“Better to be deprived of food for three days, than tea for one.”

Ancient Chinese Proverb

“You can never get a cup of tea large enough or a book long enough to suit me.”

C.S. Lewis

Those two quotes perfectly define my love affair with tea.

I have a passion and an obsession with tea, and in general anything even remotely related to tea. This lifelong infatuation has led me in many directions.  For example, collecting tea ware has always been a passionate pursuit – whether it is a dainty porcelain teacup, a Yixing Teapot or finding an antique sterling silver tea strainer, hidden in a dusty box at a flea market, and don’t even mention auctions!  Those precious finds complement and enhance my obsession.  I have also spent the last two years taking online classes (20 to be exact) from the World Tea Academy and have qualified and received five different certifications.

Tea and Toast with NO Butter…

My love of this liquidly beverage began with that sentence.  That was my mother’s answer, when you were sick.  As I remember it though, it was tea with copious amounts of milk and most likely Red Rose or Lipton, brewed very weak and with no sugar.  I fondly recall however, her teaching me how to put the tea bag on the bowl of the spoon and then carefully winding the string around the teabag to drain all the liquid from the bag.  She would then routinely dry the teabag, so it could be used multiple times. But somewhere hidden in that beloved ritual of providing comfort, with a cup of tea, sprang the belief that tea can fix anything.  So, as an adult, my tea habit is a total obsession – it’s more than just enjoying a nice “cuppa” – it’s a memory of the past, the pleasure of the present and the anticipation of the future.