“Under certain circumstances there are few hours in life more agreeable than the hour dedicated to the ceremony known as afternoon tea. There are circumstances in which, whether you partake of the tea or not—some people of course never do,—the situation is in itself delightful.” – Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady

I am an ardent tea drinker.  It started when I was 12.  Perhaps it’s because I read Henry James’ The Portrait of a Lady when I was a bit too young.

In those days it was difficult to find any tea at the grocery store except Lipton. I begged Mom to buy a box of Bigelow lemon tea when it mysteriously appeared on the shelf one day.  As I drank the lemon tea, I imagined drinking tea with Isabel Archer and Ralph Touchett in The Portrait of a Lady.

Bizarrely, on a trip to England, I drank coffee instead of tea. A disgrace to lovers of Henry James!

My grandmother had a Jewel Tea Company Autumn tea set, which she bought with coupons. My mother helped her collect coupons. (Later, they both collected green stamps at the grocery store and bought any number of peculiar things, such as folding chairs and an encyclopedia.) I loved the orange autumn leaf design on Grandma’s teapot. I don’t know what happened to it. It may have been sold at auction because my relatives were unsentimental about “old” things.

 Years ago, I inherited my other grandmother’s tea set, decorated with garlands of pink flowers. Actually, I wonder if my aunt passed it on to me, because I remember her sending me a huge basket of tea. Grandma’s oldest son brought the tea set back from Europe after the war. What a thoughtful gesture. I never met him. He died before I was born.

These days  I seldom make “proper” tea. Teabags, as we all know, are easier to deal with. At grocery stores, health food stores, the co-op, and obviously tea shops, you can find every tea you can think of these days.  My favorites:  Earl Grey and Darjeeling. But I will drink almost ANY tea.

BELOW IS A LIST OF FAVORITE “TEA” BOOKS

Enderby by Anthony Burgess.  Enderby, a poet who likes to write in the bathroom, makes tea from the most ordinary teabags.  He doesn’t removes the teabag, because he likes it strong. Very strong!

My Turn to Make the Tea by Monica Dickens.  A comic novel about the adventures of Poppy, a young woman reporter for a small newspaper. There are many hilarious scenes, and naturally there is tea, and a grudging editor who thinks that women don’t belong in a newspaper office.

All of Barbara Pym’s novels.  Pym’s spinsters drink  tea, whether they are anthropologist, indexers, or office workers.  In Quartet in Autumn, four elderly people drink tea in the office and out. Then they retire.

Any book by Jane Austen.  There’s tea!  Everyone drinks tea.  Emma Woodhouse, Lizzie Bennet, the Dashwood sisters, Fanny Price, Anne Elliot, and Catherine Norland. Is that why I like Jane Austen?

Cranford, by Elizabeth Gaskell.  This charming novel focuses on women’s lives in the village of Cranford. They do drink lots of tea, and Miss Matty discreetly opens a tea shop after she loses all her money.

Swann’s Way by Marcel Proust. In the most famous scene, the narrator dips his Madeleines in his tea.

More tea, anybody?