Do you do "tea time" in your house? Can you tell me about your setup?

[melissel]

No, I don't mean that kind of tea time! I mean the "tea and crumpets" kind. I want to start having teatime a la Bravewriter at least weekly. I'm considering this little tea set, but I don't know much about serving tea beyond heating water in the microwave and dropping in a tea bag. Do I need a tea kettle to heat the water and then pour it into the teapot with tea bags to steep? Can I heat the water in some other way, or is the tea kettle the most convenient?

 

How do you make and serve your tea?

 

TIA! (And stop giggling!!!)

[Mergath]

The way we do it at my house (when we have the time) is to heat the water in a kettle on the stove. I use a separate teapot to make the tea in- I have a pretty Japanese set I got at a thrift store. If you're feeling ambitious, you can pre-warm the teapot with a little hot water and dry it out again before you dump in the loose-leaf tea. And you must use loose-leaf. It is much, much better than the junk they put in the bags. Pour the required amount of near-boiling water into the pot (water that is actually boiling can scald the leaves and affect the taste, I've heard). Stick on a tea cozy if you have one, let it steep, then pour it into your cup via a mesh strainer.

[Aubrey]

We have a tea kettle, & we usually just heat the water in that, pour it over tea bags & go from there. W/ 5 of us, that's faster than the microwave.

 

Now, when dh is home, though, he does lovely magical things w/ the tea--opening tea bags & making wonderful blends in the actual pot. However, I will not clean that out. Yikes!

 

Otoh, when it's too much trouble to do any of the above, I might go ahead & start reading while they heat their own tea in the mic. It may be slower that way, but it's their time, not mine. Although, the bigs can operate the tea kettle now, too, so I'm not sure what would make us use the mic any more.

 

Sometimes I make a quick bread--I used the squash from their garden & made squash bread (like zucchini bread). Other times I've made muffins or cookies. Sometimes they get goldfish, lol. Today they were quite spoiled & had donuts because we moved in next door to the best friend (or arch enemy?) of a donut-shop-owner, so every other week or so, we get a box full of donuts, & I have to sneak to throw them away, or there'd really be mutiny here. :lol:

 

For poetry, I've started overlapping & making "Tuesday Tea" the day we do our MCT poetry assignment. If there's time left over (& w/ 2 tea-toting littles, there's not always), we'll read from our read-aloud or read poetry. The latter has not been my favorite since the first time we tried it & 7yo decided to read "Rime of the Ancient Mariner." She. would. not. give. up. & the thing is LONG. I couldn't stand it in my lit classes; listening to an uncomprehending kid stumble through it is TORTURE.

 

But she says she enjoyed it because it was so dark, spooky, & mysterious, so maybe she understood it better than I realized. She actually had the gall to tell me afterward, "Wait. You said we could read TWO." :svengo:

[Aubrey]

The way we do it at my house (when we have the time) is to heat the water in a kettle on the stove. I use a separate teapot to make the tea in- I have a pretty Japanese set I got at a thrift store. If you're feeling ambitious, you can pre-warm the teapot with a little hot water and dry it out again before you dump in the loose-leaf tea. And you must use loose-leaf. It is much, much better than the junk they put in the bags. Pour the required amount of near-boiling water into the pot (water that is actually boiling can scald the leaves and affect the taste, I've heard). Stick on a tea cozy if you have one, let it steep, then pour it into your cup via a mesh strainer.

 

Oh, i bet that's what the tea ball in my drawer is for, huh?

 

(This thread is bad, bad, bad.) ;)

[Firefly]

We try to finish up school everyday with tea time. I grow my own peppermint, which is the kids' favorite, so we do loose leaf. I heat the water in a kettle, crush some dried peppermint into a little red enamelware teapot, and add the water when it's done. After I let it steep for a few minutes I pour it into the teacups. We have a cup strainer that I use, moving it from cup to cup as I pour. HTH! I have a picture of our tea time set up on my blog if you're interested.

 

:)

[redsquirrel]

I have a teapot. I believe it is Fiestaware. I put fresh water on to boil and lose tea in my teapot. I use a mix of Irish breakfast tea (Bewley's) and green tea. I acknowledge the green tea is unorthodox but, there it is.

 

I let it steep and then pour it through a small sieve into my cup. I add a dash of milk and sugar. I have a cute teacozy that I knit that looks like hell from years of tea dripping.

[Parrothead]

To make tea for a crowd get one of these out of the cupboard. Insert one of these into the teapot. Spoon 1 teaspoon (for each cup) of this into the infuser. Let steep 2-4 minutes. Remove the infuser and pour brewed tea into individual tea cups. Offer one lump or two. Serve with warm scones.

 

 

 

Alternately you forgo the infuser and put the tea into the pot with boiling water. Pour the tea through a mesh strainer into the tea cup(s).

 

To make the perfect pot of tea.

[mo2]

To make tea for a crowd get one of these out of the cupboard. Insert one of these into the teapot. Spoon 1 teaspoon (for each cup) of this into the infuser. Let steep 2-4 minutes. Remove the infuser and pour brewed tea into individual tea cups. Offer one lump or two. Serve with warm scones.

 

 

 

Alternately you forgo the infuser and put the tea into the pot with boiling water. Pour the tea through a mesh strainer into the tea cup(s).

 

To make the perfect pot of tea.

 

 

Hey, this is really helpful! But your first link doesn't work. I assume it's a teapot?

[ColoradoMom]

Tea time! How lovely. I think I will look into this - thanks for the idea ladies! :001_smile:

[Parrothead]

Hey, this is really helpful! But your first link doesn't work. I assume it's a teapot?

Shoot! I hate when that happens. Try this one.

[Gratia271]

We use loose leaf tea in a teapot after we have heated water in something like this. My children love roiboos tea. Here are some selections specifically for the younger crowd. While I enjoy tea throughout the day, they usually have it in the afternoon during reading time. Sometimes, we have scones or sweet bread with it.

[Parrothead]

We use loose leaf tea in a teapot after we have heated water in something like this. My children love roiboos tea. Here are some selections specifically for the younger crowd. While I enjoy tea throughout the day, they usually have it in the afternoon during reading time. Sometimes, we have scones or sweet bread with it.

I've never had roiboos tea. I think I'm going to try the tiramisu treviso.

[Gratia271]

I haven't tried that one, but it sounds wonderful!

[mcconnellboys]

That's a very cute set! I have a bunch of old pots. I heat my water in a tea kettle on the stove. We decide what tea we want and put that into one or two pots, then pour hot water over it to steep. We use a variety of teas, some loose, some bagged.

 

I have some of the tiered dessert stands that I use to lay out various items. If we're doing tea for lunch, then it will be more finger sandwiches, deviled eggs, pickles, olives, cheeses, etc. Sometimes even tiny bowls of soup.

 

If it's more just a mid-afternoon tea, then it will include a variety of small cookies, brownies, scones, mini-muffins, etc. Jellies, honey, butters of various sorts, etc. to go along with those.

 

Sometimes we just do mugs of tea with toast and marmelade. We run the whole gambit....

[justamouse]

I have a teapot I picked up at a tag sale, and I collect cups so that's easy.

 

And, on Main St, there's this antique store that carries Harney and Sons teas, which I cannot sing loudly enough the glory thereof. Try the Paris blend if you can get your hands on it.

[Parrothead]

. Try the Paris blend if you can get your hands on it.

I order often from Harney & Sons online. I started small with the Paris blend. I buy it by the 1 pound bag now.

[justamouse]

I order often from Harney & Sons online. I started small with the Paris blend. I buy it by the 1 pound bag now.

 

Great. I have refrained from looking online for it.

 

It's all downhill from here. :D

[dcjlkplus3]

I collect - and use - teapots.

I personally like to heat my water up in a kettle on the stove (some of my pots are mircrowave safe and I could heat the water that way, but I just prefer the kettle) then I pour it into whichever size (or color) teapot I want and add a tea bag or two and let it seep.

[tammyw]

What a brilliant idea! I've been lazy and haven't done loose tea in forever. I am now inspired to bring that back.

 

Any favorite loose leaf teas for kids? And now I must find some recipes for scones :)

[Mom in High Heels]

When I was growing up we had a neighbor from England who used to have me over almost every afternoon at 4pm for tea. I LOVED it. She used pretty china and had finger sandwiches and cookies and small cakes on a tiered tray. It was lovely!

Indy and I have tea every morning with breakfast and occasionally, we'll do an afternoon tea. I have several teapots, so I can pick one based on my mood. We always use loose tea (even in the mornings). For afternoon tea I usually warm the pot slightly before putting the tea leaves in and then the boiling water. I have a cup strainer so we don't get any leaves in our cups. If we're having a late dinner we'll have small sandwiches, but usually it's just a few cookies (not really sweet cookies, but more tea cookies) and conversation (always interesting with an 8 year old).

[Margo out of lurking]

No, I don't mean that kind of tea time!

 

(And stop giggling!!!)

 

:lol::lol::lol:

 

EVERY time I see this thread, I can't help but think Tea time? or just tea time?

[Down_the_Rabbit_Hole]

This is our special girl time.

We do a special tea time on Fridays. Antique napkins and special tea cups and a tea pot are set out. A dish with cookies I found called Tea Cookies are placed on a handmade doily my grandma made. Dd pretends she is another mother and we have conversations about our kids and husbands, house work and such. Sometimes she brings a baby doll to join us. On pretty days, we do this in the garden.

The other members of my family are welcome, but they need to get into character and participate in the conversation if they want tea and cookies.

 

We also have tea daily, but this is nothing special.

[melissel]

Thanks for all the input, everyone! I'm going to buy the tea set for Christmas, and it seems I'll have to do some research on a kettle too. We have some herbal teas now, but I'll check out some of the blends for kids. I have a feeling DDs will end up drinking lemonade most of the time, at least at first, but we'll see how it goes :D They're very excited about the idea of teatime together, so it should be great no matter what's in their cups.

[Angel in FL]

I can't wait to get a tea pot for my daughter & I to use!