Tea

Of course a blog about crumpets needs to have a blog about tea to follow. So here it is.

I love tea. I’ll drink all kinds (for the most part) but I really love good old English Breakfast black tea. I have to have it with milk, but no sugar please. Much of the territory conquered by the British, way back when they were the supreme power, also shares my love of tea, including New Zealand. I probably really started enjoying tea the most when we lived in Boulder, CO – home of Celestial Seasonings Tea. If you ever visited us there, I’m sure we took you on a tour of the factory. Most of what they make is herbal tea (not even considered “tea” by purists). They make a wonderful selection of which I have many samples in my cupboard (or should I say cardboard) in California.

But it’s really black tea that I long for first thing in the morning, or in the afternoon with a biscuit -- the New Zealand word for cookie. When Mark and I first visited New Zealand, we were perplexed at almost every hotel check-in by the ritual of handing us our keys and then a small container of milk. It didn’t take long to realise that the milk was for your in-room tea service which included an electric kettle, a few mugs, a couple of tea spoons, a selection of teas, perhaps coffee granules if it was a hotel that catered to the international set, and an assortment of sweeteners. How cool to wake up and make tea first thing in the morning and have milk to add!! This is not just a Kiwi thing though. We received milk in Fiji and in Australia, as well. It just seems so, well, civilized.

We didn’t have space, or weight, to bring any teapots with us, so it was a necessity to buy one here. I muddled along with the one that was left in the house, but it was really too big for just me and it tended to drip when pouring. For Valentine’s Day, I got a new teapot!! Isn't it adorable? It pours like a dream and is just the perfect size for my morning tea. Anyone for a cuppa?