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contract bridge, England, family, pies, Raelyn Barclay, recipes, Scotland, tea, tea towels, Wales
Yesterday we talked pie. Today we’ll talk tea.
I come by my love of tea honestly, heck, it’s probably coded in my DNA. It is all that Scots and Welsh blood flowing through the veins. Even the wee beasties developed a love of tea at an early age. Nothing beats a cold morning like a warm cuppa.
Do you enjoy tea?
To brew that perfect pot of tea:
It’s easy. Even if you use :shudder: a tea bag. LOL, no I’m not that bad. Close ๐
- The kettle is what you boil the water in. The pot is what you steep the tea in, then pour from.
- To properly prepare the teapot, you want to fill it with hot (as hot as you can get from your tap) water, to warm the teapot, while you boil the water.
- Heat water to appropriate temperature in a tea kettle. Teas steep at slightly different temperatures. A White or Green tea at about 175 degrees; a Black or Oolong tea at 195 degrees; and an Herbal at around 200 degrees.
- If you aren’t using tea bags, you’ll want to have a steeping ball or strainer basket/infuser for your teapot. Don’t worry if you don’t have a strainer basket or steeping ball, you can use a hand-held strainer as you pour to remove the leaves (unless you plan to read the leaves but that’s a whole other post).
- Measure out your tea. On average, you need 1 to 1.5 teaspoons of loose tea per 8 oz of water. If you’re making an entire pot, don’t forget to add a teaspoon for the pot. (Remove the warming water before adding the tea.)
- Pour the hot water in your teapot and steep for the recommended steep time.
- Longer brewing does not equal stronger tea…just bitter tea. If you want a stronger tea add more tea. Teas steep for slightly different lengths of time to avoid bitterness. (Yes, I have the secret.) A Green or flavored White only needs about a minute. Black or Oolong need 2 to 3 minutes. A non-flavored white or herbal need 4 to 5 minutes.
- And if you want to get fancy you can cover your teapot in a tea cozy, or place on a teapot warmer, to help keep the tea warmer longer.
How you drink your tea is up to you. A little lemon. A little honey. A little milk or cream. A little sugar. Some combo?
Now, don’t you just want to curl up with a slice of yesterday’s Apple Pie and a cuppa tea?
Believe it or not, brewing a cuppa was not the original plan for this post. This Tea Towel was.
I grew up with a very English Nana, Grandpa’s second wife, and despite what I said at the beginning of this post I owe my love of tea to them. My parents are coffee drinkers through and through, only breaking out the teapot when Grandpa and Nana came to visit. Nana’s kitchen displayed a number of printed Tea Towels. Some she’d picked up before WWII. Decorated Tea Towels and England just go together in my mind. All because of Nana.
But I’d never owned one. Strange when I think about it. I was in London and surrounding areas, yet failed to pick up one as a souvenir.
Then my beautiful mother-in-law sent me this one! Aw, she knows me so well ๐
It is now hanging above my desk. I look at it and smile. I smile for my Scottish ancestry. I smile for the memories a printed Tea Towel invokes.
Curling my fingers around a warm cup of tea and listening to stories from another generation’s childhood/young adulthood. Grandpa’s cherry tobacco as he puffs away on his pipe. Nana puttering around in the kitchen, canning the best Pickled Beets and Bread-n-Butter Pickles from the veggies Grandpa grew in the garden. Gathered around their kitchen table, staying up late, so they could teach me how to play Bridge, a skill sadly gone rusty since they passed. I owe my teapot collection to Nana too, but perhaps that is a post for another day ๐
That sounds lovely! And I never knew the different between a teapot and a kettle! I suppose what I have is a kettle then.
I must admit, I associate tea with being sick, as that’s when I normally drink it. Or when I was pregnant and had to cut my caffeine intake. Non-caffeinated teas are much better than decaf coffee :). I do enjoy a cuppa chamomile though.
I’ll have to try your methods, maybe I’ll begin to enjoy tea? For a beginner–any tips on where to buy good tea and what brands?
Hee Hee, that’s why I mentioned it. I still remember going shopping for a teapot and the salesgirl kept directing us to the kettles, LOL. Kettles whistle when the water is boiling.
I love Twinings which you can find in most stores in loose leaf or bag. Teavana is a good online source. But even a good ol’ bag of Lipton can be brewed well ๐
Thanks for stopping by Erin.
i have a pretty embarrassing tea habit. at work, i have an entire drawer filled with various teas, and at home, an entire cabinet (it’s a small cabinet!). my favorite is plain old green tea with a squeeze of lemon. glad to hear you are a tea connoisseur too!
I have a cabinet too, LOL, though admittedly I also keep my coffee in there. I love green tea in the afternoons and I do the same with just a touch of lemon added.
Thanks for stopping by Gina ๐
I absolutely love TEA! My parents were huge tea drinkers growing up. I mean, like 15 cups a day. There was always a cup of tea steaping. My favorite memories were Sunday mornings when Mom would make my brother and I that perfect cup of tea with a dash of milk and a teaspoon of sugar!! A taste of warmth and family coupled together!
My latest addiction is green tea (mango/passionfruit) with a teaspoon of honey! With a piece of warm apple pie, can you say DREAMY!! OMG!!!
GREAT post!!! I think I’ll get a pot steaping momentarily!
That’s how I make up the wee beasties’ tea too. In-laws still laugh about #2’s impatience for the tea to cool once when we were out for breakfast, I think he was about 1 at the time, and the wait staff thought I was nuts letting him have tea.
Yum, now I’m craving some tea and pie ๐ Thanks for stopping by Natalie.
Now I’m in the mood for tea! I do coffee most mornings, but I love tea in the afternoons, especially on a dreary day. My current favorite, for about a year now, is Central Market organics, licorice peppermint. OMG, so good! I don’t add anything to it. Off the heat up the water. ๐
It does warm up a day, though I’m not a fan of licorice I’m all over the peppermint ๐
Thanks for stopping by Ginger.
I love tea. Never acquired much of a taste for coffee, though i will indulge on rare occasion. I drink green tea every morning and India Spice in the afternoons. I’m kind of a purist in that I really prefer my tea plain…no sugar, lemon, cream or other flavors (except the spice tea). I want to taste the tea, not the additives. We could start a group of Tea Snobs. ๐
Tea Snobs unite ๐ Where do I sign up Marcia? It depends on the tea whether I add something or not. That India Spice sounds delicious.
Thanks for stopping by.
Such a great story! It’s funny what small things make the biggest impact on us. I happen to love towels and think that’s a great addition to your home. I’ve always wondered about the tea tradition. While I’m sure the flavor plays a part, it seems like one of those things that is more about the serenity and connection to the traditions and people who performed the ritual before. You’ll have memories to pass on to the wee beasties while creatin memories of your own.
Great post Raelyn ๐
My sister-in-law actually gave me a book on tea traditions *hangs head* it sits amongst the cookbooks never having been read. But you’re right, it’s the littlest things that hit home. While I was typing up this post my sister and I were texting about things we remembered from visits ๐
Thanks for stopping by Melanie.
I’m probably such a savage when it comes to tea.
Yes, I use that dastardly tea bag *hangs head in shame* I lost my steeping ball several years ago and just never replaced it so it’s been bags ever since.
LOL, that’s okay Angela. I’ve been known to use one now and then too ๐ But I find I ‘taste’ the bag with some and the more I explore different teas the more I prefer the loose leaf.
Thanks for stopping by.
I love tea! My faves are from the Republic of Tea, they have a ginger peach that is heaven.
Oh, I’ve had that before, it’s delicious ๐
Thanks for stopping by Julie.
Strangely, I only think of drinking tea when I’m sick or tipping a cup with ladies who like tea. Obviously, I’m too much of a barbarian to drink it of my own accord. LOL
But I like it with lemon and honey, or plain if it’s green tea.
Raelyn, I’m afraid if you ever visit me you’ll think me too uncouth. I’m surprised you even talk to me. :p
LOL, uncouth? I doubt it. We’ll be having too much fun ๐
Thanks for stopping by Maria.
I love tea! I need to get a good everyday teapot, though. The only one I have is a decorative Chinese one. I’m sure I could use it more often, but I’m always afraid I’ll break it.
I hear you on an everyday teapot! The wee beasties broke my good bone-china one, which my mother-in-law gave me, and ever since I’ve hesitated to use the majority of the teapots in my house.
Thanks for stopping by Nicole.
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