If you live in the Northwest and enjoy tea, this is a very good week for you as the Northwest Tea Festival opens this week at local restaurants, SIFF Cinema and the Northwest Rooms of the Seattle Center.

Thursday, October 2, is the opening tea dinner for the festival, held at 94 Stewart Restaurant. The festival proper starts on the 4th at 10:00 a.m. and runs through Sunday, October 5th at 4:00 pm. At the festival, you will be able to sample teas from all over the world, participate in cooking with tea demonstrations, take tea-related classes, check out tea-related art, learn about the history of tea and more. Some of the special events happening include the instructional “Tea 101″, led by Ken Rudee of Barnes & Watson Fine Teas, “Putting on an Afternoon Tea” by Julee Rosanoff of Perennial Team Room, and “Teas of Taiwan” by Shiuwen Tai of Floating Leaves Tea.

SIFF Cinema gets in on the act by hosting two films: Saturday’s The Meaning of Tea and Sunday’s All In This Tea. Panel discussions follow both panels.

The festival concludes Sunday night at Wild Ginger with a closing tea dinner.

Besides water, tea is the world’s most popular beverage and is a big part of culture all around the world, except in America where it is generally considered an afterthought of a beverage by the general population. The NW Tea Festival hopes to change that perception by offering up the opportunity to get to know tea a whole lot better. The festival certainly appeals to those of us who are already tea lovers but the festival seeks to do more than simply preach to the choir. The programming is designed to appeal to all levels of tea knowledge, including none, so that even those people whose only experience with tea is the random cup made with Lipton or Red Rose tea bags will find the festival instructive and fun.

The festival is free to the public; a $5 donation is requested and I strongly suggest paying it since you’re going to get way more than $5 worth of value at this festival.