Thursday, March 11, 2010

Thrif-tea!

Look what I found for $1.99 at the thrift store! I wouldn't call myself a collector, but I do have a few things that might appear that way to the casual observer. I have approximately 16 mismatched tea cups, 12 tea pots and 10 books about tea.

Just before I was married, my girlfriends hosted an Afternoon Tea Bridal Shower. The invitation requested that each guest bring a teacup to start my collection. I love them now, but at the time I thought, "what the heck I am going to do with a bunch of mismatched teacups?" And I still use the same 2 or 3 cups for my daily cuppa.

The books were a more natural extension of my interest in tea. EJ and I starting snapping up every book we could find about tea and tea parties as a part of our research to prepare for opening Two for Tea. On a recent excursion to the thrift store (a guilty pleasure since childhood), I found a copy of A Passion for Tea by Hattie Ellis. My mother already has a copy for which she paid full price at the local bookseller. It is not the best book about tea I've ever read, but it is a sweet little book with very nice photographs. Plus, who can deny anything useful that costs less than $2.00!

On of my favorite elements of Ellis' book is in "The Teas" chapter where she summarizes the various tea producing countries and the varieties for which they are best known. I forgive her for not including any African countries, since they are mostly known for beverages that are commonly called tea, but are really herbal beverages or tisanes.

So make that 11 books about tea.

Sharing the love,


Dara



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