Hip, Fun and Sassy at the NYC Tea and Coffee Festival 2014

What can be better than great style and good tea?  At the Tea and Coffee Festival in New York City this past weekend that’s what I found…vendors with style and good tea.  Vendors marketed their tea in bold eye catching packaging, expressing that New York spirit of hip, fun and sassy.

Damn FineTea caught my attention first with their fun cartoon style prints on brightly colored tins of tea.  My favorite had a playfully exaggerated cartoon horse on a package of Yunnan tea.  The horse color was bright yellow with a dash of pink.  I asked Charles Andrew, co-founder of Damn Fine Tea, about his company.  Andrew emphasized that he and his co-founder Erik Dunham carefully select their estate teas to guarantee the quality.  They frequently have limited additions and my favorite tin, the Yunnan horse, is a limited addition of only 150 tins.

  Another vendor who caught my attention was Fashionista Tea.  Besides tea, do you love shoes?  Carrie Bradshaw of Sex in the City does and this organic tea from Fashionista Tea would be her favorite.  Sassy six inch leopard print stilettos top the packaging logo – giving it a Vogue-worthy aesthetic.  The Fashionista Tea’s founder, Brenda Dillon Cavette, earned a degree in fashion merchandizing as well as in communications. She combined her love of fashion with her lifetime love of tea.  I tried her Creamy Earl Grey sample, it was smooth and delicious.  Brenda explained she added vanilla to this tea and less bergamot to create the creamy taste and texture.  I stopped at her booth for the fashion but stayed for the tea.