The Art & Pleasures of Taking Tea

OK, I stole that title off of the front of a tea book I have...

It's a great little book too. If you ever need a recipe for a tea party... they have a great one for cucumber sandwiches, in fact, I believe I have the dust jacket cover marking the page. In any case, I love tea, and really all that goes with it. Tea cups, china, tea pots, the wonderful "posh-ness" that comes with putting on a tea party... I think everyone needs to have an opportunity to have the feeling of grandeur and importance that getting dressed up and drinking tea entails. :) ... Yeah, and I love little whimsical little things like this too...

These are some of my mom's favorite little things... and following her lead, I've started my own little collection if tea items. When my family and I went on a trip to D.C. and went to Mount Vernon I got a tea cup in Martha Washington's pattern... and got a tea pot in the same pattern the following Christmas.

(The cup on the left)

So, I'm still working on my collection. :) I've got some assorted tea cups some that my parents have given me, some that my friends have given me. They all seem to have a story in someway or another.

So! That's the "paraphernalia of tea"... what about the tea itself? Well, we go through a ton of tea in our house. I generally drink at least a pot of tea... during the summer... and a LOT more in the winter (because I'm always cold). We generally order tea in bulk... and have 3 stashes of it... two in the kitchen and one in a hall closet.

Main stash 

Back up stash

  Back up, back up stash =D

My favorite tea for the morning is called PG Tips. It's a rather strong black tea... that requires sugar and half and half. I also like Strawberry, Raspberry, and Constant Comment... I also like Earl Grey and Irish Breakfast... gosh... I like a bunch more too, but I'll leave it at that for now. I like pretty much all Green Tea. There is a trick to making it though. Depending on the type of green (or white) tea, you don't want to have boiling water. If you have a "fancy" electric tea kettle like this one: 

We use the "white tea" setting for green and white tea (because the green tea setting wasn't quite hot enough) and then steep the tea bags for 2 minutes. If you have a regular tea kettle: 

                                            

Bring the water to a boil then let it sit (off the heat) for 2 minutes and then steep the green (or white tea) for 2 minutes (or for as long as the green tea bag says to steep it, which is usually anywhere from 30 seconds- 2 minutes). 

For black tea, boil the water and let the tea steep for anywhere from 4-5 minutes.  (yeah, I do black tea more often, cause it's a bit less complicated... and I'm a little lazy. :) 

Well, I hope the next time you need to relax or add a bit of "posh-ness" in your day, you make a cup of tea and snuggle up with it's wonderfully, comforting warmth and yummy-ness. :)