Winter Yard Work and a Cup of Tea

Yard work doesn’t end when Winter comes. It just gets a bit easier, mainly because there are fewer bugs on the hunt for fresh feeding grounds (like my arms and legs). You do have to bundle up a little more, though, since the weather is usually a bit nippy then. A hot thermos of tea is also good to have on hand, too, to fend off the chill.

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Tea and the Brass Buttons

Tea is known to stimulate and to calm. What better beverage to partake of while doing something tricky (at least to this person who rarely holds a needle and thread) like replacing all the buttons on an otherwise splendid blazer? For this teetotaler there is none.

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Fortune Cookie Tea Time

Fortune cookies aren’t just for that bit of something extra at the end of your meal at the local Chinese restaurant. They make great tea time treats, too. You can buy them by the boxful at some stores selling Asian foods and serve them at your next tea party.

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Teapot Shape Defies Infusers

Have you noticed that the best steeping teapots, no matter how “unique” they are, have a tendency toward stout? There are exceptions out there and some really “different” ones in that pack, but generally short and squat are regarded as the preferred dimensions for the best steepers. From the standard in many a UK kitchen…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

A Special Thanks to Tea Growers

’Tis the season when we give thanks for the good things in our lives. Tea is one of the best things to us tea lovers out there, so a special thanks to tea growers is certainly warranted.

Most of us have some awareness of how produce items get from the soil they grow in to…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

My Christmas Mug Gift List Line-up

’Tis the season for a host of those oh so cute Christmas mugs to pop up everywhere. I have a collection that hubby and I have bought and that others have given us as gifts. We tend to give such mugs as gifts, too, being careful not to give the same mug design to someone who gave that design to us in a previous year. Needless to say, it gets trickier every year.

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Making the Switch from Bagged to Loose Tea

Many of us tea drinkers start out with the proverbial tea bag and a mug of hot water when we make our first forays into drinking tea. Often, this is due to influences at home or from other tea drinkers. Mainly, it is a result of the…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Tea Can Keep You from Overindulging During the Holidays

Overindulging during the holidays is so easy to do, but tea can help you keep your intake to a somewhat reasonable level. That will save you a lot of dieting in the New Year ― a feat in and of itself worth celebrating.

The main cause of this overindulgence, or so I theorize, is…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Candlelight and Tea

Candlelight can really set a mood, turning a humdrum dinner into a romantic encounter and a simple tea time into an exotic event. We all have our moods. We can be happy, sad, thoughtful, playful, solemn, and exalted. But the flicker of candle flames transcends them all and brings a relaxation to whatever you’re doing.

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

5 Odd Uses for a Tea Cozy

Tea cozies are handy things, keeping teapots warm for those of us who take our time in consuming the tea within. They come in Dome style, Snuggie style, Knit-hat style, and something called The HOB, to mention a few. But these cozies have other uses besides “thermal conservation,” some not well known and others made famous by standup comedians. In fact, let’s start with that one.

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Tea Gadgets Rated — Round 1

Tea gadgets abound, and over the past couple of years intrepid and tireless tea journalist William I. Lengeman III  has sought out the weirdest, cutest, and downright silliest tea gadgets out there. Other people post their latest find on Facebook and Twitter, swearing that the gadget is a tea lifesaver. I have even…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Do Tea Awards Affect Your Purchases?

Awards are given to many things, tea included. They are a sign that someone thinks that the time and effort invested in the award-winning item was well-spent. However, just as in wine, a tea winning an award is no guarantee that you will like it. Winning an award in a category like best package design certainly doesn’t. But even winning an award for taste is iffy since what the judges like can be quite different from what you like.

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

The Boston Tea Company Apple Cinnamon Scone Mix

Here we go again. The Canadians are coming…to a scone mix near you! Hubby and I received a sample of Canadian company Cobblestone Kitchens Apple Cinnamon Scone Mix from The Boston Tea Company. That means it’s time to get baking!

The mix is in a plastic bag in the diamond-shaped box. (The box is a little large, with the bag only filling up about half of it. Our one beef with this brand is the excess packaging: big box, small contents.) Prep for getting the mix ready for the oven is pretty simple. A bit of milk and vegetable oil added to the dry mix, stir, plop on an ungreased cookie sheet, and into the oven they go. The mix has real apple pieces, which is so nice to see. We were able to stretch out the mix to 10 scones this time, which was expected based on the weight of the dry mix (7.5 oz.). The quality of these scones more than compensates for the small quantity.

The scones came out of the oven lightly browned and crisp on the outside, fluffy on the inside. Plenty of apple bits, and the cinnamon level is just right. Hubby and I pigged out, adding a little butter and getting a wonderful taste experience. It inspired the poet in us, and we came up with the following little ditty:

When the kids and the spouse
Are out of the house
And you need a true tea time delight,
Bake a batch of scones up
And fill your teacup
With your favorite tea steeped up just right.

While apple cinnamon is a flavor combo that is very popular during Winter Holidays, you can enjoy these all year round. This flavor and the others available from Boston Tea Company are great to have on hand for holiday guests. Keep some of each on hand for your hungry holiday horde, or fix just one for your special intimate tea time all by yourself or with a “certain someone.”

See also:
The Boston Tea Company Cranberry Scone Mix
The Boston Tea Company Lemon Poppyseed Scone Mix
The Boston Tea Company Blueberry-Cranberry Scone Mix
The Boston Tea Company Plain Scone Mix

© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Tea and White Chocolate

Tea and chocolate go together like love and marriage, like Cookie Monsters and cookies, like riverbeds and water, like… well, tea and chocolate! White chocolate is different from full-blown chocolate yet also goes well with tea.

Unlike regular chocolate, white chocolate does not include…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

The Real Issues with Flavored Teas

The following is my personal opinion on the real issues with flavored teas. Some of you may relate to this, having experienced these issues first hand. Others of you will pooh-pooh them, saying you love flavored teas. Either way, here goes…

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Blackcurrant flavored black tea

© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Roundtable Topic: Pairing Teas with Teawares

Another roundtable hashing of a topic of concern to you tea lovers. Do you invest heavily in specialized teawares so you can properly steep the growing array of teas in your stock? Or do you stick with your tried and true teapot or mug? Tea bloggers weigh in here, and your thoughts are welcome, too.

As for me, my motto is…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Tea and “Cookie Cutter” Movies

A Dalek enjoying a “cuppa”

So many movies seem to follow the same mold these days that they seem not written but cut out like cookies with a cookie cutter. In a way, this makes these movies as perfect for tea time as real cookies are.

These “cookie cutter” movies have the same villains, the same…

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Start Your Thanksgiving Plans with Tea

Time to start making Thanksgiving plans, beginning with the menu. Turkey ― check! Cranberries ― check! Stuffing ― check! Sweet potatoes ― check! Green bean casserole ― check! Tea ― che… uh… huh?

Tea with your Thanksgiving feast sure isn’t usual here in the U.S. despite the…

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Last year’s feast featured Devonshire Tea

© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

Tea Shop as Pharmacy?

With all of the claims for health benefits from tea flying around online and just about everywhere else, tea shop owners are being besieged by people demanding the latest tea fad. When the shop personnel say “I’m sorry we don’t carry that tea,” the customer treats them as some horrible ogres who are personally responsible for their suffering. It’s a real rock and a hard place. Sigh!

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© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text

20 Reasons to Drink Tea in November

November is upon us. Ten months gone, and two to go in our annual journey through space around the Sun. The biggies this month are U.S. Election Day (1st Tuesday after the 1st Monday), Veteran’s Day on the 11th and Thanksgiving (U.S.) on the 24th (always the third Thursday).

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Button Day is November 16th. Sort yours while sipping a cuppa!

© 2011 A.C. Cargill photos and text