Ice tea days

It's getting really hot here as summer pushes on.
The heat and sun, though nice after a long winter and wet spring, are not my friends. My fair skin burns easily, my hair frizzes and my brain feels like it's melting. So I spend most of the time hiding indoors, yet the heat still finds me (I don't have AC in my apartment and fans only do some much).

Oddly though I love tea I had never really tried iced tea, except the ready-to-drink versions from Snapple, Nestea, Lipton's and so on, which I don't drink too much of due to their usually high sugar content.
I knew about the existence of iced tea made from real tea, but had some how failed to ever try it (maybe because my family will drink hot tea even if the roads are melting) until I was in Burlington with tea drinking girlfriends and we found a magical tea house that served amazing home-brewed iced teas (I'll tell you more about this wondrous tea house and shop another time). 

I fell in love.

After a few trials with plastic pitchers, teapots, and large bowls I realized the error of my ways (trying to filter out loose leaf tea from a large bowl is VERY messy) and bought a Takeya Iced Tea Maker (because it seemed simple and was on sale when I saw it).

I haven't been disappointed at all.

And it's very straight forward to use (I prefer the cold brew method, but you can also hot brew the tea and add ice to chill it).

Step 1
Take the Takeya Iced Tea Maker and remove lid and infuser.
Fill almost to brim with cold water (I use filtered water).
Measure out 8 tablespoons of loose leaf tea into the infuser (you can use bags or blooming teas as well).

Step 2
Twist the infuser back into the lid.
I then swirl the infuser in the water a bit to get the leaves wet, so they don't all float immediately to the surface, before securing the lid in place.

Step 3
Leave in the fridge overnight or for 8 hours.
Remove the infuser.
Drink your lovely iced tea!

 Pros
- Simple to use
- Nice way to use up older teas that are loosing flavour
- Can mix in fruit, herbs and other things or make your own blends
- Airtight lid means no fun smells/tastes picked up from food in your fridge (my husband loves making spicy marinades so this is really important for us, I don't relish the idea of garlic tea)
- Lots of space in the infuser for tea to expand

Cons
- infuser is hard to wash (really that's all I've got after 3 months of use)
- my infuser is a bit short for the pitcher, but it still works well and I've noticed that now they come with a sort of extender to make the infuser reach further into the pitcher.

I really do love the simplicity of it all and though cold brewing is a slow process I find the tea has less bitterness too it. The hot-brew method is very fast, about 10 minutes and it's ready, so better if you need to make some quick.

There are lots of different iced tea makers out there just be sure to find one that allows the tea to expand so you get the most flavour from your leaf and is airtight to keep it fresh and tea tasting!

My Teapots

This is my teapot collection so far.

   The first one is my favourite, a gift from my step-mother, it's Meito China (Hand Painted - Made in Japan) and very delicate. I especially love that you can actually feel the texture of the paint!

   The blue one is the first teapot I ever bought myself. It's functional and I like light blue. Poor thing is my go-to pot and so is rather banged up (which you can't see here as I took the image above from the web).

   The owl I got from my sister-in-law and have not yet had the chance to use it, but I love the ridiculousness of it and have sworn to serve many of my friends tea from it once the weather has cooled.

   The black and green one is a lovely cheap pot I found in China Town. I particularly like the handle and the crackled glaze.

    And last but not least is a glass teapot for blooming teas given to me by friends. It works well with blooming teas, but the strainer is a disaster with loose leaf.

I'll update as my collection grows!  

Bridal Shower ParTea!

I had really wanted to high Afternoon Tea with my girlfriends and family and when ideas for my bridal shower were being bandied about I thought that it would be a lot of fun to go out dressed up in hats, gloves, pearls and floral print dresses for Afternoon Tea at one of the hotels here that offer it. However, my plans were disappointed by numerous unfavourable reviews for these venues.

Not to be without a tea party (and the lovely sight of my friends and family decked out, as my sister put it, "for the races.") I figured it could easily be held in my garden, or at worst apartment. It being summer and quite hot I thought iced tea would be better and bought a lovely Takeya Iced Tea maker and began to plan the food and decorations.

The food was easy... crust-less cucumber sandwiches and salmon cream cheese sandwiches for the traditionalists, cheddar and chutney sandwiches for the adventurous, and ham and cheese for the picky. Sweets comprised of cupcakes provided by my mother and sister, gingerbread men (so everyone could have a sweet man for a bit), and Victoria Sponge made by me (with the help of Felicity Cloake's wonderful recipe - here) and decorated by my talented sister.

For drinks we made pitchers of Pimm's and lemonade and numerous different iced teas (from the giant selection in my cupboard and my mother packing half her suitcase with Whittard's teas) - the only ones I remember drinking, for my cup kept get misplaced in the merriment and I had had quite a bit of Pimm's, were the David's Tea Lime Gelato, a mate I picked up in Burlington, and the Whittard's Afternoon Tea.

Decorations were harder. I had inherited a floral and a lace tablecloth, some bunting, plastic flowers and enough tea cups for everyone, but I didn't enough to serve the nibbles on so traipsed out to Ikea thinking I would at least find some cheap and brightly coloured plates. What I found was even better!

BÄRBAR Tray from Ikea

Isn't it adorable! I also found a table runner with tea cups printed on it and couldn't resist.

I did get a few coloured serving plates too, but the Barbar tray and Glanta table-runner made my day.

GLÄNTA table-runner from Ikea

The bridal shower was a great success (though rained in) and fulfilled me desire for an afternoon tea with my girlfriends and family...of course I don't think traditionally one would play pass the parcel or wear stick on 'taches, but who knows!

Tea making tips from wartime Britain

According to the BFI:

Tea connoisseurs will benefit from the six golden tips for making the perfect cuppa, as well as countless other handy hints (never store your tea next to cheese, for example). There's an assessment of the pros and cons of various teapots and words of wisdom about the tea bush itself. 

Slightly grotesque methods for producing tea en masse are demonstrated - it was wartime, after all - and tea had to be produced by the oceanful. As such, there are some top tips for cleaning that hard-to-reach tap in your tea urn. Remember: "a dirty tap means dirty tea". (Robin Baker)

All titles on the BFI Films channel are preserved in the vast collections of the BFI National Archive. To find out more about the Archive visit http://www.bfi.org.uk/archive-collect...

Begin at the beginning...

I've been a tea drinker for as long as I can remember.

My Nana used to make me hot-toddies (virgin of course) to sooth my fevered aches and pains. 

My father would ply me with warm mugs of milky Assam and we would watch the leaves fall, the snow drift, or sit and quietly play board games.

My mother would make me large cups of chamomile to sooth me after an upset or before bed.

Yet my love for tea and all things tea related developed recently.

It started with old porcelain tea sets and silver teapots, then tea trays and tea towels, before progressing to tea prints, tea shops, tea houses, tea tins, loose leaf tea, tea accessories, tea recipes, and finally to the history and production of tea. 

The end, my being fully obsessed with all things tea and the proud owner of five tea pots, a cupboard full of tea, 14 tea cups and saucers, and a Japanese ice tea brewer - along with other random bits and pieces of tea paraphernalia. 

In a nutshell this is an outlet for my tea mania and my curiositea!