“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 direction.  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 5 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 winding the string around the teabag to drain all the liquid from the bag.  She would then routinely dry the tea bag, so it could be used multiple times (she also reused paper towels, you could walk into her kitchen and see them hanging on every possible surface to dry). But hidden somewhere in that beloved ritual of providing comfort, with a cup of tea, sprang the belief that tea could fix any and everything. So, as an adult, my tea habit is now a total obsession – it’s much 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.