Tea time, part 2

All that blogging I did yesterday about tea made me want to hit the local thrift store, just in case there were any other cool cups or pots or what have you that would pop up.  Thrift stores really are some of my favorite places.  Often times, as long as you are patient and have an eye for quality, you can find some really nice treasures amongst all the stuff people throw away.  Some of the most beautiful things I own, be it jewelry or china or clothing, have come from thrift stores.  Growing up poor, they were necessities; they helped my mom stretch the dollars to help make it through the month.  As an adult I appreciate them even more.

Anyway, I've been thinking to myself lately that I really needed to find myself a creamer for my tea.  It makes no sense to brew myself an entire pot and plunk myself down in front of the computer to write or the television to sit and knit, and then have to get up twenty times to get a splash of milk for my teacup.  So when I went browsing yesterday I made sure to check the dinnerware section to see if anything turned up.

The creamer on the left is Avon and matches my teapot for herbal and green teas, down to the tulip embellishing the handle.  The one on the right is Myott out of Straffordshire, England.  I paid about $4.75 for both creamers and now I have some lovely options for drinking my tea!  I also snagged a bottle of Hero Black Cherry Jam which is out of Germany to go with the Irish soda bread I baked last night.  Yum yum!

Tea time

I am a serious tea fan.  I love drinking it, I love brewing it, I love trying new kinds but I'm fussy about my favorites.  I've also somehow managed to collect quite a few items that are tea inspired; everything from a set of towels and hot pads for the kitchen emblazoned with a tea pot, to multiple tea bag dishes, to the cups I drink my tea out of.  So I decided to snap some pics!

I am having Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride by Celestial Seasonings.

Some of my favorite black teas and my prized Brown Betty teapot.

The teacup on the left says "Nothing is worth more than this day"; the teacup on the right was made in Japan.

I couldn't capture the beautifully colored enamel in the design.

Bavarian china cup with matching saucer.

I just purchased two seasonal teas this weekend: Sugar Cookie Sleigh Ride by Celestial Seasonings and Pumpkin Spice by Stash.  I also had the opportunity to try Darjeeling for the first time!  Delicious!  Much more delicate than my usual black teas but not quite as grassy as an Oolong.

The Brown Betty teapot in the second picture was a gift from my good friend Lynn who's family is from the UK.  I received it as a Christmas present soon after I first met.  Being British he appreciates a good cuppa tea as well!  I've heard, and I personally believe, that black teas taste better when brewed in a Brown Betty.  In any case I have two teapots, one for my blacks, another for my herbal and green teas.

The pretty white china with the blue roses was a thrift store find I scored not too long ago.  It had been sitting in a box in the St. Mary's Thrift Store almost for as long as I've lived on the west side of Tucson.  I've eye-balled it before but at $60 it was a bit rich for me, even though it was in flawless condition, bore maker's marks on the bottom and came complete with four cups, four saucers, and four each of two different kinds of dessert plates.  So about a month ago I was talking to the man running the cash register and mentioned that I wouldn't buy it for $60 but I would for $30, which is exactly what he sold it to me for!  The maker is Johann Haviland of Bavaria and the pattern is called Blue Garland and dates to the 1930s.  Replacements for the teacups alone are $18 apiece.  Score!!  The china is nice and thin, so delicate you can see light glowing through them and a joy to use!