Tea Cup Creations

I recently saw this picture on Pinterest and repinned it. Sadly, it was just a picture, no link with credit or how to instructions. But isn't this a great idea? Wouldn't this light fixture be so cute? I know I'd live to have it!

I also saw this cute idea for a candle holder. Nice for pillar candles. This picture is from http://ideasforbeautypic.com.

Architecture Art Designs gives 40 ways to reuse tea cups artistically. http://www.architectureartdesigns.com/40-ideas-of-how-to-reuse-tea-cup-artistically/
Above is one of my favorites!

Have you ever tried getting crafty with teacups?

The Gong Fu Cha Set

The other week I started telling you about gong fu cha; what the term means and some of the skills involved. Today I thought I'd tell you about the different parts of the tea set.

First you start out with your tea tray. Notice the slats. This is important! The tea you spill runs off into the slats and is collected below! I love how they know I'm going to spill and be messy!

The top comes off and you can easily pour out the spilled tea and clean the tray.

This next piece is the gaiwan. The gaiwan is used to steep your tea. You would use it instead of a teapot.

You put your tea leaves in the bottom of the gaiwan, pour in your hot water, cover and let steep.

When the tea is ready, you move the lid of the gaiwan to the side and pour. This step requires skill and lots of practice.

When you pour your tea, you don't pour directly into individual cups. Instead, pour into a justice cup. This ensures a uniformity to the tea, so that each person will enjoy the same tea.

From the justice cup you pour the tea into your aroma cup. You don't drink out of this cup either. The design focuses the scent. You simply smell and appreciate the aroma of the tea. You pour the tea from this cup into your drinking cup.

Here's your drinking cup. Notice how small it is. You are meant to savor each sip.

Finally, we have a tea pet. Tea pets are made from the little bits of clay left over from making traditional tea pots. They are happy little creatures. You share your tea with them by pouring it over the pet.

My New Tea Set

Last night I went to a card making class which was held at a nearby Goodwill store. I was early so I started to browse while waiting for the teacher to arrive. Imagine my surprise when I found this Chinese tea set!

The set came in a red box.

I wish I could read the writing on the inside of the lid!

This is the teapot.

And there are 6 cups and saucers. The saucers are completely plain.

There's a marking on the bottom. Hopefully it can tell me more about the set. But for now, I'm fairly clueless.

Here is some detail from the lid of the teapot.

I believe this tea set is made of clay and may be a Yixing. I need to do some research! Whatever its story, it's a beautiful little set and I'm happy to add it to my collection!

My Go To Teacup

While I love the look of a delicate teacup (perhaps a Royal Doulton with hand painted periwinkles?), and enjoy my gong fu cups, as well as mugs sent by my favorite authors, my go to teacup is my Lucidity Glass Brew-in-Cup.

This cup is perfect for the solo tea drinker who enjoys loose leaf tea. As you see the cup comes with a stainless steel infuser and lid. The infuser has super tiny holes, so even small leaves should remain inside! After warming your cup, put your leaves in the infuser, add the hot water, and cover to steep. When done, you put the cover to the side and the steeper can sit right on it, ready for the next infusion! I like that it's glass so that you can appreciate the color of the liquid as well as the aroma and taste!

Do you have a go to teacup?

Some of My Most Favorite Tea Mugs

As a tea drinker I find that for my first cups of tea in the morning fine bone china teacups with saucers are the only way to go. Truly I feel tea taste better in fine bone china. I swear by it. I even travel with my own tea cups and saucers now because it truly tastes better this way.

However that being said as the day goes on I do switch to a mug. I have a few favorite mugs, the one above my thoughtful sister in law Janeen gave me and it says "All you need is tea & warm socks" It is one of my favorites, it is large and a good weight, things I look for in a good tea mug.

I also love this tea mug my cousin in law sent, I am very proud of the fact that I am a hockey mom, something I did not think was going to happen and now can not imagine what my life would be like if I wasn't one.

We had a tea fundraiser and sold a lot of tea this year and last to help pay for the hockey tournament with Steeped tea! (Canucks Autism Network) 

My friend Michelle sent me this mug last year and I treasure it! Such a wonderful thing to have a friend who supports your writing and tea habit! She is also a fellow Hockey Mom and another reason why I am so thrilled to have found our hockey program, amazing friendships have been an added bonus.

I have a royal mug collection that my Brother in law and my Sister have added too over the years and this one for the celebration of the queen's diamond jubilee came with a special tea blend my brother in law picked up in London for me as well!

This summer they brought me Princess Charlotte's mug along with a few boxes of walkers shortbread! Lucky me!

I do keep the royal mugs set aside for special occasions but they are still some of my most favorite tea mugs.

There is so much comfort in every cup or mug of tea and I always like finding out what people prefer, so often when I have people over they say oh I will just take a mug, don't trouble yourself with the cup and saucer. Either way, I am thrilled they have joined me for tea. 

So which do you prefer and why? 

I would love to know so please leave us a comment here  below. 

I would love to have you for tea daily so please pop over and say hello at www.acupofteaandacozymystery.com 

Tea Talk: an Interview with Lorraine Bartlett

I'm pleased to welcome Lorraine Bartlett to the blog today. Lorraine is a New York Times Best Selling author who writes under her own name as well as pen names Lorna Barrett and L.L. Bartlett. She writes the Booktown Mystery Series, the Victoria Square Mystery series, the Lotus Bay Mystery series, the Jeff Resnick Mystery series, and more. She also happens to love tea!

KJK: I generally prefer my tea iced, although I do drink it hot as well, but I never add sugar, cream, or milk. What about you? How do you like your tea?

LB: I drink black tea, hot, with milk. I gave up sugar when I was seven, because my Dad didn’t have sugar in his tea. I went a week without it, then put sugar in my tea and wanted to barf—it was too sweet. After that, I never again liked sugary drinks. (Except for cocoa—but I don’t like it strong.)


KJK: I love all sorts of teas, but am partial to lapsang souchong. Do you have a favorite tea?

LB: Black tea—English Typhoo. For a while I was drinking Barney’s Raspberry cream as a treat, but they went out of business and that was the end of it. When I was a kid, my parents drank orange pekoe. (Red Rose tea.) My friend and Cozy Chicks blog sister, Mary Jane Maffini, suggested I give it a try once again. I have a box of Red Rose in the cupboard but haven’t opened it yet.


KJK: You collect tea cups. How did you begin? Do you have any particular favorites? Is there a hunt for an elusive pattern?

LB: When my parents bought our family cottage over 40 years ago, it came with two bone china teacups. I thought they were pretty. But it wasn’t until 20 years later that I asked my mother if I could have them. By then, one of them had been broken. That was my first cup. It got broken when I was having some work done in my kitchen (and the workmen didn’t even tell me they’d broken it. I found it after they’d gone.) It broke my heart. One of my readers found a smaller version of the cup and sent it to me. That was such a kind thing to do.

I haven’t counted, but I must have more than 40 now, including one celebrating Queen Victoria’s 60th year on the throne. That was a birthday gift from Mr. L. Most of them came from yard sales. I buy just about every one I see and have given many of them away. I gave eight of them away when the Cozy Chicks had a Facebook event for Valentine’s Day in 2015.

I have several favorites. Well, maybe twenty of thirty favorites. They’re all so pretty!


KJK: Do you collect any other tea accouterments?

LB: Not a lot. I have a few bone china three-tiered plates, some creamers and sugars, etc. But I do collect chintz china. I don’t have a huge collection—a couple of cups, plates, sugars and creamers, and a small bowl with a matching sugar spoon—in all different patterns. I buy teapots at yard sales because I have a tendency to break them. I have a tea tray (reproduction) with Victorian tiles that’s pretty. And I saw one exactly like it used as a prop in the kitchen on the old (English) TV show As Time Goes By. I have it hanging in my dining room.


KJK: Do you consider yourself a tea connoisseur, a tea neophyte, or simply a person who enjoys tea?

LB: The latter. I like to start the day with a cuppa – and then have more during the afternoon.


KJK: How does tea play a part in your writing?

LB: When I get stuck, I usually go make a fresh pot of tea.


KJK: Are any of your characters particular tea fans?

LB: Tori Cannon (Lotus Bay Mysteries) prefers tea over coffee. She was rather overruled in the first book with the beverage of choice served in her grandfather’s home, but she’ll get her way in the future.

Several of my characters are tea aficionados. Katie Bonner (Victoria Square) always wanted to open a B&B and serve afternoon tea. There is a tea shop on Victoria Square which played a big part in the first book. Kathy Grant (Lotus Bay) has similar ambitions, but she will actually get to open her B&B (eventually). In my next Booktown Mystery, Tricia and Angelia take tea on the Celtic Lady cruise ship. Jeff Resnick owns a pretty china teapot and cups, but not because he bought it. His girlfriend, Maggie, wanted to drink out of it when she visits, and bought it for him.


KJK: What does tea mean to you?

LB: My parents were English, so it’s the first thing I ever remember drinking. We all always started the day with a cuppa tea. I knew when I started Recipes To Die For: A Victoria Square Cookbook that I would have an entire section just with tea recipes. They’re ones I actually use, so it was my favorite part of the book.

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The immensely popular Booktown Mystery series is what put Lorraine Bartlett’s pen name Lorna Barrett on the New York Times Bestseller list, but it’s her talent -- whether writing as Lorna, or L.L. Bartlett, or Lorraine Bartlett -- that keeps her in the hearts of her readers. This multi-published, Agatha-nominated author pens the exciting Jeff Resnick Mysteries as well as the acclaimed Victoria Square Mystery series, Tales of Telenia adventure-fantasy saga, and now the Lotus Bay Mysteries, and has many short stories and novellas to her name(s). Check out the descriptions and links to all her works, and sign up for her emailed newsletter here: http://www.lorrainebartlett.com

Lorraine’s next book, written under her Lorna Barrett name, is Title Wave. (June 14th).

Tea Time Magazine, On My Table And Close To My Heart

A few years back I finally got a subscription to Tea Time Magazine. Before that I would drive to my bank exchange my Canadian Money for American Money, get in the car and take a minimum 90 minute drive to try to find it in store. I would often have to try more then three stores before I could hold it in my hands and take in the beautiful and inspiring photos. I savor each article and then re read time and time again.

The cost of the magazine is very reasonable if you live in the USA but to have it shipped internationally it gets to be quite expensive.  Currently there is a great deal on for $19.98 for your first subscription and you can do a gift subscription for $10. **Add $10 for Canada and $20 for any other country. Still it is worth the splurge and makes a fantastic gift!

What I love about the articles are the information I learn about not only tea but wonderful tea rooms, accessories, teacups, pots, kettles.  I learned of a tea shop in Southern California which I loved called
Paris in A Cup. I was so thrilled when we were on a family trip and I got to go there. The staff and owner were wonderful and the tea room was stunning.

I would have loved to spend most of the vacation in this tea room but the magic kingdom called!

They had the most decadent macarons you ever did taste! They also carried a lovely house tea called Paris Garden Tea that I fell in love with. I would have never known this small but elegant tea room was just minutes from Disneyland had it not been for this wonderful magazine.

You can check out Paris In A Cup on line by clicking here. 

I recently read an article about a woman who loved tea and her husband who secretly built her a beautiful tea room just for her and her husband to enjoy on their farm in an old barn, he worked for years in secret and she never knew. Everyone in town helped him source the items needed to make a beautiful retreat that looked like an English tea room. I cried and still tear up at the thought of that very article.

If you get a chance to find this magazine in store, pick it up, take it home and fall in love!
Thank you for joining me for a cup of tea and a look at Tea Time Magazine. I would love for you to pop over for tea daily on my own website at www.acupofteaandacozymystery.com 

To order your own subscription to Tea Time Magazine please click here.