew Della Vecchia

300 Year Celebration of Tea

Discover new teas as you treat yourself in our lovely garden
Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday
11:30, 12:30, 1:30, 2:30 and 3:30

Tickets available "day of" from a Cast Member at the United Kingdom outside the Tea Shop

----------

My wife and I recently attended the Twinings Tea Seminar at Epcot's Food & Wine Festival. The session is led by Stephen Twining, a 10th generation Twining. He very much enjoys tea as it is shown in his enthusiasm and not just in his name.

We are both tea drinkers and found the seminar to be enjoyable. Some of the information is well known, and some bits are surprising to learn about. The main effort of the seminar is to enlighten the guests into the history, brewing, serving, and variety of tea.

By the end of the session, we tried 5 varieties of Twinings Tea: Jasmine Green, Decaf Earl Grey, Indian Spiced Chai, Blackcurrant, and Citrus Spice Sunset Herbal. All of the tea is in bags which is a good segue to discussing the comparison of brewing a bag to the loose teas. There is also a cookie infused with Lady Grey to show how tea can be paired with foods.

At the very end, Mr Twining has a Q&A session. Again, he is eager to share his knowledge and views of how to enjoy tea.

Anyone wanting to attend should be aware they have a very limited capacity of 22 seats for each session. There is a Cast Member outside of the tea garden at the UK Pavilion that hands out tickets approximately 30-35 minutes before the posted times. The queue forms and fills up quickly! Once you get a ticket, you can leave and return 5 minutes before the time.