The Calming TEA and The Pretty TEA SET

(afternoon tea, circa 1800s)

Tea is my favorite drink beside Coffee. I drink tea ever since I was a child, I remember my grandmother (who lives in the same house with me and my family) drink tea everyday. She had this green and white patterned Tea Pot which is a typical classic tea pot for commoners in my country at that time. I'm used to seeing her drink her tea in daily basis and so I found myself drinking tea from her tea pot too and I remember how good the tea tasted in my mouth. And then I drank Tea ever since.

The other day I was digging through my dad's old magazines when I found in one of them an article about the history of Tea. It's a very informative article and so I'd like to share it here (which I edited here and there without changing the main info) :

Well, it all began, legend has it, in 1840, with Anna Russell (see pic), wife of Francis Russell, the seventh duke of Bedford.
History has it that people in that era consumed large breakfasts and did not eat again until 8 or 9 o'clock in the evening. The duchess often has a sinking feeling in the afternoon which she remedied by serving tea and cakes around 4 o'clock. Thus began a British institution of Afternoon Tea that continues to this day (mostly well known as "High Tea") -- Well actually traditional High Tea is not the same thing as Afternoon Tea. In recent years, high tea has become a term for elaborate afternoon tea, though this is American usage and mainly unrecognized in Britain.

Who first brought the tea to England, the place where it all started? Well, there's no precise record about that but it was believed that Tea was boosted by the marriage of Catherine of Braganza (see pic), a Portuguese princess, to Charles II in 1662. Included in her dowry was a chest of tea.
At first, afternoon tea was limited to the aristocracy, though eventually the habit spread to the general population as it is today. The tea is served with various cakes and finger food such as scones or dainty biscuits and other pastries.

The finishing touch to the tea table is the Tea Set that usually comes complete with a pitcher of milk, a bowl of sugar, and perhaps a tray of lemon slices. Most important of all, the tea must be hot!


Now talking about Tea-Set, I have always dreamed of collecting pretty or unique Tea Sets someday (maybe if I have moved to my own house) because I always love seeing one especially the pretty antiques ones in pastel colors and flowery details like my mom has , she never use it, only for decorative use, sitting prettily in her glass cupboard. I'm sure that my fond of Tea Sets came from seeing those pretty sets that my mom has. And I hope someday I would have many collections of Tea-Sets that I would proudly show in my own glass cupboard too.

Classic Tea-Sets :

(in clockwise: westernsilver.com, rus-sell.com, antiqueszone.com, limogesboxcollector.com)

Modern & Unique Tea Sets :

(all via googlepages.funnyswf.com)

Cute Kiddy Tea Sets to play "princess" :

(Left to right: everafterstore.com, princesstimetoys.com)


And if you want to hold an Afternoon Tea Party and couldn't quite figure it out how to exactly serve tea and host the party then you might want to look into this books, otherwise you could just put these good looking books in your tea table for conversation breaker.



aren't they lovely ?

Other Sources:
Country Home Magazine, June 1986 - "Tea: warming, cooling, cheering, calming" by Diane Yanney.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tea_(meal)
http://prettysmartgirlart.blogspot.com/2008/08/cup-of-tea.html
http://www.smittenbybritain.com/2009/04/britons-in-history-anna-russell.html