Tea

Sweet Makayla pours tea

What a diminutive word for an amazing beverage steeped in history. Tea spans classes, cultures, tastes, languages and generations.

How many drinks can you name that:

• date back to the first millennium BC?
• are derived from such diverse sources?
• involve incredibly varied customs and ceremonies?
• taste great either hot or cold?
• are prepared in special rituals around the world?
• serve medicinal purposes, warm the body and the heart, and soothe troubled spirits?
• are as equally suited to quiet, private moments as to grand occasions? 
• brewed trade wars, came to symbolise a pivotal moment in the American Revolution, was considered an essential ration and morale booster for soldiers?
• are considered fit for children, convicts, royalty and everyone in between?
• bring people together for an excuse to sample goodies, chatter, gossip, work, relax, and more?
• are poured from silver tea services, brown betties, china, wood, stainless steel, ceramic, glass, bamboo, porcelain, and any number of other teapots, including plastic ones made for children?
• spawned distinctive associations and wares such as tea balls, bags, cosies, saucers, trolleys, rests, caddies and chests, kettles, timers, strainers, carts, pots, biscuits, tins, towels, spoons, infusers, etc.?
• are used to tell fortunes?
• can have countless tastes, ranging from sweet to bitter and savoury to fruity?

• 

  Alice, the Mad Hatter, the March Hare and the Dormouse
  have tea in Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

  inspire songs, poems, nursery ditties, books, expressions, films, famous quotes, paintings and other works of art?

Have tea whenever your heart desires. Clink your teacups at a party. Share tea with your dolls or stuffed animals. Sip tea between spa treatments. Use tea to kick start your day. Savour tea mid-day or after dinner.

Find your own reasons to enjoy a proper cuppa, solo or in a gaggle, for tea is undoubtedly

      AWESOME!