Melbourne Tea Festival - Review & Haul

Coming from Melbourne I'm a big fan of a good cup of coffee, but in recent years I've become partial to a good cup of tea as well, which is what drew me to the Melbourne Tea Festival! I spotted a mention of it on Facebook and marked it as something I'd love to attend, so at the end of May my husband and I hopped on a train into the city to see what the first ever Melbourne Tea Festival was all about! Keeping in mind that my husband doesn't really drink tea I knew I didn't want to spend the whole day at the Melbourne Convention and Exhibition Centre, and despite their being specialist workshops available I wasn't interested in spending the extra money on those this time around (entry was $15 at the door, and workshops ranged from $20-$44 each on top of that)

 

We ended up visiting every stall as they festival wasn't a big one, and I spent quite a bit loading up on lots of new tea brands to try. It was a little bit difficult to access each stall as there were people standing around each one drinking tea from the provided tasting cups, but it was still great to see so many Australian brands spruiking their wares. My favourite stall was the Madame Flavour one (they make my favourite choc mint rooibos tea!) because they had lots of different teas to sample, and had the owners daughter serving (seen here!) and she was an absolute star.

catching up with Mum after the festival
Melbourne CBD
Sliders on Tyres
Our sliders!
Tea Ceremony on show

Sliders on Tyres were a highlight of our day, I had The Fisherman which was fried tender calamari, crisp lettuce and lemon mayo, while Mr has The Boss with pork sausage, BBQ capsicum, double cheese, lettuce and aioli. The hand cut chips were way too thick though, next time I'd definitely get a few sliders each and omit the fries altogether. I thought it was clever to have a range of food trucks at the venue with a picnic area set up, as it gave another dimension to the event and provided much needed fuel after sampling so many tea flavours. The hauling was easily my favourite part of the day though...

I definitely didn't hold back when it came to buying new teas to try!
-Madame Flavour Afternoon in Paris tea + a stack of samplers
-Truly Tea Coconut Tea (Byron Bay)
-The Art of Tea Choc Mintea (Tasmania)
-The Dragon Tea Company Doublemint & Moroccan Berber (Bendigo)
It felt great to be supporting Australian companies and I can't wait to try all of these new blends. I love my tea sweet or minty, as evident in the flavours I chose.

Some new tea accessories I bought after attending the Tea Festival!

You can check out their facebook and website if you are interested in the next tea festival (they also hold one in Sydney!) I had a good time but wouldn't be able to spend a whole afternoon there - it was a nice part of a day in the city though, and I think I would go again if I had the chance.
Are you a tea or coffee drinker, or both? What is your favourite thing to sip?
Emma x


*Not a sponsored post, just my thoughts on an experience I paid for myself. Honesty, always.

In & Out

In the midst of craziness with all of my assignments due and unwritten and my excitement for ABBW and IMATS growing, I thought I'd share the things I'm loving and loathing lately.



Image taken from sterling-wellness.com



In

* Wellbeing Wednesday is a whopper of an idea that I'm grabbing with both hands. I saw this over at Jess' blog and need all the motivation  I can get in regards to bettering my life. A group challenge is offered (this week is to workout 3 times!) and you can set a personal challenge to share with everyone,too. For info head to Jess' post . I'm yet to decide on my personal challenge but I'll be sure to let you know when I do!

*Procrastination in the form of the box-I've really been enjoying Underbelly Razor that is being aired in Australia right now, and as always I'm riveted by Jersey Shore as they roll all over Italy. Also watched quite a few films over the weekend, and have fallen in love with Steve Carrel all over again!

*Spent the weekend at my best friend Candice's farm and ahhh the serenity! She made us (Chris and I) the best food while we were there too, wowza.

*Rocked the same look all last week (and today!) which consists of:

Bourjois Healthy Mix Serum Foundation

Sportsgirl champagne and neutral brown shade with MAC Mink&Sable in the crease

NYX Peach Blush

Model's Prefer Glitz & Glamour highlighter

Jack Black balm in Grapefruit & Ginger

Will hopefully nail some nice shots of this during the week to share.

Image taken from  http://wallpapers.net/view/sad_face-normal.html

Out

*Having so many assignments due when all I want to do is read all of your lovely blogs! The readings alone are overtaking my life, and my lovely farm weekend means I go nil work done so am struggling today.

*Instant coffee. I just can't deal with it anymore, I've been spoiled by good cafe coffees and my sights are now set on the orange coffee machine of my dreams (it's on the xmas list!) Nescafe just isn't cutting it anymore

*Bronzer. I have tried so many types and techniques, but it just looks bleh on me and I can't stand it. I want to look healthy more than tanned, but just can't seem to nail it. If anyone has tips, share!

*A Current Affair and Today Tonight because they are pure shite.

What is in or out for you this week? Hope your Monday is rocking, I'm looking forward to meeting a bunch of you in Sydney this weekend!

emmabovary xx

Keep Cup

I have been lemming one of these for so long, and have only yesterday succumbed to buying one. A cafe at my uni had them for $9 (usually $12) and so Candice and I got busy choosing possible colour combinations. This is what we came up with, my keep cup in all her beautiful glory!

I chose a small white cup, pink band for the middle, pink lid and turqouise for the topper. I thought at first it was too much pink, but I'm loving pink atm so whatever! The turqouise reallys spices it up, too. I looked online for more info on these babies but found nothing official, I know uni cafes often have them, as well as regular cafes. The choices are up to you, there are heaps of colour varieties and you can mix and match to your hearts content. I'm thinking I will buy a bright orange and yellow one next, for peppermint tea days.

A lot of places also offer cheaper coffee if you present a keepcup, which is a great bonus! I know I personally go thru quite a few coffee cups on any given day, so just thinking about how many I will be saving makes me feel good.

The pink band around the middle has options that the person taking your order can mark with a permanant texta, but I've never seen anyone utilise this feature. The options are the usual with coffee-capp, latte,FW,long or short macchiato or espresso, sweetener, sugar(and how many) low fat/soy milk, strong, hot, doppio, weak, decaf, organic, chai, tea, hot choc, and mocha.

Keep Cups keep barista's happy as it fits under their machines, the environment happy as you reduce paper cup usage, and they make you happy with their cuteness and lightweight design. $9 well spent!

emmabovary xx