It’s a Tea Party!

Time to have a cup ‘a. Time to take a tea break. Time to be civilized and sit awhile and enjoy a cup…or a mug. What kind of tea do you like? Do you drink tea? I’m sure you have noticed that tea/tea drinking has become a trend in this country.

Do you know that worldwide, tea is the most popular beverage except for water?

But in the U. S., tea is #6, ranking behind water, soft drinks (!), coffee, beer, and milk. And yet, tea is growing rapidly in popularity: both green and black, in bags and loose.

In the U.S., more iced tea is consumed that hot tea. Down South (south of Baltimore, most people say) a serving of iced tea is always qualified by “sweet” or “un-sweet”. Really, that is how it is asked. I am definitely a “sweet” tea drinker, so this is just fine with me. No longer do I have to open those anemic, pathetic paper packets of sugar, put them into a tall glass of tea which invariably has too much ice, try to stir and quickly drink before the sugar has sunk to the bottom once again. No ma’am, now I can just enjoy my sweet tea!

Now, if they could only include some mint…

But as for hot tea, well, there are many ways to serve it. Here is a great variety of pots we found:

Teapots1

#1. By Susan Collett #2. Cooking.com #3. Cooking.com #4. Chantal #5. Distinctive Decor
#6. Cooking.com #7. Lalla Lydia #8. Stash Tea #9. Cup Of Tea #10. Tea Posy

Then, of course, you need to keep your teapot warm!

Tea Cosy
#1. Unknown: sorry. #2. Leaf Source #3. The Contemporary Home 4. Knitty
#5. DesignSpotter #6. Flockof Tea #7. Furnish #8. Etsy

There are some wonderful on-line stores selling teas. Here are some of the best I have found, both in their sheer visual quality and the assortment of their offerings:

Teaposy

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Tea forte

(my personal favorite: love that packaging!)

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Teavana

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Adagio Teas

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I hope you will check out some of these, and go ahead, order some tea…