January Tea Time

Welcome to the first month of Tea and Cake. I am super excited to be launching this monthly focus because I truly do LOVE all things tea.

When I was a kid I have very fond memories of coming home after school and my mom would be waiting in the kitchen. She would have us take all our backpacks and homework to our bedrooms and before we ever even thought about the idea of homework we took some time to sit at the table, drink some tea, and talk about the day. It was great way for us to decompress and unwind from the day and for my mom to connect with us and learn about the things that were going on. There is just something about a good cup of tea that will make a person want to open up and chat.

As I grew up I began to love tea even more. I began to collect miniature tea sets which slowly evolved into a collection of tea pots, tea cups, and an extensive collection of loose leaf as well as bagged teas. I had tea parties and shared my love of tea with anyone who would listen. As I grew and went on to college my tea collection was placed in storage, however, once I married and began to cultivate a space of my own my love of tea never went away and I slowly began to bring part of that into our home.

My husband has, in recent years, helped to enable my habit by purchasing nearly every tea pot I own now and I will share some of the stories behind those as time goes on, but today, I want to share with you my very first teapot. This one is special because it was a gift from my parents. I honestly can’t remember if it was birthday or Christmas, however, I am leaning toward it being my 12th birthday.

This is a Schmid Circus Bear with Clown teapot. But it’s not just any teapot. It is also a music box. It’s fun because when it is wound correctly every time it is picked up to pour out the tea the music will play. Once it is set back down again the music will stop. This is one in a series of five or so and the original plan was to eventually get me the whole set but that wasn’t ever in the cards. This one is not only my first in my collection it is my most unique, which makes it one of my favorites.

Tea Company and Tea Flavor of the Month

The idea for this theme for the year came about when I went looking for a vary particular flavor of tea. You see, when we were living in Fort Worth we discovered a wonderful place by the name of Tevana. It was a wonderful shop in the mall that carried all different kinds of wonderful loose leaf teas. It was by far my most favorite place in the mall. Sadly, after a buy out by Starbucks the company decided it wasn’t viable enough to keep around so they shut down the loose leaf tea stores and only kept a few select items from the Teavana line for their coffee shops and in store merchandise.

This was sad for a lot of reasons but most importantly it was the only place I could find my very favorite kind of tea for the winter months. Teavana’s White Chocolate Peppermint tea was one I would buy up in bulk and slowly nurse it throughout the year until I could restock it. This year I decided to go on the hunt to find a company that might possibly have something at least similar to the same tea.

Enter Plum Deluxe tea shop. I found this place while frantically searching online. I read the description and the reviews and suddenly I had a small glimmer of hope. The best part is that the price really isn’t all that bad. It is $7.00 per ounce and each ounce makes between 10 and 15 cups of tea. My mom and I took the plunge and we ordered the White Chocolate Peppermint as well as one of the other herbal teas. It came in a timely manner and we also received a free sample of another one of their signature tea blends.

Overall, I really enjoyed my experience with this company and I am sure I will be ordering form them again sometime. They even have a “Tea of the Month” club for just $10 per month that I have considered trying out at some point.

So if you are looking for a new place to try out some new tea check them out at: plumdeluxe.com

And until next time, remember there is always time for tea and cake!