MEDIA ADVISORY
ATTENTION: Writers and photographers who cover food, art, culture and Asia

WHAT
"World in a Teacup: Tracing the Global Journey of Tea," a symposium and a tasting event hosted by the University of California, Berkeley's Phoebe A. Hearst Museum of Anthropology that complement a new museum exhibit about the world's most commonly consumed beverage.

Symposium experts will explore tea from its ancient origins in Asia to its spread to Britain, India and the rest of the world, as well as tea's contemporary production, preparation, retailing and role in popular culture. Seven vendors will offer samples of their wares after the symposium, and a curator will talk about the museum's tea exhibit that features sample bricks of tea, tea sets and information about tea's cross-cultural evolution and its ceremonies.

The program is part of an ongoing series of public events at the museum that examine the culture of food.

WHEN
1-5 p.m., Saturday, March 1. (The symposium is from 1-3 p.m., the vendor/tasting event from 3-5 p.m. and a curator's talk about the exhibit will begin at 4 p.m.)

WHERE
The symposium will take place at the Bancroft Hotel, 2680 Bancroft Way, near the intersection of Bancroft Way and College Avenue. The vendor event and exhibit talk will be across the street at UC Berkeley's Hearst Museum, which is on the first floor of Kroeber Hall. A map is online at: http://www.berkeley.edu/map.

WHO
Symposium participants will include:

• Eliot Jordan, director of tea for Peet's Coffee & Tea
• Winnie Yu, tea buyer and owner of Teance, formerly known as Celadon Fine Teas
• Gregory Levine, UC Berkeley associate professor of Japanese art, who will talk about Japanese Zen art and Japanese tea ceremonies
• Erika Rappaport, UC Santa Barbara associate professor of modern Britain and of comparative consumer cultures, talking about her research on the history of tea advertising and tea consumption in Victorian England

DETAILS
Tickets include admission to the symposium and the vendor event. They are $18 for museum members, UC Berkeley faculty, staff and students, and $20 for the general public. For tickets, contact Akiko Minaga at (510) 643-7649 or pahma-programs@berkeley.edu. General admission to the museum is free. More information about the museum is online at: http://hearstmuseum.berkeley.edu.

Note: To read more about this and other UC Berkeley news, visit the Berkeley News Center at: http://newscenter.berkeley.edu.