Seminars
Attendance at festival seminars is included with admission. All ticketholders are welcome! Free to attend.
12:00PM – Ceylon Tea & the Beautiful 'Tea Island' of Sri Lanka
Presented by: Gail Gastelu, The Tea House Times
Sponsored by: The Tea House Times, Sri Lanka Tea Board, and SerendipiTea
Come and enjoy a presentation about Ceylon tea and the beautiful island country of Sri Lanka! It's a tropical island paradise well known for its seven tea growing regions. Affectionately referred to as "Tea Island," you will quickly learn why they say that Ceylon tea is "pure enchantment in a cup!" Don't miss it! Gail will be dressed in a sari!
About Gail Gastelu:
Gail Gastelu is owner/publisher of The Tea House Times, producer of Tea Course and Tea Course Fast Track, co-owner of Tea Etiquette Certified and frequent presenter at tea and/or coffee shows nationwide. Connecting businesses and consumers since 2003, her passion and drive is to help tea businesses grow by providing many services beneficial to the tea industry. The publication, news, education, hosted blogs, special features, and resources may be found by visiting TheTeaHouseTimes.com website. Gail recently created the nationwide #DrinkTea Campaign with the Tea Council of the USA. Gail currently serves on the Tea Association of the USA's Specialty Tea Institute Advisory Board and over the years has been an officer or advisory board member to several associations, trade shows, and organizations.
1:00PM – Iced Coffee the Italian Way
Presented by: Francine Segan
Iced coffee isn't just an American phenomenon. The Italians are into iced coffee, too, but they've put their own spin on it. While Italians love to linger over a meal, that same laid-back attitude doesn't apply to making their iced caffe. Italians don't let hot coffee hang around to cool off and, dio mio, they wouldn't think of making cold brew. Their choice? A shakerato (shock-eh-RAH-toe): hot caffe shaken with ice to chill it quickly.
Francine Segan, Italian food expert and author of Dolci: Italy's Sweets, will share all the many ways Italians enjoy iced espresso drinks and cocktails like Tuscany's coffee-spiked Negroni.
About Francine Segan:
Francine Segan, one of America's foremost experts on Italian cuisine, is an engaging public speaker, author and TV personality. A noted food historian and James Beard - nominated author of six books including Dolci: Italy's Sweets and Pasta Modern. She is the host of NYC's popular weekly TV series Americans Who Love Italy and appears on many other TV programs, including the Today Show and Early Show. Francine has been featured on numerous specials for PBS, Food Network and History, Sundance and Discovery channels. Ms. Segan writes for numerous online publications and magazines including Epicurious and Saveur. She writes extensively on chocolate and authored several chapters in Rutgers University's catalogue Bitter Sweet: The Chocolate Show and contributed the chapter "Italian Desserts" for the Oxford Encyclopedia of Sweets. She also recently wrote a twelve-page cover feature on Italian chocolate desserts for La Cucina, an Italiana magazine.