This week it is all about, what else? Tea!
Tell about your favorite tea. How do you prepare it and serve it? Milk and sugar? Plain? What are some of your best memories of serving or sipping on this tea? Share a picture if you can. Tell the health benefits of the tea(s) you prefer. Where do you purchase your tea? Is there someplace you enjoying purchasing tea from? Who from and where?

My very favorite tea is a blend that I had custom blended for our tea room. It is named after the tea room, Cameo Rose.

While it is a very nice hot tea, it makes an exceptional iced sweet tea. It was our signature tea, and people either loved it or hated it!

The blend starts with long leaf jasmine tea, and then white rose petals, blackberry, and lemon are all added. The scent when you open the bag is heavenly sort of like the smell of an old mercantile, lemon drops, florals, and fruit with the tea scent holding it all together. This tea seriously scents an entire room in its dry form.

I loved owning and running the tearoom, coming up with the menus, arranging the plates. My big fault and ultimately my down fall, probably, is that I am not necessarily a people person. I prefer to serve in the background rather than talk to people. A lot of that is that I am very shy. People tend to think I am very confident and snobby but the truth is that I tend to feel nauseous when I have to socialize and make small talk. I would rather cook!

We still have this tea made for us, along with the signature blend coffee that we had done. When I am making this tea, it is a bittersweet smell to me, happy memories coupled with the feeling of failure I have every time I think of not being successful at the tea room.

My very favorite way to drink the tea is out on the garden swing with Marc on a summer evening after the kids are in bed. The sound of the summer night, the faint snoring of one of our horses (yep, we have a mare that snores…LOUD) , the twinkling stars over head. It is a moment for us to talk quietly, blissfully uninterrupted, about our hopes, dreams and where we go from here. We are in transition now. We bought this house, an old Victorian, with plans to restore it and ultimately have a B&B. Life has somewhat gotten in the way in the past 3 years with business and financial losses, and Marc becoming disabled last July. It sort of put a halt on any restoration work!

But, God is faithful in all things. He is not slack on His promises. We may be slightly de-railed but we are not off track!

The dishes that I chose to use in the image are from my collection of Vaseline Glass.

Over the next dew days I thought I would also share a bit of a walk-through of our house..At least the parts that are half way decent and we have either finished or come close to finishing.

One of the nicest place to share tea with friends or family is the porch…I love the porch on rainy days, or when it is very hot in the house. We do not use air conditioning because for this size house the cost is enormous, so we utilize fans, and the porch. What a fabulous place to recline and read! The garden swing is in a nook just off the porch, more private, but the porch allows us to be sociable.

On rainy days you can watch the rain, read, or play a game of monopoly..we have done school out here, and napped out here. It is truly an outdoor room.
I think if we do move, I will hope for another porch!

For some of my favorite teas that you can actually find on the internet or in a store:

Teavana Mrs Earl Grey

Teavana Azteca Fire

Celestial Seasonings Sweet Coconut Thai Chai

Twinings Herbal Revive

and if you are really interested in our coffees and teas, they are hugely expensive because they are in such small quantities but…

Coffee & Tea

Images (c)Marye Audet

Post from: Kettle and Cup