“It’s common sense to make only one cup at a time,” a friend said.
I agree with her. “I see what you mean.”
Nonetheless, I have my ways. I am coming down with a cold, so I filled a teapot with Lapsang Souchong, a mug with vanilla chai, and a small cup with lavender tea. And then I got out a Victorian novel about the clergy drinking tea. They do drink a lot of tea.
But back to tea… First, Lapsang Souchong. It tastes smoky and sophisticated. I’ve always loved it, but why? It doesn’t exactly taste good. But when you’re feeling sick, it gives you that bit of courage you need to face the day.
Then there’s the vanilla chai. It’s very spicy. and I don’t know where the vanilla is, because it tastes like cinnamon! Good for the sinuses, though. You can certainly taste vanilla chai, despite the seeming absence of vanilla.
Lavender tea? So light, so gentle. It makes me feel like putting on a Regency gown and picking herbs in our herb garden. (The one I’ll have in the future.)
And now here are a few books with tea in the title or, at the very least, a lot of tea-drinking:
My Turn to Make the Tea, by Monica Dickens. (A comic memoir about working for a small newspaper)
Tea for Mr. Thorgill, by Storm Jameson (a novel in which much tea is drunk by elite, privileged Oxford students with the Master)
Death by Darjeeling, by Laura Childs (the first mystery in her tea shop series, with recipes in the back).
The Book of Tea (a book about tea)
A Cup of Tea, by Amy Ephron (an excellent novel by Nora Ephron’s sister)
The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society, by Mary Ann Shaffer (a popular novel_
Tea with Jane Austen (a book about tea occasions in Jane Austen’s England and Austen’s tea-making skills.)
The Portrait of a Lady, by Henry James (a classic about an American heiress, Isabel Archer, who makes a bad marital choice in Europe)
Quartet in Autumn, by Barbara Pym (a sad, funny novel about four co-workers who drink tea for years in the office and then meet various fates when they retire)