Tea by the sea in Hobart

The AUSTCS TEAm is pleased to announce the dates and venue for the 2019 seminar.

Tasmania is a destination to be reckoned with in 2019. Already famed for its natural beauty, historic sites and one of the world’s weirdest museums (aka MONA), it’s time it took the lead for tea.

Come September, it will. Hobart plays host to the 2019 Australian Tea Cultural Seminar and we are pleased to announce it will be held in The Old Woolstore, a heritage-listed building steps from the city’s famous waterfront over the weekend of 7-8 September.

Venue
The Old Woolstore
1 Macquarie Street
Hobart, Tasmania

Dates
Saturday 7th and Sunday 8th September 2019

The hotel was originally built in the 19th century to, as its name suggests, store and treat wool. It was later used to store other agricultural products, and in the 1950s turned into a Rural Merchandise store, supplying various items to local farmers. In 1997, it became a hotel. Valued by the National Trust, many parts of the building and equipment remain preserved for guests to view.

It is fitting that our venue has such a historic connection to agriculture. In its first year, AUSTCS pioneered a relationship with the Royal Agricultural Society of Tasmania, which resulted in the society offering Australia’s first tea-only category eligible for agricultural medals at the Royal Hobart Fine Food Awards in 2018. It’s a relationship we’ll be developing towards the Hobart seminar and beyond. 

Over the coming months we’ll be profiling some things to do while you’re in Tassie, but for now you should save the date and look to buy an earlybird ticket before they run out.

(Below: Hobart's waterfront by David Lyons)

FAQs

Are there earlybird discounts to AUSTCS 2019?
Yes! Until 31 March 2019:

• If you are an AUSTCS member, an earlybird ticket = $150.30
• If you are not a member, an earlybird ticket = $167.00

Discount available for the first 25 tickets sold.

Who is an AUSTCS member?
AUSTCS members are those delegates who attended the seminar in 2018, as well as anyone who has signed up and paid for membership on our website.

If you attended AUSTCS 2017 but not AUSTCS 2018, your membership has expired. You can renew it on our membership page.

What benefits do members receive?
Members receive 10% off seminar tickets. You must be signed in first to activate this discount. Members also have access to our forums and can participate in our Volunteer Working Groups to drive tea culture in Australia.

Welcome to AUSTCS.org 2.0

You spoke, we listened – and built a website to take AUSTCS to the next level.

One of our goals ahead of the 2019 seminar was to update the website to reflect our organisation as a representative body of the tea community. While our first website was certainly functional, it was built to accommodate our requirements as they arose rather than putting the user experience first.

Now we've had a couple of years to see how people travel through the site, identify our needs and listen to members' wants, we have developed a new online presence that looks better, flows better and is easier to navigate.

Co-director James Lyons will be tweaking code in the coming weeks to address teething problems, so do contact him if you see anything that needs attention.

Otherwise, please enjoy the new version of austcs.org.

Above: Samantha Brown, AUSTCS Regional Ambassador for Tasmania. Photo supplied.

The tea artist of Tasmania

AUSTCS would like to introduce our very first Regional Ambassador for Tasmania,
The Art of Tea's Samantha Brown.

Mention ‘tea’ in the same breath as ‘Tasmania’ and someone is sure to bring up The Art of Tea in conversation. Helmed by Samantha Brown, The Art of Tea is a homegrown Hobart brand, a mainstay of the famous Saturday Salamanca Markets and the state’s favourite tea supplier, available just about everywhere worth visiting – from Bridestowe Lavender Estate and Pennicott Wilderness Journeys to the Museum of Old and New Art (MONA).

English-born Samantha was raised with black leaf tea in a pot (with obligatory tea cosy), and still begins her days this way. But since leaving a career in environmental science to run The Art of Tea in 2007, she has opened her palate to “all manner of blends to fill a need or desire throughout the day”, whether that’s hugging a cup of chai in a bookshop or hiking Mount Wellington with a flask of rooibos.

Samantha uses her weekly interactions with Salamanca Market-goers as a platform to listen and engage with customers, which helps her promote the health and enjoyment aspects of tea as well as keep her fingers on the pulse for trends.

“I think it’s important to be open-minded and encouraging about all tea types and ways of brewing and blending, so people feel part of an age-old tradition but not constrained by fear of doing the wrong thing,” she says of her approach.

“Tea can be fun, ceremonial, bonding, calmative, uplifting, habitual, engaging, beneficial, and even essential in any given day!”

With AUSTCS 2019 in Hobart on the horizon, Samantha is a fitting AUSTCS Regional Ambassador for Tasmania. We welcome Samantha to the TEAm!

Upcoming events

16 January: Cold infused tea blending, Brisbane

18 January: What water works? Sydney

26 January: Brewing the green and gold, Sydney

Do you have an event to promote? Let events liaison Kym Cooper know!