In parts, this post is going to continue on some topics brought up by the Scotland post. However, I think it’s important to write this as its own thing, particularly since so much of this is not only personal, but also more about growing up a tea-lover in the United States than it is about traveling to Scotland.
I experienced excitement yesterday at the prospect of one of the studios I teach for holding themed teas. Scones and tea and Nutcrackers. The studio owner had started an annual tea for a studio she used to teach for and it was a huge hit, so the idea would be to do a similar, if smaller scale, version at her new studio. I immediately jumped at the chance to help out, volunteering if there was anything she needed.
Tea – particularly an afternoon tea – is something that I absolutely love.
I’m quite sure my mother is at fault. One of my favorite birthday parties my mother pulled out all the stops, decorated our dining room top to bottom with streamers, and made tea (I’m quite certain it was probably Bigalow’s Constant Comment) in the small child-sized tea sets that we had. I remember the tea sets and the streamers more than I remember how old I was turning (I think it was my 6th) or who showed up. For years after that, I would pull out those small tea sets from their hiding place in the side board just to play with them. My favorite was one I remember my mother buying specifically for the birthday party (whether or not it was actually true). It was white with a dark blue floral pattern printed on it.
For my 13th birthday, my mother brought me a list of special events going on at the Wenham Tea House in Massachusetts. We were both very interested in the Holiday Tea that was being held on the day before my mother’s birthday. Little did we realize (as neither had been informed) that my Dad was hosting my mother’s surprise birthday party on that same evening. It was fortunate enough that we managed to fit both into the same day. The whole day – from holiday tea with little icing designs drawn on sugar cubes to the surprise party afterwords – was by far one of my favorite days that I can remember. Even the confusion of being dropped at my aunts after tea, only to be turned around and rushed out the door as soon as my mother was out of sight only made the whole day more exciting.
All of that brings me to now.
Tea has become a constant companion. My collection of tea cups, ever ready to be used to serve the odd visitor, has a story behind every single one. There’s the one from my aunt for Christmas one year that is the largest I own and is in my favorite color: purple. There’s the white with light blue floral patterns that was purchased when I first discovered Whittard of Chelsea at Victoria Station in London. Then there’s the most recent addition, my “Mad Hatter’s Tea Party” tea cup that I purchased while I was visiting Scotland. Also a Whittard of Chelsea patterned teacup, it belongs with a set that my other aunt gave me for graduation from college – a set that I had seen on the Whittard of Chelsea website and simply fallen in love with. It’s my favorite set, and it gets pulled out any time I want afternoon tea at home. There’s also the smallest cup in my collection with a picture of Scottish Thistle on it that once belonged to my Grandmother.
My family is also completely willing to just throw an afternoon tea together on occasion. We have had two thus far, both planned for spans of time in which my sister was home. We have had tea cakes, sandwiches, scones, a variety of jams, and several different teas.
As much of a tea fanatic as I am (particularly when it comes to my all time favorite Afternoon Earl Grey from Whittard of Chelsea), I have always counted myself among those who really only drinks tea in cycles. I have my hot chocolate cycles and my tea cycles, and then occasionally in the summer, a chocolate milk cycle when both of the other two drinks are too hot to comprehend. However, even in my longest tea cycles, I have yet to drink as much tea as I did while I was in Scotland. And even then, I didn’t even realize how much tea I was drinking until I realized that I needed to use the loo about ten times more often than normal – something you really do notice when you spend most of the day touring the city.
We had tea with breakfast at home – completely normal. We had tea with lunch – pretty normal, but slightly abnormal because it was becoming an every day thing as opposed to a once in a blue moon thing. We would take a break from touring to sit down and have a cuppa – seems pretty normal. We sometimes had tea with dinner – definitely out of the ordinary. And then of course, there was the totally normal cup of tea with biscuits in the evening while we were relaxing and watching British Netflix or iPlayer. I think the most out of the norm part of all of that was that all of those cups of tea were in one day. That’s around five cups of tea in a day. So while all of those cups seemed completely normal – add them all together and it was definitely an abnormal amount for me.
Hasn’t put a damper in my love for it. In fact, I don’t think I’ve stopped drinking tea since I got home. Just three hours ago I was at the studio – purely in case someone showed up for a class for which I’ve had no sign-ups for yet – drinking Pumpkin Spice Tea and reading Pointe Magazine. And as life has it, it was one of my more relaxed moments all day.
Maybe it’s the tea, maybe it’s not, but there is something calming and magical about having a moment to yourself, mug in one hand, literature of any kind in the other, and escaping for a little bit. Even if you have nothing to read, if you have that hot beverage in mug or tea cup, a steaming kettle or teapot on the side waiting to refill your cup, you have a little moment of peace. I have never had a stressed out study moment when there was a cup of tea nearby. There is nothing more addicting than the absolute peace such a small thing can bring.
And if it can bring peace to a stressful time, tea is definitely the cure to aid all ills.