A Love......

I ❤ Tea

I just love it. I drink copious amounts each day.

I do like a coffee nestled somewhere in the day, but tea is my biggest love.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

I grew up in a household where tea was made in a cup. A teabag plonked in each one with a bit of milk. A teapot was rarely used. 

Now, I have always been a fan of the 'teabag plonked in a cup' method. You get your tea exactly to the strength of your liking. Quick, easy, no extra washing up. Simple. I'm no snob.

No one I knew actually liked using a teapot. You could never get it to the right strength. First too weak, then too strong. What a waste of good tea!

Tea needed to be instant and I didn't want to faff about getting it.

So, a cup and a teabag it always was.

Coffee, however, was a different matter. There was pleasure in drinking it, but there was as much a pleasure in making it. I got my beloved Francis Francis coffee machine, and the effort required in making a coffee from it, is quite time consuming (well, perhaps not in the grand scheme of things, but when you like your drinks the moment you decide you want one, it is!). I love to take my time over making a coffee. A sort of ritual of finding the perfect cup for the mood, picking the perfect coffee for the mood, slowly getting the machine fired up and listening to it roar.

Yes...there is most definitely a real pleasure dedicated to making a decent cup of coffee.

But.......

I have found that in the last few years, I have started to enjoy using a teapot more. Maybe it was the fact that I had collected many teapots and felt that they ought to be used. 

I only use a teapot when I am on my own though. Mr H cannot stand tea made from a teapot.

I do enjoy setting 15 minutes aside each day to choose a teapot, milk jug and favourite cup of the day. It seems to relax me. When the day is rushing at an alarming rate, to take 15 minutes to settle back down again is bliss.

So, my teapot teas are here to stay. That is as far as I went though with my tea making.......

....that is.......

.....until I found....this.......

The cutest ever tea strainer.

I do have a lovely silver heart strainer, which I adore.....but I use it for fresh ginger infusions in hot water.

I fell head over heels in love with this little strawberry strainer. Just the cutest thing in the world in my opinion. Little things please little minds and all that!

Found in my local Tiger shop.....gosh how I love that shop!

So, I have entered into a new phase of tea making. Out with the bag, and in with the loose leaf!

I am finding I need to add an extra 5 minutes to my special tea making moments, but they are a joy!

Just once a day though. The rest are 'teabags plonked in a cup' moments. I am far too impatent to do it everytime, but I am loving my quality tea time moments!

Ridiculous really, but it makes me happy................xxx