Picture a traditional tea and you may well imagine an elaborate silver tea set with a gracious Victorian hostess pouring Earl Grey. Did you ever wonder who began the whole tea set tradition?
Well it was the Chinese, centuries ago, but I since I want to chat about the Victorian style sets and I don’t want to get into a long history lesson that aspect of it will wait.

Tea was first brought into Portugal by a missionary who had spent time in China. Prior to his documentation of the use of tea caravans had brought small amounts in to Europe but …read more

I was reading various headlines and came upon this story about the Ritz Carlton’s Cupcake Tea. It is from the Forbes blog.  For $25.00 you can have tea at the Ritz, amazing in itself, and enjoy tiny cupcakes made from incredible (according to the reporter) flavor combinations.

Anyway, I thought it was a great idea.  I mean, the traditional tea things are beautiful and wonderful, and I hope that those dainty finger sandwiches and tiny tarts will always be part of tea.  But this is a purely American take on it, I think, and mini cupcakes in exotic flavors, coupled with …read more

 
It seems to me that those of us who like to “take tea” also enjoy a good mystery.  I am surprised that no one has yet gotten a half million dollar government grant to research the link between the two but there you go.  It is a strange world in which we live.