About the Festival
The Eugene Tea Festival was started for the sole purpose of creating a tea community in Eugene, Oregon.
Founded in 2019 by Madelaine Au, the first festival is slated to happen in 2023.
The Eugene Tea Festival relies on support from its avid volunteers and the Eugene tea community.
If you're reading this, you can consider yourself a part of the Eugene Tea community. Learn how to get involved!
Meet our Board
Madelaine Au
Executive Director & Founder
Madelaine Au is the Executive Director and Founder for the Eugene Tea Festival.
Her love of tea began at the NW Tea Festival as an attendee in 2017. After that she volunteered as the Volunteer Coordinator for the Portland Tea Festival in 2018.
Madelaine's love of tea has continued to flourish and she is excited to continue dedicating her efforts to building the tea community in the Eugene/Springfield area!
Mason Hutchison
Board of Directors Member
Mason Hutchison is the founder of HerbRally, a podcast and website that promotes herbalism education and events.
He is the co-organizer of one of the longest running herbal events in the US, the Breitenbush Herbal Conference. He is also on the board of directors for the Eugene Tea Festival.
Mason was the Events & Marketing Strategist for Mountain Rose Herbs for over a decade. His day-to-day work involved organizing community events such as the Free Herbalism Project, as well as attending herbal conferences throughout the country.
He has completed herbalism apprenticeships at the Columbines School of Botanical Studies and the Arctos School of Herbal and Botanical Studies.
Mason is a husband, proud father, avid chess, basketball and ping pong player, spring wter gatherer, and an enthusiast in the art of frugal nutrition.
Raychel Kolen
Board of Directors Member
Raychel Kolen has led marketing efforts for nonprofits, for-profits, and public entities for nearly 20 years. She is the founder and marketing principal at MUSE Marketing + Design, a boutique agency based in Eugene, Oregon.
Raychel is the agency's lead marketing strategist, helping clients in the craft beverage (including a specialty tea company!), herbal supplement space, and other industries grow their revenues and customer loyalty.
She especially relishes the opportunity to help brands better communicate supply chain transparency through ingredient origin storytelling.
Angela McDonald
Board of Directors Member
Avid gardener, as well as tea lover Angela McDonald took on the role of Secretary for the League in April of 2018. In 2019, she was elected League President. She has owned Oregon Tea Traders in Eugene, Oregon since 2011, and currently teaches classes about growing and drinking tea across the country.
She has traveled extensively across Asia and observed tea drinking techniques of various cultures. She holds a bachelors degree in Cultural Anthropology from the University of Oregon.
Aside from all things tea, she loves baking and spending time with her 2 children.
Raj Vable
President
Raj Vable started Young Mountain Tea with a promise– if a Himalayan co-op of farmers would grow tea, Raj would setup a company in the US to sell it. At the time, he was in India on a Fulbright Fellowship, working to create livelihoods for remote Himalayan communities. Since then, the company has worked to create a new market in the US for single-origin organic teas, and sources from a network of 850 tea makers spread across 5 regions of India and Nepal.
Raj also serves on the board of Wild Gift, a non-profit dedicated to supporting early-stage social entrepreneurs. He holds an MS in Environmental Studies from the U. Oregon and a BS in Electrical Engineering from U. Michigan.
He loves spending time in the mountains, hiking in forests, playing guitar, and starts as many mornings in the sauna as possible.