Teas from around the World

Good Morning!

As I’m writing this post this morning, I’m drinking a cup of delicious Ahmad’s Cardamon tea in my Buchnan Stoneware Thistle Mug. Cardamon tea is great with almond milk. This is actually my second cup of the morning! My husband Rich made Cardamon tea for me this morning using loose leaves in a metal mesh strainer in my Brown Betty teapot. He put the tea cozy on the teapot to keep it warm for a few hours. The 6-cup teapot will give me tea throughout the early part of the day! I enjoy Rich’s thoughtfulness with each sip.

Take the Time to Treat Yourself Nicely with Tea!

A wonderful cup of tea that you make for yourself can mean that you take time for special enjoyment of one of life’s pleasures! There are so many small and meaningful steps to brew a special cup of delicious tea for yourself or someone whom you care for – from the selection of the tea, to the boiling of the water in your kettle, to deciding how to steep the tea (silk bag? metal mesh strainer? directly in the pot?) how long to steep, and then what to add to the tea (almond milk? sugar?). Or if someone else makes you a cup of tea (like Rich did for me this morning), you can enjoy their caring for you. At the end, when you finally sit (and I hope that you do!) to enjoy your tea, you can savor each sip. Ah! How wonderful!

Teas from my Cousin

My well-traveled cousin Francine recently sent me an amazing collection of teas that she has gathered from various places throughout the world. What a joy it was to open the package! She included lovely notes with each tea, recalling where each one came from. This adds so much to the enjoyment of the teas!

These are her notes on each packet, starting from the top row in the picture from left to right: “This is the rarest and most exotic – from China (Shanghai) notice the length of the tea leaves – very rare”; “These came from Brussels – a great way to serve and then hook the teabag on the edge of your cup”; Yes these are sugar packets – for those who need the sweet – just adding a little color!”; “These are jasmine tea pearls; We had a Sunday afternoon tea in appreciation of our volunteer efforts and they gave us these to take home.”; “Immerse a bulb in a pitcher of hot water – the bulb will bloom into a flower. The tea does not have much flavor but the show is great!”

Thanks, Francine!

How Hot the Water?

I always boil water for tea on the stove. Microwaving water just doesn’t seem to make good tea.

I usually warm the carefully chosen mug or cup with a little boiling water right before adding the boiled water to it to make sure that the temperature of the mug doesn’t cool off the water. Once the water is poured in,  I’ll cover the cup or mug, when possible, with the matching cup cover or with my tea cozy. That keeps everything as hot as possible.

Tea Kettle

There are currently two water kettles on our black glass stovetop – one vintage Pyrex glass kettle and one stainless steel Farberware kettle with a whistle. Whistling kettles are great to help me remember that I’ve put water on the stove to boil.

The glass kettle is really pretty and the water makes lovely bubbles when it boils. The glass kettle sits on a metal heat diffuser made for that purpose, rather than directly on the glass stovetop.

I found this Pyrex glass kettle at an Antiques sale down the Cape at the end of the season last Fall. It is treasure! When I was first married, we had several Pyrex glass kettles like the one that I’m using now. I may have broken them. So I’m sentimental about using this new vintage one.  I usually use the glass kettle unless I think I might be distracted. Then I use the metal whistling kettle that lets me know when the water is boiling.

The metal diffuser is always under the glass teapot, but I moved it between the teapots to show what it looks like. We bought the metal heat diffuser online, as the teapot did not come with one, and I remembered needing to use one. Otherwise, the glass kettle may stick to the glasstop of the stove! I don’t want to have that problem!

By the way, the oven is on in the picture because I was baking a carrot quick bread from a Williams Sonoma mix. A delicious quick bread is easy to make and is wonderful with a hot cup of tea!

For our next tea party conversation, please comment…

How have you recently treated yourself nicely with tea? What kind of kettle do you prefer? Have you tried a new tea? Or continued with a favorite? Or any tea-related thoughts? I’d love to hear from you.