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Quick Take:
The Eugene Tea Festival allows guests to sample teas and experience how tea brings people together across continents and centuries. Founder Madelaine Au has lined up 60 vendors and 14 workshops, more than at last year’s festival.
In a world that runs on caffeine, Madelaine Au is building a community of people who like to take things just a little slower, one cup of tea at a time. Her interest, which began with sips of her mother’s Stash teas during her childhood in Portland, has blossomed into Eugene’s Tea Festival, now in its third year.
The festival, Sunday, May 25, at the Farmers Market Pavilion, isn’t just about the beverage itself — it’s about slowing down, savoring the moment, and connecting with a community that spans continents and centuries.
“That’s what has led me to be so drawn to tea,” said Au, the executive director and founder of the Eugene Tea Festival. “It draws together people who like to slow down and enjoy and savor life, and also a delicious cup of tea.”
Au expects more than 1,200 attendees.
An “epic tea-tasting extravaganza”
With 60 vendors offering everything from rare Taiwanese oolongs to locally crafted herbal infusions, this celebration invites both dedicated tea aficionados and curious newcomers to explore the leafy world beyond their coffee mugs.
“It’s an epic tea-tasting extravaganza with a marketplace,” Au said.
Au has been aware of and connected to local tea businesses for years, but her love of tea grew exponentially when she attended the Northwest Tea Festival in 2017 in Seattle. As a college student, Au spent a lot of time studying in cafes with a mug of chai or a matcha latte in hand. Then she saw an ad for the tea festival and thought it sounded fun.
“I went, and I was just blown away by the diversity of tea,” said Au, who also enjoys coffee and describes herself as “a beverage person” rather than a one-or-the-other person. “I found myself gravitating more towards specialty tea, just because of the tea community. Pretty much everyone I know is a coffee drinker, but I wouldn’t say that there’s as much of a specific coffee community.”
For Au, one of the things that is unique about tea is the variety — there’s a rich diversity of flavors and types of tea, herbal teas, and caffeinated or not. Au grew up Chinese-American, so learning about Chinese tea ceremonies and brewing tea skillfully through the concept of “gong fu cha” was meaningful to her. Plus, Au’s sister lives in Japan and would send her Japanese teas.
“There was an element to (tea) that felt very much like home for me, and a way for me to connect back to my roots and back to my culture,” Au said. “I really enjoy the cultural and historical side of tea.”
Au grew up in Portland and moved to Eugene in 2019. After attending the Portland Tea Festival in 2017, she volunteered for the 2018 festival as the volunteer coordinator, then in 2019 decided to start her own tea festival. While that initial timeline was delayed by the pandemic, Au kicked off her first tea festival in 2023.
While in Eugene, Au had connected with other local tea businesses, even working for Springfield’s Young Mountain Tea for two years. After talking with other tea business owners, she learned interest in a local tea festival was high. While most people wouldn’t necessarily take the leap from enjoying something to starting their own festival celebrating it, Au said she enjoys events, so it wasn’t an unusual step for her.
“I had an inclination to start something; whether it was going to be a business or some kind of event or project, I wasn’t sure at first,” she said.
Tickets are $10, which includes a program and a collectible porcelain cup at registration. Participants who choose the free admission option will receive a program and a compostable cup. On-site tea workshops are free, and $10 ticket holders will have a chance to pre-register. The Farmers Market Pavilion will feature live music, as well as vendors pouring tea samples and selling tea wares and art. Au said 60 vendors will be on site — the highest number of vendors yet.
This year, Au made it a mission to provide as much diversity as possible. That means Chinese teas, Taiwanese teas, teas from Nepal and Mongolia, Japanese teas and sweets, and local herbalists and apothecaries offering herbal teas and blends will be at the festival. Food vendors will be parked outside in the plaza.
Fourteen workshops range from a general introduction to tea to a brewing class hosted by Josh Chamberlain, founder of Eugene’s J-Tea. There will also be specific classes such as one on Taiwanese teas. Another, called Pour With Poise, focuses on tea etiquette.
“You’ll get to taste tea, you’ll get to learn more about tea, and then you can also buy local art and local crafts,” Au said.
Au stresses that you don’t have to feel like you are a tea aficionado in order to attend. If coffee is your beverage of choice, you’ll still find something to enjoy about the festival.
“The tea festival is great for the general public because it’s a way for you to try as many things as you’d like,” Au said. “Just come in and taste teas and see what you like, because I can guarantee that there are going to be teas that you’ve never tried and flavors that you’ve never tried.”
The origins of tea
What most people think of as tea is the leaves of a shrub called Camellia sinensis. This plant is native to East Asia and is usually grown in tropical and subtropical regions. Different growing regions and varieties of Camellia sinensis produce the many different teas people are familiar with. In Oregon, Minto Island Tea Co. produces certified organic, handpicked, small-batch crafted teas from a plot of land planted with Camellia sinensis.
Camellia sinensis can grow in many areas, but it takes several years for bushes to mature, and it’s slower to grow and harder to profit from the plant when it is grown in more challenging environments such as Oregon.
“When people who are in the specialty tea industry talk about tea, they’re specifically talking about Camellia sinensis variety sinensis, or Camellia sinensis variety assamica,” Au said. “But the Eugene Tea Festival is not exclusive to Camellia sinensis. It includes the things that anybody would call tea,” including herbal teas, which are formally called infusions or tisanes. Kombucha from BNF Kombucha & Jun and boba tea also will be represented.
Going to a tea festival is a great way to start learning about tea.
“You don’t have to dive down the rabbit hole like I did, but you kind of can see there’s a lot of information, a lot to know,” Au said. “So many different cultures have their own tea culture, and it’s really very diverse, but I think that that’s also what makes it so wonderful for the community, because anybody can connect at a different point, and we can all come together and celebrate.”
Want to go?
Eugene Tea Festival
www.eugeneteafest.org
Sunday, May 25
Farmers Market Pavilion
85 E. Eighth Ave.
10 a.m. – 4 p.m.
Tickets are $10 with a free admission option available.
