I Like Thursday: The Tea Edition

I've been loving (liking?) the I Like Thursday posts over at Not Afraid of Color.  Every week I read them and think:  I need to do this.  But there's so much other stuff I'm doing.  Besides, what would I write about?  I sat there, mug of tea at hand... admiring my mug... and suddenly this post pretty much wrote itself.

1.  I like my guinea pig mug.  I happened upon a crazy sale for a design-it-yourself 15oz mug (less than $10, including shipping).  I selected a handful of guinea pig photos and voila!  One of my favorite mugs.

2.  I like (and cherish) my teacups.  I inherited most of them from my grandmother.  She'd be so happy that I am using them.  One has cracked so I can't use it anymore, another mysteriously broke.  I've been given a few more as word gets out about my collection.  Many of the cups have stories - where they came from, why they were bought.  Always a pleasure to use when I host a tea.

3.  I like my loose leaf tea from Virtuous Teas.  It's a great little hole-in-the-wall shop and the staff are always so nice.  I received a gift certificate to this place nearly 20 years ago - and have been going there ever since.  I've moved further away, so I don't get to visit so often; I buy online.

4.  I like how green tea expands.  It's neat how the little gunpowder pellets (on the right) end up as large leafy green (on the left).  I tried to get a video of it expanding, but it didn't work.  (Although I learned how to use the time lapse option on my camera!  Very cool!)










5.  Chai is my favorite, but I like a variety of black tea.  Herbal tea is not tea - although I do make exception for Mate Carnival.  I usually have a few types of plain tea on hand, plus two or three flavored kinds.  The flavored tea often changes with the season.  Right now I have some Winter Wonderland and Jolly Baker's Blend.

Hmm... there's 10 different containers in the cabinet.  I have more than I realized!






6.  I like my ingenuiTEA teapot.  This thing is so cool.  When my sister first gave it to me, I was like yeah, whatever.  I liked my other tea infusers and I thought this was bulky and would be cumbersome.  Wrong.  So wrong.  I use this every day.  My other strainers hang on the wall, virtually untouched.



7.  I like my Bee House pot.  It has also gotten less use since the ingenuiTEA appeared.  It comes out when I wish to make tea for two - it holds enough for two small mugs of tea (opposed to the BIG mugs I often use).  Isn't it pretty?  I like the shape and the built in mesh strainer.  It  pours as nice as it looks.  Huh - I may need to pull this out of the cabinet and give it more of the love it deserves.

Tea.  A warm mug in hand can be so soothing and comfortable.  What's not to like?