BEDM Day 11 - A Good Cuppa

Along with my obsession for Jane Austen, I have acquired a love for all things British.  In that vein I decided it was time to see what the whole "tea" thing was about.  I wanted to learn how to make a proper cup of tea.  This desire was so deep that I was having a dream recently and, of course, Tom Hiddleston was there and I could feel myself waking up and I told him, "Wait!  You have to teach me how to make a proper cup of tea!!", and he was laughing at me and I woke up.  I mean, I figure Tom is SO British, he'd be the person to ask.  But being AMERICAN and trying how to learn to make BRITISH tea is quite the research project.  First I perused tea pots.  I wanted to brew loose leaf tea, because let's face it, I'm a lady.  There were a couple on Amazon that looked promising with infusers and everything, but when I was in Seattle lately and found a lovely kitchen store called Mrs. Cook's. They had the most inviting display of lovely teapots I had ever seen.  So I bought this one by London Pottery (cuz with a name like that it can only make the most British of teas) that is the perfect 4 teacup sized pot.  Then I researched tea brands.  I knew that I liked black and green teas and didn't like herbal teas so much.  I found a bunch of teas that came from Britian like Twinings and Taylors of Harrogate.  I also found some blogs that described the quality of different teas and heard about Yorkshire Gold.  I mean, come on, a name that has "Yorkshire" and "Gold" in it has to be top notch.  So through their website I came upon a distributor here in the US.  I ordered my Yorkshire Gold as well as some English Breakfast and Scottish Breakfast tea.  And then I waited.  It took a while and this was good tea so I was patient.  In the mean time I realized I had bought a bit much tea and would need to drink it more regularly to use it up before it went bad.  I couldn't take my teapot to work (I mean I COULD, but let's only let the people at work see part of my crazy) so I then researched mugs with infusers and found this one.  It is lovely and my favorite mug of all time.  I clean her nicely and keep her free from tea stains and she rewards me with a delicious cup every time.  When my tea arrived I was so excited.  But then I had to go away for a week and leave my pot and tea at home, waiting to be used.  In the meantime I was back in Seattle and wandered through Mrs. Cook's again and picked up an adorable little pitcher for milk and a saucy little pot for my sugar.  Because we all know that British tea is made with milk and occasionally sugar (to each their own).  I wasn't sure how I would like my tea, but a good hostess has all the necessities.  And all I ever see my sugar pot doing is this.  Only he has just one arm, so he's sassy.


On Easter Sunday I had the time (and was back home again) to try out my pot.  Since we keep all sorts of clutter I easily found some teacups and saucers and Mum and I sat down to figure out how we like our tea.  First I tried it plain.  Quite good.  Then with a bit of sugar.  Mmm, very good.  Then with a splash of milk.  Oooo, it turned the tea a lovely warm tan color and it was delicious.  I never thought milk in tea would be tasty, but it is, oh man it is.  So, would you like to join me for a cuppa?

First you boil the water.  BOILING hot water is a must.

My wonderful mug.

Two teaspoons of tea.  One for me and one for the mug.

Look, if it's good enough for the Prince of Wales, it's good enough for me.

Boiling hot water poured over the tea.  Timer counting down for 3 minutes.

Put the lid on, silly.

All done!  Lift the infuser out and the lid catches the drips!

I like mine with a bit of sugar.

And a splash of milk.
(Sorry it's not in focus...I was trying to catch the swirls.)

If you want to come over, we can do tea properly!

But today it's just a cup for me!